At around 8:30, someone spotted the Rose-throated Becard that was also being sporadically seen there near the entrance to the Ebony Trail. I managed to get one fairly good photo of the bird, which is either a female or a first-year male.
A pair of Bronzed Cowbirds were seen in one of the trees in the center of the parking area.
Around 9:50, someone spotted the Gray-collared Becard near the maintenance area. Several birders had gathered by the time I got there. It was tough to find the bird through the leaves and branches. That's when the bird flew out of the tree in the direction of the parking lot and disppeared into the thicker vegetation. All I saw was a glimpse of it in flight. Everyone headed back out to the parking lot and started searching the area. After about 10 minutes of looking, I decided to go back to the spot where it was found. There were three other birders checking near there. They happened to spot it, but in the five seconds it took me to get to where they were, I once again saw it fly out of the tree and drop into an area out of view. I ended up getting two teasing and frustrating glimpses of the bird. We continued to check all the spots where it had been seen in previous days, but it was not seen the rest of the day. A very tiny consolation prize was getting this photo of a White-tipped Dove at the bird blind.
We left the state park and drove the short distance to Oliveira Park in Brownsville, getting there around dusk. This park has a large parrot roost. I saw and got some mediocre photos of White-fronted Parrots and saw some Red-lored Parrots fly by. Both birds have been established there for a while now and may be accepted by the American Birding Association in the near future.
At dark, we started the 1.5 hour drive to our motel in Rio Grande City since we were scheduled to join a walk into the Santa Margarita Ranch early the next morning.
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