Thanksgiving Birding at Wheeler NWR

I'm a man of many goals when it comes to birding. I want to break the ABA big year record, be in top 10 on eBird for my Texas list, and I'd love to be a guide. Some goals are more attainable than others, and one of those easier to do ones is to go birding in all 50 states. So far I have Alaska, California, Utah, Texas, Maine, New Hampshire, New York, and Massachusetts. Pretty good if you ask me. Over Thanksgiving I got the opportunity to add another one. My girlfriend, Sarah Grace, and I were heading to Alabama to spend Thanksgiving with her family.

I am very jealous of these Alabamans. She is from the Huntsville area in the northern part of the state. She lives less than a mile from Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge, which is listed one of the 500 most important bird areas in the country by the American Bird Conservancy. State parks are also all over the place and a short distance away from big cities. 

The trail at White Springs Dike. Photo creds all go to Sarah Grace

Wheeler itself is a really great spot to go find some birds. It's listed as an IBA largely because it hosts a small population of wintering Whooping Cranes that has grown each year. There is a massive waterfowl population in the winter as well, but it's just as good in the summer with breeding Kentucky, Prothonotary, and Prairie Warbler, Grasshopper Sparrow, and resident Bald Eagles.

I committed a cardinal birding sin while deciding where to go. The refuge has many sections to it, and I decided to pass on the Whooping Cranes to chase more year birds. I really want to hit 300 birds this year for pride, and White Springs Dike offered a better opportunity to pick up a number of year birds I as missing. It also gave me my best shot at a nemesis bird of mine: Hooded Merganser. I have been in great Hooded Merganser territory many times with no luck. The prior Sunday when I chased the Brown Booby I passed up looks at present HOMG to chase the Booby. When I came back the mergansers were gone. So it goes.

A beautiful morning on the Tennessee River with Decatur, Alabama in the background

We arrived on a cold, windy morning along the Tennessee River. Alabama is a gorgeous state, and the fall colors were the perfect background for the birds. Our target birds were Hooded Merganser, Eastern Towhee, Common Goldeneye, and American Black Duck. There was a great mixed flock as soon as we came in, getting us great looks at Eastern Towhee, Swamp Sparrow, Hermit Thrush, and Brown Thrasher. A Belted Kingfisher rattled in the distance and Cardinals chipped away as we walked past.

I should have brought my scope. For the sake of not packing too much I didn't bring it and unfortunately for me the ducks were VERY skittish. With the sun rising in our eyes we couldn't get much on the ducks, but we did get tons of White-throated Sparrows and Red-bellied Woodpeckers. Waders were present as they seem to be everywhere. 

Male Bufflehead

The pond and river opened up once we turned around and got the sun at our backs. Mallards were abundant on the ponds and Northern Shoveler and Gadwall dominated the river. I'm sure American Black Duck was in there but I didn't see any without the scope. The pond really came to life. All of a sudden we could start getting eyes on different species. Of course Buffleheads, one of the coolest ducks on the continent, stood out. As I was scanning I saw a big white spot. I thought it was way too big to be a Bufflehead. No way, HOODED MERGANSER! It's feast or famine with them it seems, there were double digits swimming there. It's crazy how the angle of the light can impact visibility.

Hooded Mergansers

I thought I had Common Goldeneye, but I couldn't relocate it. There were tons of female Buffleheads so I didn't count it because it could have been mistaken identity. As we left towards the car we got Sharp-shinned Hawk and an American Kestrel. More Eastern Towhees, and I wish I had time to look for Vesper Sparrow because they were definitely out there, but we were out of time. Later in the evening when we took her dog to the corn fields to throw the ball we had a flyover of Sandhill Cranes, a great end to a great day. Overall we got 36 species, a great day. Hopefully Sarah Grace doesn't get sick of me so I can get more chances to get out there and get some summer birds!

In other news, as I mentioned earlier I did 2 Brown Boobys at Baytown Nature Center, which is an incredible bird to get. I'm sitting at 288 year birds at the moment. I am so close to getting to my goal of 300. December 15 I will be at Galveston Island State Park hoping to get Clapper and King Rail, Palm Warbler, Red-breasted Merganser, and maybe Seaside Sparrow or Nelson's Sparrow. I'll also be up in Dallas for 9 days over Christmas. White Rock Lake will be hit up for sure, and depending on what I need I'm really considering a trip to Lake Tawakoni State Park to look for longspurs and maybe LLELA for Harris's Sparrow. There's also Fort Worth Nature Center for Canvasback and Redhead. Too many spots, not enough time. I can't wait to get back out there!

Not the best photo at all, but there's an adult and juvenile Brown Booby!

Rio Grande Valley Day 4: Edinburg Wetlands

My last morning in the valley offered me one opportunity to get some birds that I missed. I shockingly missed Ringed Kingfisher and Lesser Goldfinch, and this seemed like a good place to get them.

The park itself is pretty cool, it reminds me of the Dallas Arboretum but with better birds. There's a massive pond that is teeming with kingfishers. Within just a few minutes I had all 3 kingfishers, including a lifer Ringed Kingfisher!

Green Kingfisher's are one of my favorite birds to see. I wish I had gotten a picture of the Ringed Kingfisher.

I continued along the trail, and a second small pond brought in more birds. Both night herons were present, and there was a mixed flock of migrants that looked enticing to both me and a Cooper's Hawk. Pine Warbler, Indigo Bunting, Black-and-White Warbler, and Orange-crowned Warbler were all usual suspects, but there a few pleasant surprises. Rose-breasted Grosbeak was nice find, but I was hyped about a Warbling Vireo. Those are hard for me to identify and I thought I missed them for the year. To round it out I got a Pine Warbler, which was flagged as rare by eBird.

Yellow-crowned Night Heron taken at Estero Llano Grande

On the way out I got the last bird I had really been missing, Lesser Goldfinch! I closed out the trip at over 103 birds, 100 alone in Hidalgo County. I got pretty much every bird I hoped for, with the only miss being Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet and Hooded Oriole, although the latter is primarily a summer visitor so the chances were already slim to none I'd see one.

Belted Kingfisher taken at White Rock Lake

An obvious highlight was the Morelet's Seedeater and Audubon's Oriole, but I was also pumped to get lifer Golden-winged Warbler and an unexpected Warbling Vireo. What. A. Trip. I cannot wait to come back and uncover some more surprises from the RGV.

Rio Grande Valley Day 3: Salineno

The day started pretty foggy. I had plans to hit up Santa Ana NWR and Edinburg Scenic Wetlands. Santa Ana is considered the crown jewel of the National Wildlife Refuge system. Unfortunately I didn't have cash and they don't take credit cards. I had to call an audible, and I decided to switch my plans for the next 2 days. I was going to drive 80 miles west to Salineno. I wanted to get Morelet's Seedeater and it was the only place I could get my lifer Audubon's Oriole. I made the drive and it ended up being the perfect decision.

The weather was incredible. The sun burned off the clouds and the landscape became much more similar to the hill country. The preserve was not fully operational when I went, but one of the park hosts was in the process of setting everything up, but he did have the feeders up. This is one of the best places to bird. You can get up close to many RGV specialties like White-tipped Dove, Plain Chachalaca, and Olive Sparrow. I sat and chatted with the host about his adventures in the Chiricahuas while I waited on the Audubon's Oriole to show. Spolier: it didn't.

View from the Rio Grande. Mexico is on the other side.

I decided to try my luck with the seedeaters. You can walk along the Rio Grande to look for them in cane. This is one of a handful of places they can be found. Really they can only be seen in Del Rio and Salineno, but they have been found in Laredo and Eagle Pass. They used to be seen with Brown Jays at Salineno before supposedly leaving, but now they're being seen again. I've seen them once along the river, and I knew just where to look again.

The river is really scenic, and it's trippy seeing a foreign country 40 yards away. I couldn't find one to save my life. I saw small birds flying across the river, but I had no luck getting eyes on them. I did have Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Vermillion Flycatcher, and even a Gray Hawk! I had one last option, and with some minor bushwhacking and being really stealthy I got one! A small, brown female was skulking around 10 feet from me. Success!

Vermillion Flycatcher

I returned in the heat to the preserve to see if anything would show up. After just a few minutes not one, but 2 Audubon's Orioles appeared! I got incredible looks at them, and it was completely worth the driving I did. I made a stop to look for Black-tailed Gnatcatcher, but no dice. I didn't care, I got the 2 biggest birds of the trip!

Audubon's Oriole