Today was our third and last chance at finding the Gray-collared Becard. We drove back to Resaca de la Palma State Park and started searching around the parking lot. This time, someone spotted the bird near the bus parking area! After getting some partial looks through branches and leaves, it finally perched out in the open and I got to see the Gray-collared Becard, which was also a 3rd United States record and a first for Texas! The other two records were one-day sightings from southeast Arizona. It was my fifth life bird of the trip! We were very happy to see all five. Initially, it perched just long enough for me to get a couple shots of it, which were unfortunately not in good focus, but you can see why it's called a Gray-collared Becard.
Eventually, the bird perched in other spots where I was able to get more photos of it. It turned out that the third time really was the charm.
We left the state park, this time with big smiles on our faces after finding the Roadside Hawk and both the Rose-throated and the Gray-collared Becard there! Soon after we exited the park, we saw two White-tailed Kites. One circled overhead, putting on a nice show.
With all of the rare birds accounted for, we adjusted our plans. We had to be back in Houston for tomorrow's early morning flight. Jason hadn't seen the Red-vented Bulbuls in Houston, so we calculated the time that we would need to get to the spot in Houston by the late afternoon where I had seen them before. Since the Aplomado Falcon nesting site was nearby, we headed for that before leaving the valley. Along the way, we stopped at the intersection of Barreda Garden and Rice Tract Roads near San Benito. A Couch's Kingbird perched nicely on a dead branch for a photo and later sang, confirming the identification.
Other birds seen in the resaca area included Black-necked Stilt, Greater Yellowlegs, Laughing Gull, Caspian and Forster's Tern, and Great Egret.
We drove the short distance to where the Aplomado Falcon nesting platform was located and found one of them perched on the box. We checked it out through my scope and I got a very long distance, mediocre photo of it. We never saw a closer bird during the short time that we spent there.
We left there and started the long drive to Houston. Along the way, Scissor-tailed Flycatcher was added to the trip list. We got to the Houston Heights Bird Sanctuary around 4:30. We found a flock of 'fly-by' Snow Geese, Killdeer, Great Egret, Great Blue Heron, White Ibis, Sharp-shinned and Red-shouldered Hawk, and American Kestrel, but no Red-vented Bulbuls. The raptors in the area probably didn't help our chances. We cleaned out the car as it got dark, went to another Golden Corral and stuffed ourselves, then parked at a Circle-K convenience store where we got a few hours of on-and-off sleep before heading to the airport.
Monday, December 4th
We drove the short distance to the airport, returned our rental car, and boarded our 7:30 AM flight back to Philadelphia. We arrived just before noon and drove home, getting back around 2:00 PM. We covered 1,208 miles over six days in Texas and saw 140 species. Many more photos can be found in my Texas Photo Album.
Here's my trip list.
Texas ~ November 29 to December 4, 2023
1) Greater White-fronted Goose
2) Snow Goose
3) Wood Duck
4) Muscovy Duck
5) Gadwall
6) Green-winged Teal
7) Northern Pintail
8) Northern Shoveler
9) Blue-winged Teal
10) Canvasback
11) Redhead
12) Ring-necked Duck
13) Plain Chachalaca
14) Northern Bobwhite
15) Least Grebe
16) Pied-billed Grebe
17) American White Pelican
18) Brown Pelican
19) Anhinga
20) Neotropic Cormorant
21) Double-crested Cormorant
22) Bare-throated Tiger-Heron ***
23) Green Heron
24) Tricolored Heron
25) Little Blue Heron
26) Reddish Egret
27) Snowy Egret
28) Great Egret
29) Great Blue Heron
30) American Flamingo
31) White Ibis
32) Roseate Spoonbill
33) Turkey Vulture
34) Black Vulture
35) Osprey
36) White-tailed Kite
37) Northern Harrier
38) Sharp-shinned Hawk
39) Cooper's Hawk
40) Roadside Hawk ***
41) Harris's Hawk
42) Gray Hawk
43) Red-shouldered Hawk
44) Red-tailed Hawk
45) White-tailed Hawk
46) Aplomado Falcon
47) Crested Caracara
48) American Kestrel
49) Peregrine Falcon
50) Limpkin
51) Sora
52) American Coot
53) Sandhill Crane
54) Whooping Crane
55) American Avocet
56) Black-necked Stilt
57) Willet
58) Lesser Yellowlegs
59) Greater Yellowlegs
60) Spotted Sandpiper
61) Long-billed Curlew
62) Dunlin
63) Least Sandpiper
64) Short-billed Dowitcher
65) Wilson's Snipe
66) Laughing Gull
67) Ring-billed Gull
68) Caspian Tern
69) Forster's Tern
70) Black Skimmer
71) Red-billed Pigeon
72) Rock Pigeon
73) Mourning Dove
74) Eurasian Collared-Dove
75) White-winged Dove
76) Inca Dove
77) White-tipped Dove
78) White-fronted Parrot *
79) Red-crowned Parrot
80) Red-lored Parrot *
81) Great Horned Owl
82) Eastern Screech-Owl
83) Mottled Owl ***
84) Common Pauraque
85) Belted Kingfisher
86) Ringed Kingfisher
87) Green Kingfisher
88) Golden-fronted Woodpecker
89) Ladder-backed Woodpecker
90) Downy Woodpecker
91) Least Flycatcher
92) Eastern Phoebe
93) Black Phoebe
94) Vermilion Flycatcher
95) Dusky-capped Flycatcher
96) Couch's Kingbird
97) Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
98) Great Kiskadee
99) Cattle Tyrant ***
100) Gray-collared Becard ***
101) Rose-throated Becard
102) Loggerhead Shrike
103) Blue-headed Vireo
104) Brown Jay
105) Green Jay
106) American Crow
107) Chihuahuan Raven
108) Purple Martin
109) Black-crested Titmouse
110) House Wren
111) Carolina Wren
112) Ruby-crowned Kinglet
113) Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
114) Northern Mockingbird
115) Long-billed Thrasher
116) Curve-billed Thrasher
117) European Starling
118) Tennessee Warbler
119) Orange-crowned Warbler
120) Nashville Warbler
121) Tropical Parula
122) Magnolia Warbler
123) Yellow-rumped (Myrtle) Warbler
124) Black-and-white Warbler
125) Black-throated Green Warbler
126) Yellow-throated Warbler
127) Wilson's Warbler
128) Morelet's Seedeater
129) Olive Sparrow
130) Black-throated Sparrow
131) Savannah Sparrow
132) Northern Cardinal
133) Eastern Meadowlark
134) Red-winged Blackbird
135) Great-tailed Grackle
136) Brown-headed Cowbird
137) Bronzed Cowbird
138) Altamira Oriole
139) House Finch
140) House Sparrow
*** denotes life bird.
* denotes potential life bird.
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