I had a great trip to Lower Rio Grande Valley last week and my first solo road trip. I had been planning to visit the valley since I moved to Texas back in 2014. I wanted to see the local specialties there and at last got to take some time off to do this trip. The plan was to see the valley specialties as well as cover the spring migration at South Padre Island and Corpus Christi.
After getting some inputs from different birders I finished planning my 5 days trip to the valley. The first day's plan was to visit Salineño Wildlife preserve and Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge. I was told the best chance to see the "Red-billed Pigeons" was to reach the Salineño WP early in the morning. I reached before dawn to see if I could find any nighthawks or owls before looking for the pigeons. Near the parking lot I saw nighthawk briefly before he flew off. While it was a little overcast I did not expect any rains and the weather forecast showed the same. But there was sudden thunderstorms with some mini sized hail as well. But it was brief and stopped within 10 minutes.
I heard some loud sounds coming from across the river and found it to be my first sighting of a "Plain Chachalaca", a big sized bird with different kind of loud calls. I should have done some home work with bird sounds before I embarked on this trip. We could hear birds all over the place and see them flying over the river. There were Egrets, Cormorants, Doves and Pigeons flying over. We had our first "Red-billed Pigeons" flying over us, it happened multiple times. I had some help with identifying some of the birds here, there was a small birding group looking for "Red-billed Pigeons".
It was great to see so many birds in the area. I got to see my first "Grey Hawk" which was perched across the river. It was far but could see the bird clearly. Nearby tree had some "Northern Rough-winged Swallows" and "Bank Swallows" as well. I also saw my first "Bullock's Oriole", "Altamira Oriole" and "Audubon's Oriole". There was a "Cassin's Sparrow" calling nearby where I found "Song Sparrow", "Lark sparrow" and "Chipping Sparrow" as well. A "Lesser Goldfinch" also gave a brief appearance before flying away.
Across the river I saw my first "Great Kiskadee", "Brown-crested Flycatcher", "Ash-throated Flycatcher" and "Ringed Kingfisher". And on the walk back to the parking lot we saw our first "Ladder-backed Woodpecker", "Gold-fronted Woodpecker" and "Long-billed Thrasher". The other birds I saw during the day were "Bewicks Wren", "Blue-grey Gnatcher" and the "Red-winged Blackbird's".
At noon I headed towards Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge. It was about 90 minutes drive from Salineño WP. The refuge has couple of feeding spots where I saw lot of "White-winged Doves", "Plain Chachalaca's", "Red-winged Blackbird's", "Green Jay's" and "White-tipped Dove's". There were couple of "Buff-bellied Hummingbirds" visiting the feeders as well.
After birding at the feeders I decided to walk the trails in the Refuge. I started on Willow trail where I was told "Tropical Parula" was singing near the bridge. I could not hear the Parula but I got to see some of the other local specialties here. I saw the "Olive Sparrow" and "Clay colored Thrush" during the walk where there were trees covered with Spanish moss . And another good sighting was of a "Common Nighthawk". I did get a brief look of the "Least Grebe" in the willow lake. It was a good trail to walk which had different habitats covered.
To end an already eventful day I went for a drive on 10'th street in McAllen to try my luck with Green Parrots. I did get to see them near Lowe's where they were chased away by Blackbirds. I had 21 lifers for the day.
ebird :
Salineño WP : https://ebird.org/view/
Santa Ana NWR : https://ebird.org/view/
Birds seen during the day :
After getting some inputs from different birders I finished planning my 5 days trip to the valley. The first day's plan was to visit Salineño Wildlife preserve and Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge. I was told the best chance to see the "Red-billed Pigeons" was to reach the Salineño WP early in the morning. I reached before dawn to see if I could find any nighthawks or owls before looking for the pigeons. Near the parking lot I saw nighthawk briefly before he flew off. While it was a little overcast I did not expect any rains and the weather forecast showed the same. But there was sudden thunderstorms with some mini sized hail as well. But it was brief and stopped within 10 minutes.
I heard some loud sounds coming from across the river and found it to be my first sighting of a "Plain Chachalaca", a big sized bird with different kind of loud calls. I should have done some home work with bird sounds before I embarked on this trip. We could hear birds all over the place and see them flying over the river. There were Egrets, Cormorants, Doves and Pigeons flying over. We had our first "Red-billed Pigeons" flying over us, it happened multiple times. I had some help with identifying some of the birds here, there was a small birding group looking for "Red-billed Pigeons".
It was great to see so many birds in the area. I got to see my first "Grey Hawk" which was perched across the river. It was far but could see the bird clearly. Nearby tree had some "Northern Rough-winged Swallows" and "Bank Swallows" as well. I also saw my first "Bullock's Oriole", "Altamira Oriole" and "Audubon's Oriole". There was a "Cassin's Sparrow" calling nearby where I found "Song Sparrow", "Lark sparrow" and "Chipping Sparrow" as well. A "Lesser Goldfinch" also gave a brief appearance before flying away.
 |
| Long-billed Thrasher |
 |
| Lark Sparrow |
 |
| Record photograph of Northern Rough-winged Swallow |
 |
| Record photograph of Grey Hawk |
 |
| Bullock's Oriole |
 |
| Cassin's Sparrow |
 |
| Lesser Goldfinch |
 |
| Lincoln Sparrow |
 |
| Cassin's Sparrow |
 |
| Mockingbird |
 |
| Chipping Sparrow |
Across the river I saw my first "Great Kiskadee", "Brown-crested Flycatcher", "Ash-throated Flycatcher" and "Ringed Kingfisher". And on the walk back to the parking lot we saw our first "Ladder-backed Woodpecker", "Gold-fronted Woodpecker" and "Long-billed Thrasher". The other birds I saw during the day were "Bewicks Wren", "Blue-grey Gnatcher" and the "Red-winged Blackbird's".
 |
| Bewicks Wren |
 |
| Red-winged Blackbird |
 |
| White-winged Dove |
 |
| Blue-grey Gnatcher |
 |
| Ash-throated flycatcher |
At noon I headed towards Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge. It was about 90 minutes drive from Salineño WP. The refuge has couple of feeding spots where I saw lot of "White-winged Doves", "Plain Chachalaca's", "Red-winged Blackbird's", "Green Jay's" and "White-tipped Dove's". There were couple of "Buff-bellied Hummingbirds" visiting the feeders as well.
 |
| Green Jay |
 |
| Plain Chachalaca |
 |
| Buff-bellied Hummingbird |
 |
| White-tipped Dove |
After birding at the feeders I decided to walk the trails in the Refuge. I started on Willow trail where I was told "Tropical Parula" was singing near the bridge. I could not hear the Parula but I got to see some of the other local specialties here. I saw the "Olive Sparrow" and "Clay colored Thrush" during the walk where there were trees covered with Spanish moss . And another good sighting was of a "Common Nighthawk". I did get a brief look of the "Least Grebe" in the willow lake. It was a good trail to walk which had different habitats covered.
 |
| Common Nighthawk |
 |
| Olive Sparrow |
 |
| Carolina Wren |
 |
| Tufted Titmouse |
 |
| Blue-winged Teal |
 |
| Clay-colored Thrush |
 |
| Couch's Kingbird |
 |
| Black-bellied Whistling Duck |
 |
| Record photograph of Anhinga |
To end an already eventful day I went for a drive on 10'th street in McAllen to try my luck with Green Parrots. I did get to see them near Lowe's where they were chased away by Blackbirds. I had 21 lifers for the day.
ebird :
Salineño WP : https://ebird.org/view/
Santa Ana NWR : https://ebird.org/view/
Birds seen during the day :
| Altamira Oriole |
| American Coot |
| Anhinga |
| Ash-throated Flycatcher |
| Baltimore Oriole |
| Bank Swallow |
| Bewick's Wren |
| Black-bellied Whistling-Duck |
| Black-crested Titmouse |
| Black-necked Stilt |
| Blue-gray Gnatcatcher |
| Blue-winged Teal |
| Brown-crested Flycatcher |
| Buff-bellied Hummingbird |
| Bullock's Oriole |
| Carolina Wren |
| Cassin's Sparrow |
| Clay-colored Thrush |
| Common Gallinule |
| Common Ground-Dove |
| Common Nighthawk |
| Couch's Kingbird |
| Curve-billed Thrasher |
| Fulvous Whistling-Duck |
| Golden-fronted Woodpecker |
| Gray Hawk |
| Great Blue Heron |
| Great Egret |
| Great Kiskadee |
| Great-tailed Grackle |
| Green Jay |
| Indigo Bunting |
| Ladder-backed Woodpecker |
| Lark Sparrow |
| Least Grebe |
| Lesser Goldfinch |
| Long-billed Dowitcher |
| Long-billed Thrasher |
| Mottled Duck |
| Mourning Dove |
| Neotropic Cormorant |
| Northern Cardinal |
| Northern Mockingbird |
| Northern Rough-winged Swallow |
| Northern Shoveler |
| Olive Sparrow |
| Plain Chachalaca |
| Red-billed Pigeon |
| Red-winged Blackbird |
| Ringed Kingfisher |
| Tropical/Couch's Kingbird |
| Turkey Vulture |
| White-faced Ibis |
| White-tipped Dove |
| White-winged Dove |
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