Birding trip to Big Bend National Park

There were some places that I wanted to cover in Texas for birding. One was High Island which is close enough for me to visit every spring season. The other was to do the birding trip to Rio Grande Valley and the last one being Big Bend National Park. I was lucky to cover both Rio Grande Valley and Big Bend National park in the same year of 2018. 

Atlast planned a camping trip to Big Bend National Park. This was our first camping trip in US. I took my family there just to experience the vastness of the National park. I don't think there is any other park like this one. The national park itself is almost 120,000 acres. It's unbelievably big. A must visit place for anyone in Texas. 

We made all the preparations and drove almost 550 miles. The drive was excellent. We made sure we reached the park by 5AM to make sure we get the camp site. The plan was to camp at Chisos Basin Mountain campground. The recommendation was to reach early to get a campsite. Thankfully we got a very campsite.  We setup the tent, prepared some breakfast and finished all our morning rituals. Right at the campsite I was able to get some lifers. There were Cactus Wrens, Black-crested titmouse and Say's Pheobe. There were lot of Yellow-rumped Warblers around and House Finches too along with a Lone Summer Tanager. Also got to see my first Lark Bunting here. 

Campsite

Black-crested Titmouse

Pine Siskin

Western Tanager

House Finch

Lark Bunting

Black-headed Grosbeak

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Inca Dove

Cactus Wren

By 8PM we were ready and headed towards the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive. We first stopped at the Sam Neil Ranch. I was told that if the windmill works and water is pumping then we will be lucky to see some birds here. I was not disappointed. I saw my first Pyrrhuloxia and Varied Bunting here. The later being the unexpected one. I was planning to see that on the second day but got lucky here. 

Clay-colored Sparrow

Varied Bunting

Pyrrhuloxia

After this we headed towards the Blue Creek Canyon. The heat was too much and we could not walk the trail here since it was very hot and not much cover to walk the Canyon. Here I got to see my first Northern rough-winged Swallow. There were some Black Pheobe on the river bank. The Rio-Grande river had carved out a nice big canyon here. Now the river was more of trickle but looking at the canyon one can wonder how big the river would have been once upon a time. After this we decided to take a break for our lunch. We stopped at one of the viewpoints for the lunch break. 

Inca Dove

Northern Rough-winged Swallow

After this we went to Cottonwood campground. We were told this campground had very good birds around. Initially I wanted to camp here but there were some reports about the bear sightings here. Hence decided to camp at Chisos. The Chisos is busier than Cottonwood campground. This campground was big and there were not many people at the campground. But there was good variety of birds here. I could see lot of Yellow-rumped Warblers, Vermilion Flycatchers and Flycatchers. I got to see my first Gold-fronted Woodpecker here. There was a Ladder-backed Woodpecker here too which was busy catching the bugs. Saw a big group of Black-throated Sparrows. Also saw my first Lucy's Warbler. There were quite a few Clay-colored Sparrows around. There were some Blue Grosbeaks and Painted Buntings too. Saw my first Black-tailed Gnatcher too here. We had a surprise visit from Wild Hogs which was followed by Greater Roadrunner. 

Vermilion Flycatcher

Vermilion Flycatcher(Female)

Black-throated Sparrow

Golden-fronted Woodpecker

Blue-grey Gnatcher

Brown Crested Flycatcher

Ladder-backed Woodpecker

Chipping Sparrow

Painted Bunting

Summer Tanager

Blue Grosbeak

Lucy's Warbler

Ladder-backed Woodpecker(Male)

After a while I heard some commotion and when I checked out I saw there were some birds trying to harass another bird. Immediately I thought about owl. But this bird which was being harassed was very small. I just took couple of pictures before it flew away. It turned out to be Elf Owl which was on my trip wishlist. I was told to keep an eye out for this bird in this campground and I did get lucky with this bird. It was amazing to see the bird.  After this headed back to the campsite before it got dark. It was an amazing start to the trip. 

Elf Owl

Yellow-headed Blackbird

Greater Roadrunner

In the night wanted to take some star trail pictures but because of the weather conditions could not take any. This is the best place to get some star trail pictures since there is no Light pollution here. I have seen some of the best star trail pictures from this National park.

It was an excellent way to wrap up our first day of the trip. Couldn't wait for the next day.

ebird : 

Chisos Basin Campground : https://ebird.org/checklist/S45709078

Cottonwood Campground : https://ebird.org/checklist/S45708112

Sam Neil Ranch : https://ebird.org/checklist/S45709638

Birds seen during the day:

1. American Redstart
2. Ash-throated Flycatcher
3. Black Phoebe
4. Black Vulture
5. Black-crested Titmouse
6. Black-headed Grosbeak
7. Black-tailed Gnatcatcher
8. Black-throated Sparrow
9. Blue Grosbeak
10. Brown-crested Flycatcher
11. Cactus Wren
12. Canyon Towhee
13. Chipping Sparrow
14. Clay-colored Sparrow
15. Collared Dove
16. Common Yellowthroat
17. Couch's Kingbird
18. Elf Owl
19. Golden-fronted Woodpecker
20. Greater Roadrunner
21. House Finch
22. Inca Dove
23. Ladder-backed Woodpecker
24. Lark Bunting
25. Lucy's Warbler
26. Mourning Dove
27. Northern Mockingbird
28. Olive-sided Flycatcher
29. Orchard Oriole
30. Painted Bunting
31. Pyrrhuloxia
32. Red-tailed Hawk
33. Savannah Sparrow
34. Summer Tanager
35. Swainson's Hawk
36. Turkey Vulture
37. Varied Bunting
38. Vermilion Flycatcher
39. Western Wood-Pewee
40. White-winged Dove
41. Wilson's Warbler
42. Yellow Warbler
43. Yellow-breasted Chat
44. Yellow-headed Blackbird
45. Yellow-rumped Warbler (Audubon's)
46. Zone-tailed Hawk