Today (Friday, 10/21/16) my wife (Birgit) and I birded widely in both
Hidalgo and
Cameron counties in locales north and northeast of Weslaco. Our efforts
were intended largely to focus on raptors, inspired by the passage of a
cold from the previous evening. In terms of raptors, though, our efforts
were notably disappointing. On that account I will provide here only a few
details of our efforts, finds, and misses. Not surprisingly, American
Kestrels were found, often several, along virtually every birding-suitable
road on which we traveled, and our second most common raptor was Crested
Caracara, with five in the top of a single tree along Bucy Road northwest
of Hargill. From our personal perspective our most enjoyable raptor of the
day was a single, very attractive White-tailed Hawk along Capt. Ken Baker
Rd. (between Rio Beef and Brushline Roads). Our biggest disappointment was
a failure to find even one Swainsonâs Hawk, but we suspect that we might
have done much better in that regard around agricultural fields in late
day. Our most abundant species for the day was Scissor-tailed Flycatcher,
which were in remarkably high numbers on many of the roads we traveled
todayâa strong migratory push! For example, we had an estimated 185 along
the aforementioned 4-mile stretch of Capt. Ken Baker Rd., and, although not
estimated, many more than that were along Brushline Rd. between the road
just mentioned and FM-186.
Those who know well our personal birding habits will not be surprised to
learn that we briefly deviated from our focus on raptors to visit a large
farm pond east of Lyford (Cameron Co.) to check for shorebirds. This pond
is found along CR-1900 E on its south side a short distance east of CR 315
(aka Cactus Rd.). This pond usually has a least a few birds, but on a good
day can be quite exciting and provide some variety. This afternoon (12:30-
12:45 PM) we were delighted to find Long-billed Curlews (77) (albeit no
other birds) in the pond. Forty of them (as established by a photo of that
area) were gathered in a cove on the east side of the pond, and the other
37 (established by a scope-based visual count) were, at the same time,
spread about along the north shore of the pond (and thus were relatively
close to the road). Those interested in birding this area may wish to note
that in the area of Lyford, speed limits often are monitored by patrols and
that along the expressway the speed limit is dropped to 55 in this area.
Wishing everyone the best of birding,
Rex Stanford (Weslaco, TX).
Edit your Freelists account settings for TEXBIRDS at
//www.freelists.org/list/texbirds
Reposting of traffic from TEXBIRDS is prohibited without seeking permission
from the List Owner
