Anzalduas Farewell

On our last morning in Texas, we went to Edinburg Wetlands and Anzalduas Park, which looks right across the Rio Grande to Mexico. There were so many beautiful things at Anzalduas. I was hoping hard for scissor-tailed flycatchers, but we found other things. A kestrel, leaving a wire.

A glorious adult white-tailed hawk. Yum!

That bird in my previous post, heavily marked on belly and underwing, was a subadult.  This adult's immaculate and unlike anything else flying.

Bill spotted a fabulous serpent slithering away from us in the park: a Texas indigo snake!!

Liam and Phoebe wanted to get away from it!

It was about 4.5' long, quite thick, and not very fast.

But highly intelligent and suspicious of my motives. Which were merely to capture its fluid beauty. It refused to cross the pavement while I was following it, even though some riprap and shrubbery on the other side beckoned safety. It knew that it would be unable to travel fast on smooth asphalt, so it stayed in the grass and gravel where it could gain some purchase with its belly scutes. Smart serpent.

But the stars of the show at Anzalduas (at least when the scissortails aren't there) are the vermilion flycatchers. Oh, what a bird. This is a female, I believe.

Check out the back of that crown!!

O perfect and beautiful bird, like a phoebe that got into the makeup trunk.

We waited, and the perfect happened: a young male vermilion flycatcher landed on a painted post. Ahhh. What a lovely Anzalduas farewell.

And so goodbye to the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival, and the wondrous birds of south Texas.

Whistling Ducks, White-tailed Hawks and Kiskadees

There are some truly awesome birds in Texas that, I'm sorry to say, the locals just take for granted. I saw my first black-bellied whistling ducks in the Amazon of Brasil. And flipped out when I saw a wild flock in Titusville, FL two years ago. They are something in flight. And they're all over south Texas, lipstick-pink bills, long legs and all. I love those things.

It was a duckapalooza at Edinburg Wetlands. Even though it was closed when we got there on Monday morning hoping to bird before catching our plane in McAllen. RATS. We birded the fringes with Phoebe and Liam on a rather dull gray windy day and still had a marvelous time. These are, from top, four shovelers, two green-winged teal and a willet.

Another mixed bunch of shoveler and green-winged teal. Look at Mr. Dead Center. He's in full nuptial plumage, with gorgeous buff undertail coverts and a chestnut and viridian head. Delish.

Dig the crazy green of the speculae of these sleeping greenwings (same birds as in top photo). Love it.

Golden-fronted woodpeckers are everywhere too. Closely related to our red-bellieds, they're Melanerpes woodpeckers (which includes the red-headed). This is a really pretty male, with golden nape and a red forecrown beanie.

Another bird that kind of snuck up on us was white-tailed hawk. They were all over the place! They're quite reminiscent of redtails, but for that white tail and the heavily marked belly and underwings. Wing shape is different, too--they're long in the "hand," or outer half of the wing, like a Swainson's hawk is.

Sorry, the light was awful. But the tapered wing is typical.

A gorgeous pair of great kiskadees yelled from a nearby snag.

The left bird shot his crown. Whoa!! Who knew they had a diadem? Many flycatchers do--watch for it on kingbirds and kiskadees. It's a fightin' thing. And the sorta-related kinglets have it too. 

Joy on the Beach

It wasn't a classic beach day. Coolish, with a 35-mph sustained gale, with higher gusts that threatened to tip me over. But it was our only day to go to South Padre Island, TX, and we meant to make the most of it. So the family went in the water, roiling and wicked as it was. 

I'm a Leo. I like to keep my feet on land. So I took photos. 

 Out they waded. 

The sound and scent and feel of the ocean transformed them. My, he's getting leggy and long. A rocket, leaving the earth. Can that be my once-spherical infant Liam?

Pull your knees up, Liam, and catch some sweet air.

Like this!

They've both run the meat off their bones in cross country competitions. They rested for two weeks, and are starting to train for track in spring. Ribs showing. I doubt mine ever will again, but if I stay off the carbs, there's hope.

There was a ferocious undertow so they didn't go far out. And Daddy went with them. I was still pacing and clucking in the shallows. My family's all water signs: left to right a Cancer, a Scorpio and a Pisces, and fiery Leo on the shore, shaking the drops off her paws and roaring into the wind to COME BACK IN DAGGONIT There's a rip tide!! You'll get carried away!!

Which, when they were finally exhausted, they did. Come back in, that is. Bill body-surfed, like a long white shark coasting by.

It felt so good to be on the beach in November! Even if the Texans had sense enough not to be.

Wouldja look at them! Ha ha ha ha hahahahaha

We went behind the Convention Center to scope some snowy plovers and reddish egrets.

And the laughing gulls  flew in one place  like Jesus in the sky.

I especially loved the tail on this subadult bird. A laughing gull is a two-year gull, so this one was born in spring 2012. 

Such fun to finally be all together and birding.

We found some peanuts in the car and offered them to the gulls, who gladly took us up on the unaccustomed protein. Most people feed them Cheetos and similarly craptastic junk.

A willet snuck by...

and, being unafraid to be nipped hard by hungry gulls (it feels like scissors), I got lost in the flock.

You can keep the crashing waves and the undertow; wild birds trusting me to hand them food is my idea of heaven. 

Photo by Bill Thompson III

RGV Birding Festival Hobnobbing

Lest you get the idea that our trip to Harlingen was one big photosafari, well, it was, but we were working too, leading field trips and giving talks. I gave a keynote about The Bluebird Effect, and Laguna Atascosa's nature shop sold out of my books. That was nice.  Very cool perfectly exposed photo by my friend, superphotog Debbie Barnes.

Got to meet some really cool people, too. This is a Zick sandwich made of Charles Alexander and Bill Thompson III. BT3 needs no introduction here, but Charles is a most excellent writer and painter of wildlife. A native Texan, he has a zookeeper background, a smashing accent, a bad case of wanderlust and a sensitive, thoughtful take on the animals he studies and paints. He connects deeply with animals he studies on an individual basis. Needless to say, the message in The Bluebird Effect hit him like a ton of (good, nice) bricks.  It was a big thrill to meet him in person at last. And I liked being the chicken salad in the man sammich. Who wouldn't?

You can see Charles Alexander's amazing work on Facebook where he also posts intriguing writings and historical snippets about animals. He's a voracious reader and deep thinker and I'm thoroughly enjoying getting to know him better. One of those people you wish you'd known for years.

Birdchick had the honor of escorting actress Lili Taylor around the festival area. Little did I know, but the Lili Taylor who pre-ordered The Bluebird Effect in January was THAT Lili Taylor, who I've loved in every film she's graced. Mystic Pizza, Say Anything, High Fidelity, to name just three, not to mention HBO's Six Feet Under. Whoa. She's a birder. And for me, that only adds to her already sky-high coolness quotient. Plus, she and Birdchick make me look...sort of...tall... which is nice for a pygmy Science Chimp who gets towered over by two of the four members of her family. About to be three.

I tried not to geek out too much but Lili was just so cool and delicate and lovely, like a fairy. I would not have been surprised to see a pair of dragonfly wings folded up in back of her shirt. And she came to my talk. Thanks to Amy Hooper for taking these photos. It's nice to connect with someone whose work  you admire.

We met up with our Ohio friends Julie Davis, Kathi Hutton, Margaret Bowman, and Jason Larson on the boardwalk.  What a treat it was to experience these outrageous Texas birds with other similarly gobsmacked Ohioans.

We decided that the little blue heron wasn't much like a reddish egret after all. For one thing, you'd never catch a reddish egret wading through marsh vegetation, seemingly slowly looking for his lost contact lens. Reddish egrets are birds of salt flats, birds of extreme and fancy fast fishing action. And they have wild spiky hairdos.

Ohio has largely escaped the Eurasian collared-dove invasion. I got Ohio's first of state record from our tower. Just too bad our rare records committee needed a photograph instead of Zick sketches and a painting. Not bitter, nope, not at all. That same fall a mourning dove hunter shot one. We've got 'em. And that carcass served to confirm my sighting. 

This Eurasian collared-dove is drinking in typical dove fashion, sucking water rather than dipping and let it trickle down its throat. I had thought this marsh was salt, but it's apparently brackish. Wonder if EUCD's develop salt processing glands in coastal areas? Wonder if they eat collards down south?

I always get a kick out of egrets. They are so decorative, and we have so few of them here at home.

It was blowing a gale, probably 35 mph sustained winds, lifting even the short feathers on his sleek neck.

This is a behavior well known in herons and raptors, aptly called "foot staring." Nobody really knows why they do it; they seem to stare at their feet when in some kind of transition or conflict between behaviors. Should I stay or should I go? Or maybe he has an ingrown toenail. Or is wondering why he doesn't have golden slippers like the snowy egret. Who can say. He's staring at his foot. We all do that from time to time.

We enjoyed watching the least bittern turn from a football to a javelin at the flash of a shiner.

When Phoebe spotted him, Bill took off for the distant part of the boardwalk where the other Ohioans were birding, netting Kathi and Margaret a hugely satisfying look at a life bird!

Wow. That's a lotta neck all scrunched into an S-shape under those long feathers. 

The Life Bird Wiggle, as executed by Jason Larson and Kathi Hutton. Bill demands it and is rarely refused. Kathi cleaned up on this trip. 43 lifers!! I got some life butterflies. Note Phoebs taking five behind the So. Padre Convention Center. Terrific view of marshes and flats there. And of happy Ohioans.

In case you're wondering what my rig looks like, here 'tis. This is the Canon L-series image-stabilized 70-300 telephoto lens.  mounted on a Canon 7D body. The black part is a lens shade, so the lens itself is extremely compact. As you can see the lens barrel fits nicely in my hand. Compact, reasonably light yet nimble and powerful, and death on flying birds, as you've seen. I do love it. So much. It rocks. So hard. I've linked right to Midwest Photo Exchange's page for each component, just to help Santa along. My strap is the Blackrapid RS-W1 sling camera strap, designed for women. One attachment point, with a screw, on the bottom of the camera. Padded and curve-friendly, very comfy. Don't worry, they work for men, too. Worn bandolier style over the far shoulder, so the camera hangs nicely at the hip and swings up for action.  I lurve it. Just check that attachment screw (by the hook at the bottom of the camera below) each time you don the rig. Make sure it's tight and you're good to go. Otherwise your rig might fall into fine loose silty dust on El Costero Ranch and you might let loose a string of very bad words.

photo by Bill Thompson III. Hair by Windy. I don't have a combover, yet.