Lifer Birds in TX

 This is just a wrap up of the lifer bird species that I saw in Texas. Many of these photos have been in other blog posts but I wanted to put a post together of the order in which I saw them as the vacation went along. The first was the Great-Tailed Grackle and the last, the Green Parakeets. They are mostly in order. I saw ten species at Bentson, so they are all together, but it happened so fast I couldn't tell you if I saw an Altamira Oriole first or the Clay Colored Thrush. 

Final stats

Lifers  34 that count on ebird

           2 non-countable birds the Yellow Headed Amazon and the White Fronted Amazon

Lifers with photos 30 (four without photos Gray Hawk, Ringed Kingfisher, Aplomado Falcon, White Tailed Kite) 

   I also saw a McCall's Screech Owl which for now is a subspecies of an Eastern Screech but there is talk that it will be split into a separate species.

Great Tailed Grackle

Whooping Crane

Neotropical Cormorant

Harris Hawk

Plain Chachalaca

Great Kikadee

Green Jay

Green Kingfisher

Ladder Backed Woodpecker

Golden Fronted Woodpecker

Common Paquaque

Long Billed Thrasher

Altamira Oriole

Clay Colored Thrush

Black Crested Titmouse

Inca Dove

Audubon's Oriole

Hooded Oriole

Black Chinned Hummingbird

Olive Sparrow

Greater Roadrunner

Black Phoebe

Vermillion Flycatcher

Vermillion Flycatcher

                                                        Aplomado Falcon

Verdin

                                                      White Tailed Kite

                                         

Red Crowned Amazon

White Fronted Amazon

Yellow Headed Amazon

Curve Billed Thrasher

Crimson Collared Grosbeak

                                                     Ringed Kingfisher

                                                    Gray Hawk

                           

Buff Bellied Hummingbird (and below)

Green Parakeet

White Tipped Dove (should be further up
the list, but Blogger keeps screwing it up)

Better photo of Inca Dove

McCall's Screech Owl. Heavily cropped
He is at the bottom of the hole

Photo upgrades of Species I had seen before going to Texas

 

Yellow Crowned Night Heron

 Texas isn't just full of exotic birds. Texas is roughly half way between the Atlantic coastline (it is on the gulf) and Pacific coast. The area around the Rio Grande Valley is sub-tropical. It stands to reason that birds from the east, west, and south would be able to find homes for the winter. As we all know, many species "fly south for the winter". For many of those species, Texas is home. While we were in Texas we saw many of the species we regularly see in MA/RI. Cardinals were at many feeders. I saw Pied Billed Grebes on ponds. Besides the Texas hawk species, I saw Red Tailed, Coopers, and Red Shouldered Hawks. Many duck species spend the winter in Texas.

    While we were there, I got photo upgrades of six species I had previously seen.  The first was a White Winged Dove. They are a southwestern species and very common there. One showed  up at Beavertail a couple years ago. It was feeding on the ground fifty feet away. In the photo I got on vacation the dove landed ten feet from me. 

None of the photos below are cropped. None have had any editing of light, filters, or A1 at all.

Short explanations of each of the species below.

 White Winged Dove

  I had seen Roseate Spoonbill in New Jersey and Florida. I have never seen one in Rhode Island, however one shows up in the northeast every couple years so it could happen. I had gotten decent photos of Spoonbills at Ding Darling in Florida. When we went to the Birding Center on South Padre Island, three Spoonbills were right next to the boardwalk. This is the best photo I got of them. I should have taken many more. They flew ten minutes after we got there. There were so many birds of different species, I wanted to see them all.

Roseate Spoonbill

Common Galinule

Common Galinule show up every year in Rhode Island. Only one or two are usually seen and it is usually at Trustom Pond. This one was at the same birding center and was only feet from us. It was feeding the entire two hours we were there both in and out of the water.

Northern Pintail

   These photos below are probably my favorite photo upgrade. Northern Pintails are my favorite species of duck. I saw them from only a few feet away on a boardwalk in perfect light. I could have watched them for hours but like the Spoonbill, so many things to see.

Great Blue Heron

Obviously, Great Blue Herons are really common. I got these photos of one actively fishing. It was only feet away from the boardwalk 

Long Billed Curlew

  I had seen one Long Billed Curlew in the prairie of South Dakota in 2016. It was far away and most of its body was hidden by grass. This is not a great set of photos but much better than I had. It was taken from the boat on a Whooping  Crane tour.

Non Bird Wildlife of Texas

   

We went to Texas to see wildlife not just birds. It is no secret that Laurie and I like looking for herps. We were hoping to see Western Diamondback Rattlesnakes. We wanted to see any and all new mammals too. 

   To my surprise we actually saw very few species. When it came to herps, many days were just too cold. Most of the days peaked at seventy degrees but had cold mornings (40-50 degrees). Even on the couple of eighty degree days we didn't see any herps at all. We were very lucky to see the four that we did see.

As for mammals we got a couple of good ones however, we saw far fewer species than I thought we would. We didn't see any Jack Rabbits. We looked all along the highway for feral pigs but never saw one. We did have a great experience with Javelinas. I got a photo of every species we saw. The coolest were the first species of photos (the Javelinas) and the last two on the bottom

We actually saw Javelinas multiple times. We saw them at Estero Lllano and Bentson. state parks. We saw them at dusk at Estero. We stayed late hoping to see some and were excited to see them. We had one in the parking lot at Bentson crossing the road and sitting in a ditch.

    However, the best day was our second time at Bentson. We rented bikes and went to all of the feeders. When we came to a blind near a secluded feeder, there were two Javelinas feeding. One of them smelled and heard us and walked out of sight. The other one didn't care and continued eating. The first eventually came back and got a drink. It folds its legs up to bow down to the water. It was adorable. We watched for twenty minutes before leaving before them to finish their breakfast. Multiple photos below.

   Despite their look, Javelinas (also called Collared Peccary) are not related to pigs. They are a hooved animal and would be closer related to deer.

We saw this drum (alive) in the shallows of our Whooping Crane tour

We also saw a small pod of teenage sized Bottle Nosed Dolphins that we watched feed and play for fifteen minutes while on the tour

The only rabbit we saw was this one which I think is an Eastern Cottontail. The same species we have.

We saw one Armadillo at Estero. It was in the brush and this was the only photo I could get

Eastern Fox Squirrel is the only squirrel species we saw. They were at most places including downtown 

San Antonio

On one of the warm days Texas Cooter (turtles) were sunning on the logs at Estero

South Texas does have alligators. We saw them at Estero Llano every time we were there. Most of the time the water was warmer than the air so I only saw three sunning themselves

I am not sure, but I think this is a Mullet. South Padre Island

Brown Anole

Okay, the other really cool species... This is a Nilgai Antelope. They are originally from Asia. Hunters imported them to a ranch in the 1930's to hunt. Some escaped and they thrived. There are now thirty six thousand wild Nilgai in South Texas. They are considered invasive because they compete with deer for food. It seems as though they really aren't welcome by anyone but hunters...and us. We saw a small herd at the Palo Alto Battlefield. The brown one below was the closest and the rest were far away along some bushes. The black one is a male. They are described as deer on steroids. This is true because you could see every muscle in it's body when it moved. It looked like a body building antelope.