Birding at Estero Llano Grande State Park and Frontera Audubon Center

The second day of my trip was planned to cover "Estero Llano Grande State park" and "Frontera Audubon Center". Estero Llano Grande SP was highly recommended by everyone I spoke to and by end of the day I realized why it was such a great birding place.

I started the day early and reached the park by 7AM. I read there was a regular birding walk scheduled at 8:30AM and wanted to join the same. When I reached the Visitor center there was no one at the center an the pond which is located right next to the center was brimmed with shorebirds, ducks, egrets and herons. Most of the ducks were "Mottled Ducks", "Blue-winged Teals" and "Fulvous Whistling-Ducks". Along with them I saw my first pair of "Cinnamon Teals". On the edge of the pond I saw couple of "Green Kingfishers" and a brief look of a "Sora".

Green-winged Teal

Cinnamon Teal

Mottled Duck

Green Kingfisher

The other birds we saw were "Least Sandpipers", "Lesser/Greater Yellowlegs", "Short/Long-billed Dowitchers", "Pectoral Sandpiper", "Spotted Sandpiper" and "Stilt Sandpipers". There was lone "Roseate spoonbill" along with "Tri-colored Heron" and "White-faced Ibis".

White-faced Ibis

Least Sandpiper

Roseate Spoonbill

Spotted Sandpiper

Tri-colored Heron

Roseatte Spoonbill

Black-necked Stilt

The feeder had 3 different kind of doves. We saw "White-winged Doves", "White-tipped Doves" and "Inca Doves". And we also had a Buff-bellied hummingbird as well at the feeder.

After doing some birding at the visitor center we headed towards the trails. The first trail we took was towards "Alligator pond" where a "Common Pauraque" was reported nesting. On the way we stopped at the the Grebe pond where we got good looks at "Least Grebe" as well as "Yellow-crowned Night Herons". There was a Green Heron along with couple of "Fulvous Whistling-ducks". We were told the Least Grebes nest at this pond. Near the alligator pond we did get good looks at "Common Pauraque" which was very well camouflaged on the ground among the leaves. And on the alligator pond we saw another "Least Grebe", "Yellow-crowned Night Heron" and brief look at "Groove-billed Ani". Later on the trail we saw "Great Kiskadee" and "Painted Bunting".

American Coot

Yellow-crowned Night Heron

Least Grebe

Fulvous Whistling-duck

White-tipped Dove

House Sparrow

Tri-colored Heron

Green Heron

Inca Dove

At the end of the walk we went towards the woodlands to find any of the visiting warblers. On the trail we saw "Clay-colored Thrush", "Golden-fronted Woodpecker", "Ladder-backed Woodpecker", "Brown-crested Flycatcher" and "Couch's Kingbird". At one of the feeding stations we saw "Tufted Titmouse", "Buff-bellied Hummingbird", "White-tipped Doves" and "Green Jay". We also got to saw the nest of a "Buff-bellied Hummingbird" where a chick was being fed by one it's parent. And we ended the walk with sighting of a "Curve-billed Thrasher" at the parking lot. It was a great bird walk which no one should miss if they are visiting this park.

Curve-billed Thrasher

Green Jay

Golden-fronted Woodpecker

White-winged Dove

Ladder-backed Woodpecker

Brown-crested Flycatcher

Black-crested Titmouse

Golden-fronted Woodpecker

Harris Hawk

Couch's Kingbird

After visiting Estero I headed toward Frontera Audubon Center to see some warblers.  It is a small park but does have some good habitat for all kinds of birds. Near the visitor center the large tree had different warblers on it. I saw "Black-throated Green", "Cerulean", "Tennesse", "Black and White" and "Nashville" warblers. Along with this I saw "Baltimore" and "Altamira" Orioles on the same tree. And in one of the ponds I was able to see my first "Solitary Sandpiper". The feeding stations mainly had "White-tipped" and "White-winged Doves".

Black-throated Green Warbler

Cerulean Warbler

Nashville Warbler

Tennesse Warbler

White-tipped Dove

White-winged Dove

Snowy Egret

Solitary Sandpiper

My last visit of the day was to Brownsville in search of the parrots. I had read one could see 5 different kinds of parrots roosting in the "Oliveira park" in Brownsville. I reached the park by 7PM to make sure I could see the parrots coming to roost on the eucalyptus trees within the park. When I reached I could some Green parakeets flying over but nothing else much. But once the sun went down we could see flocks of parrots coming in and first settling on the electric wires near the park. And then they started coming into the park and settling on the trees. There were around 400-500 of these parrots and noise of these birds could be heard everywhere in the park. The experience took me back to the "Rose-ringed Parakeet" roosting sites in India:-). Here I could see there were "White-fronted" and "Red-crowned" parrots. And probably other parrots were part of the roosting site but we could not ID them because of the bad light. It was great experience to end the day.

Ebird :

   Estero Llane Grande SP : https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S44619505
   Frontera Audubon :  https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S44713566
   Brownsville Oliviera park : https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S44713589

Birds seen during the day :

1	Altamira Oriole
2	American Avocet
3	American Coot
4	Baltimore Oriole
5	Barn Swallow
6	Black-and-white Warbler
7	Black-bellied Whistling-Duck
8	Black-crested Titmouse
9	Black-necked Stilt
10	Black-throated Green Warbler
11	Blue-winged Teal
12	Brown-crested Flycatcher
13	Buff-bellied Hummingbird
14	Carolina Wren
15	Cinnamon Teal
16	Clay-colored Thrush
17	Common Gallinule
18	Common Ground-Dove
19	Common Pauraque
20	Common Yellowthroat
21	Couch's Kingbird
22	Curve-billed Thrasher
23	Fulvous Whistling-Duck
24	Golden-fronted Woodpecker
25	Gray Catbird
26	Great Blue Heron
27	Great Crested Flycatcher
28	Great Egret
29	Great Kiskadee
30	Great-tailed Grackle
31	Green Heron
32	Green Jay
33	Green Kingfisher
34	Green Parakeet
35	Green-winged Teal
36	Groove-billed Ani
37	Harris's Hawk
38	House Sparrow
39	Inca Dove
40	Indigo Bunting
41	Killdeer
42	Ladder-backed Woodpecker
43	Least Grebe
44	Least Sandpiper
45	Lesser Yellowlegs
46	Little Blue Heron
47	Long-billed Dowitcher
48	Mottled Duck
49	Mourning Dove
50	Nashville Warbler
51	Neotropic Cormorant
52	Northern Cardinal
53	Northern Mockingbird
54	Northern Rough-winged Swallow
55	Northern Shoveler
56	Olive Sparrow
57	Orchard Oriole
58	Painted Bunting
59	Pectoral Sandpiper
60	Pied-billed Grebe
61	Plain Chachalaca
62	Red-crowned Parrot
63	Red-winged Blackbird
64	Roseate Spoonbill
65	Ruby-throated Hummingbird
66	Snowy Egret
67	Solitary Sandpiper
68	Sora
69	Spotted Sandpiper
70	Stilt Sandpiper
71	Summer Tanager
72	Tennessee Warbler
73	Tricolored Heron
74	Turkey Vulture
75	White-eyed Vireo
76	White-faced Ibis
77	White-fronted Parrot
78	White-tailed Hawk
79	White-tailed Kite
80	White-tipped Dove
81	White-winged Dove
82	Yellow-crowned Night-Heron