Florida and Texas Trip ~ January 17, 2021

I got breakfast at the local IHOP at 4:00 AM and then dropped off the rental car at the Fort Lauderdale Airport. At 7:00 AM, I flew to Atlanta and got on my flight to San Antonio. I got my rental car and headed south at around 1:30 PM for Choke Canyon State Park where the Spotted Rail was being seen. I arrived around 3:30 and parked in the lot at "75-Acre Lake". I grabbed my scope and camera and walked out onto the peninsula where several other birders were standing. The story was that the rail had not been seen since the mid-morning, so I started searching along with another woman with a scope. After a while, she stated that she thought she might have it. She did indeed, but the bird was several hundred yards away on the far western shoreline. Most of the birders were happy with the looks that they got and left. Since this was my only 'lifer' possibility, I decided to stick it out the rest of the day to see if the bird would return to its usual eastern shoreline haunts, which were behind me. As it turned out, that's exactly what happened. I had lost the bird in a patch of reeds but spotted it half the distance to where it was originally. I got another couple on it as it continued to work its way towards me.

Spotted Rail

It methodically worked the shoreline closer and closer until it was within 20 feet of me! That's when I was able to get some fine photos of it.

Spotted Rail

There were a lot of birds present on the lake, but most of the waterfowl was badly backlit by the sun and, since I was concentrating on the rail, I only scanned through them a few times. Even so, I still found Blue-winged and Cinnamon Teal, Northern Shoveler, Northern Pintail, Green-winged Teal, Ring-necked Duck, Bufflehead, Ruddy Duck, Pied-billed Grebe, Common Gallinule, American Coot, Neotropic Cormorant, Great Egret, and Great Blue Heron. A distant Crested Caracara and a much closer Northern Harrier were noted. Two Wilson's Snipe and a close, cooperative Sora were found along the shoreline.

Sora

The northeast corner of the lake held Marsh Wren, Common Yellowthroat, Yellow-rumped and Orange-crowned Warbler, Savannah Sparrow, Vermilion Flycatcher, and Eastern and Say's Phoebe.

Vermilion Flycatcher

Say's Phoebe

I knew there was no way I was going to be able to get better looks or photos of the rail than I already had, so I decided to book a room near Pharr and head for the Lower Rio Grande Valley where I would spend my last day of birding. I made the 2-1/2 hour drive to the LaQuinta Inn where I spent the night.

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