Photo uploading problems! Oh wait -- resolved!

I've been trying to upload more photos from my Big Bend trip, but blogger is not cooperating.

And of course no sooner do I say that than I am able to upload pics:

Lifers on parade!

Not a great photo, but my best photo of one of the many Mexican Jays we heard and saw -- lifer!

 Lifer Lucifer Hummingbird

 A terrible photo of a lifer Brown-crested Flycatcher (ID'd by voice)

Lifer Red-naped Sapsucker

 Lifer Black-throated Sparrow

Tiny Mary in Santa Elena Canyon

At this point, I'm not going to bore you with stories. Suffice it to say we had a great time, and the weather was fabulous. But I'm just going to tell you the lifers I got -- besides those above, and the ones I shared with you in previous posts. Plus some other cool photos.

 Not a lifer, but my best photo of a Greater Roadrunner, one of my mommy's favorite birds.

Black-throated Gray Warbler -- lifer!

 Verdin - lifer!

Coyote--lifer mammal!

Lifer Scaled Quail!

Lifer Canyon Wren!

"Hello. Vernon Vulture here. This is a boring post -- 

all photos, no stories. But then again, the lack of stories 

might make it less boring than normal. I am just saying."

One of the disappointing things about the trip was how much the drought has changed things, especially the hotspots pointed out in the ABA guide to the Rio Grande Valley. We would go to a place that was supposed to be a birding hotspot, and it was no longer open or it was just dried up. No water = no birds.

This happened at San Felipe Springs, which has been co-opted by the city of Del Rio for municipal water supply and thus is not even open to the public anymore. This sign and lots of fencing and razor wire told the story.

We had also tried stopping near the Lake Amistad reservoir, but there was no water where the book said there used to be:

The campground there was abandoned too. The whole place looked like a ghost town. It was pretty sad. I know Jeff Gordon; maybe I should email him and tell him the guide needs to be updated. On the other hand, they are getting some rain down there; maybe the drought is ending and these places will come back to life again, for the birds and for birders.

So those were some of the lifers I saw; I didn't get a photo of the Virginia's Warbler we saw, but that was also a lifer. We also got a look at a Scott's Oriole, Bell's Vireo, Plumbeous Vireo (heard only, but heard repeatedly for hours), a Green-tailed Towhee, a Gray Flycatcher, and a Rufous-crowned Sparrow -- but no pics. Most of those were seen at the Cottonwood Campground, which is a hotspot that is DEFINITELY still hot! It was probably the best place we birded. We did not get to see the Common Black Hawks that nest there (but we saw the nests!), dangit.

On the informational side, here's a list of the spots we birded, from start to finish, along with the lifers we saw there:
Rest Area before the Iraan/McCamey exit heading west on I-10 (Prairie Falcon flyover)
Lake Balmorrea near the store where you get your day permit (Clark's Grebe)
Davis Mountains State Park campground (Montezuma Quail)
Davis Mountains SP Indian Lodge area (Canyon Towhee)
Davis Mountains SP Montezuma Quail Trail (Black-chinned Hummingbird)
Pond on Hwy 118 near McDonald Observatory - hotspot described in the ABA guide
Chisos Mountain Lodge (Mexican Jay, Phainopepla, Scott's Oriole, Black-chinned Sparrow)
Cottonwood Campground (Bell's Vireo, Plumbeous Vireo, Red-naped Sapsucker, Green-tailed Towhee, Gray Flycatcher, Brown-crested Flycatcher, Rufous-crowned Sparrow, Virginia's Warbler -- although eBird doesn't show this bird as possible and I didn't get a pic so I didn't report it, I know what we saw)
Santa Elena Canyon
Christmas Mountain Oasis (Scaled Quail, Black-throated Sparrow, Lucifer Hummingbird)
Rio Grande Village behind the store (Verdin, Black-throated Gray Warbler)
Dugout Wells (lifer jackrabbit!)
Gage Gardens in Marathon, TX - Mary remembered that she'd seen tons of hummers and feeders here a few years ago, but there were no feeding stations and only a scant few birds this time
Langtry, TX - Judge Roy Bean's courthouse (Canyon Wren)
Seminole Canyon, Windmill Trail
Lake Amistad, San Pedro Flats Campground (dry, nothing but a few House Sparrows)

So my total for the trip was 23 lifers -- some birds I doubt I'll ever see again unless I go back there. I wish I'd gotten photos of all of these birds, but luckily all of these were confirmed by sight, sight and voice, voice only, and/or by other birders who were present.

I did have several mystery birds for the trip, but I've let those go. My goal of 400 didn't get met on this trip, but my next trip -- a bit of a quickie long weekend -- will be my first time in the Rio Grande Valley during the height of breeding season! I'm taking AB to my 30th high school reunion in Harlingen (Go Cardinals!) the last weekend in June. My total is currently 394, so I'm six birds away from the magical mystical 400.

Will I hit 400 on our South Texas blitz? Who can say?

Between reunion activities, I'm planning to hit South Padre Island (hoping for Gull-billed Tern and Franklin's Gull), one of the inland spots like Estero Llano Grande SP or Bentsen SP (I'm being realistic and not thinking we can do both), and maybe maybe maybe Laguna Atascosa.

Will I try once again for my nemesis, the Aplomado Falcon?

We'll see.

Big Bend birding, Days 2 and 3

It's been tough to find the time to catch up on posting here, so I'll do my best to get the highlights of what was a magical trip!

Day 2 found us waking up super early... because I woke up, looked at my still-on-eastern-time clock and woke Mary up at like 4 in the morning. Oops! We went for a walk under the stars and then went back to the room for a nap!

Later, we went walking down the road trying to find Montezuma Quail -- when I realized I'd forgotten to put the SD card into my camera. My sweet sister went back to the lodge to get it for me and OF COURSE that is when I heard the sound: I heard the Montezuma Quail! He called two times, and that was it. I only heard him, but it was DEFINITELY him! Lifer #4 sort-of!

By the time Mary got back, no more sounds. Still, we decided to walk the actual Montezuma Quail Trail, hoping to see or hear more. No go. We did, get another lifer for me, however:

It's a terrible photo, but it was the best one I got of this Black-chinned Hummingbird! I'd never been to Texas late enough to see that many hummers, so it took me this long to get to see this fairly common western hummer. Lifer 5!

The view from the trail:

I also got a better picture (for my Lifebird Photos collection) of a Bushtit:

So that was nice.
Still, no MOQU. Oh well. We also saw some nice cactus and agave plants:

The agave floral stem grows about one FOOT per day! Sadly, we didn't get to see it in full flower. But just think: in a few days, this bud will be about fifteen feet tall, covered with yellow flowers, and buzzing with hummingbirds. And then the whole plant will die. It lives about 25-50 years, sends up its flowering part, and dies. Wow.

Claret cup hedgehog cactus in flower:

A very sweet little Oregon Junco:

A Common Raven that I kept trying to make into a Chihuahuan Raven for Mary because she's never seen one:

After hiking around for a while, we had lunch and decided to check out the Mount Davis Observatory. Here's the view from Mount Locke, on which the observatory can be found:

Here's Mary in front of the building that houses the smallest scope:

And here's an unfortunate piece of signage:

Mary looked at it and said, "That's one very special employee."

Here she is with the big scope behind her:

It was cool to be up there, but it was sooooo windy and we were sooooo tired (thanks to my 4 a.m. wake-up call) that we called it a day.

The sunset from Skyline Drive in the park (there was so much dust in the air from the wind that it wasn't much of a sunset).

Day 3 took us from Fort Davis down through Alpine and into Big Bend State Park! Along the way we caught this awesome Golden-crowned Kinglet:

Not a lifer but check out that crown!

And in my quest to secure possible splits to the official AOU bird checklist, here's a Myrtle's Yellow-rumped Warbler:

Check out this crazy cactus; it's more thorns than cactus!

As you enter BBNP, you drive through a Badlands-like area:

Although the creosote bushes give it away as NOT being in South Dakota.

We got closer to the Chisos Basin and saw the "ghosts" after which the mountains are named:

It was a beautiful place, all creosote and ocotillo and cactus, mountain peaks and mesas.

We checked into our room, got our stuff settled, and went out for more birds! As soon as we walked out of our room, we saw this cooperative (and obviously used to people) Cactus Wren:

Not a lifer, but I'd never seen one so close up! Creepy red eyes!

Then, not two seconds later, this guy shows up:

LIFER 6! Phainopepla, baby! More creepy red eyes and crazy crest. Sooooo sweet. We hadn't even left the parking lot yet.

We hiked the Window Trail and got lucky again!

A terrible photo but it's a Black-chinned Sparrow! We got good looks at him.

The whole time on the trail, the giant Casa Grande rock formation loomed overhead and behind us:

After a long hike with several frustrating mystery sparrows that are probably just Chipping and other common sparrows, we watched the sun set in The Window, this gap between two mountains:

It had been a long day, but I had a date with my first Chicken-fried Steak in about fifteen years so we birded until dark, went to the restaurant, and went to bed!

This was the closest we got to a Mountain Lion:

Dangit.

Birding in the Big Bend, Day 1, en route to the Davis Mountains

scenic view north of Fort Davis

I've just returned from a week and a couple of days in Texas: my annual Texas birding trip! This time, however, I chose not to go to the Rio Grande Valley, but I did stay close to that river. My sister Mary and I spent five days in the Big Bend of Texas! Life-location!

We started out in Davis Mountains State Park near Fort Davis and the McDonald Observatory (where, by the way, the sexy-voiced Sandy Wood of Stardate fame does NOT hang out).

Heading west on I-10 out of San Antonio and away from my sweet mommy and daddy's house, we first hit Lake Balmorhea near Balmorhea and just west-southwest of Fort Stockton, Texas. I'd read that the Clark's Grebe makes regular appearances at the lake, so we hit it and struck lifer gold!

We saw three CLGRs on the lake, along with an Osprey, several generic gulls, and this mystery gull:

Not a great photo, but note that he has no white on his tail -- no white on his wing feathers folded back. What kind of gull is he? He had a yellow bill with a black tip, like a Ring-billed Gull, but no white on the rear portion. Am I over-thinking it? The only commonly occurring gulls there are the Ring-billed and (less often) the Bonaparte's Gull. Must just be a RBGU.


Also present was this cooperative Pyrrhuloxia:

Anyway, on we went to the Indian Lodge in the Davis Mountains, and on the road we saw my second lifer, a Prairie Falcon. Sadly, I did not get a photo, but it was unmistakeable: the accipiter shape, the size (like a giant American Kestrel), the brown barring on the wings, belly, and tail. I wish I'd gotten a photo, but we were driving and by the time we pulled over, he'd flown.

Also seen on the road, on a rock in front of that beautiful view from the top of this post, was this interesting lizard:

I couldn't find anything online that matched him. Any guesses?

The Indian Lodge was nice, a cool adobe building constructed in the 1940s by the Civilian Conservation Corps:

In the parking lot and green (I should've used air quotes on that) areas around the lodge were several Canyon Towhees, another lifer!

 

So that made three lifers so far. My goal for the trip was 24, based on repeated sightings of potential lifers at various spots in the park over the previous days. I had a long way to go, but I was happy to be in a place I'd never been.