Tweets:

I'm just back from a week in Texas. My son-in-law (Matt) and I set out
from Houston last Saturday afternoon, driving straight through to
Kingsville, then pulling off at two or three rest areas on down along
highway 77 until dusk. Although Matt is a native Texan he had never birded
south Texas before, and every time he opened the car door a bunch of lifers
were waiting for him. The most memorable birding event that afternoon was
the numerous MISSISSIPPI KITES migrating north along the coastal plain. We
stayed in Harlingen that night, then up early for several hours at Laguna
Atascosa NWR and 15 or so new species for Matt's life list. Here we found
a good variety of sparrows, among them OLIVE, CASSIN'S, CHIPPING,
CLAY-COLORED, VESPER, LARK, SAVANNAH, LE CONTE'S, and LINCOLN'S. But we
missed the APLOMADO FALCONS that are now being seen there regularly, and
breeding, after a successful release program. Birding slowed down by early
afternoon, so we headed over to Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park near
McAllen, to look for one of the CLAY-COLORED ROBINS that had been there all
winter. No luck, despite a three-hour vigil at the campsite they favored.
Lots more Mississippi Kites migrating overhead, however, along with
SWAINSON'S and BROAD-WINGED HAWKS.

The next morning (Monday) we were back at Bentsen before 7:00, along with
several other birders (hard to miss 'em in that part of the world), and
soon heard a CLAY-COLORED ROBIN singing. It was not hard to find him in
the top branches of a tree in the early morning sunlight. Mission
accomplished. Back in the car, on up the road to Zapata, a left on Ninth
to the park with sign on its entrance gate: "Welcome to Zapata Municipal
Park Home of the WHITE-COLLARED SEEDEATER." And sure enough, in a thicket
behind the small lake in the back of the park, we saw several of these
little birds zipping around, or perching just long enough for a quick look.
Birding is big business in Texas, and Texans are coming to recognize this,
from state, county, and municipal governments, to chambers of commerce, to
landowners, to hotel and restaurant operators. They know what they've got.

For the rest of the day we enjoyed the birding, and the people we
encountered, at several well-known spots along the river below Falcon Dam
(more lifers for Matt, including a GREEN KINGFISHER so close you could have
picked it up and put it in your pocket). That evening we were in McAllen
for the beginning of the weeklong American Birding Association (ABA)
conference and a good talk by Father Tom Pincelli. The next day we went on
one of their field trips to Santa Ana NWR, where we found a good mix of
South Texas specialties and migrants. On the return leg this trip visited
one of the sod farms east toward Brownsville, with some good shorebirds,
including BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER. That evening we skipped dessert at the
ABA dinner to watch RED-CROWNED PARROTS return to a roost site in palms
four blocks from the hotel, and got back in time for the excellent program
by Greg Lasley on Rio Grande Valley rarities.

On Wednesday, Matt and I had booked a day tour at King Ranch, mostly in the
Norias unit. This tour -- limited to eight participants -- was organized
by the ranch itself and guided by Tom Langschied, the resident naturalist.
It was a fantastic day of history, natural history, land management
practice and politics, and of course birding. Given that there are about
350 known breeding pairs of FERRUGINOUS PYGMY-OWLS on the ranch, it was not
difficult to find this species without resorting to invasive means.
Similarly for TROPICAL PARULA and NORTHERN BEARDLESS-TYRANNULET, which
could easily be heard singing in their proper habitats and tracked down for
good looks. What a pleasure to see these species in normal surroundings,
and not just an isolated, harrassed, staked-out bird in a fragment of
habitat with cars whizzing by, or radios blaring in a picnic ground! Our
last stop was over near the Gulf, to visit an oak motte -- an island of
cover for migrant songbirds in open grassland. This is an ideal situation
for birders because the birds have no place to go except to move around
within the motte. We were already running behind schedule because the
birding had been so good, and could only cover one corner of the motte. In
little more than an hour we found over 20 species, as varied as GRAY
CATBIRD, KENTUCKY WARBLER, PHILADELPHIA VIREO, and GRAY-CHEEKED THRUSH.
After that, back to McAllen for me (too late for the ABA program), while
Matt returned to Houston with over 50 lifers in the bag since Saturday.

I stayed on at McAllen for an ABA field trip the next day, back to the
Falcon Dam area. The best birding was between sunrise and 9:30, at an
overlook from a bluff at Chapeo. The birds were waking up, singing and
flying about the riverbank thickets, or perching on treetops, as we watched
the conjunction of Venus, Jupiter, and the moon in the eastern sky. Birds
here included singing CLAY-COLORED ROBINS (the first observation this year
from that site, indicating the possibility of breeding) and most of those
other species that draw birders to the Valley. For this birder, the most
exciting view was of a HOOK-BILLED KITE circling low overhead as kite and
crowd checked one another out. Later, the Falcon Dam overlook produced a
leisurely, eye-level flyby of a ZONE-TAILED HAWK.

JoLynn and I had been to the Valley once before, several years ago in
March, and inevitably we missed some of the tougher birds then. So I went
back there with a wish-list of eight species, and found six of them -- all
but RED-BILLED PIGEON and GROOVE-BILLED ANI, both of which were being seen
here and there by others, but not consistently. I also picked up two
relatively common southeastern species I'd missed before, making a total of
eight lifers for the trip. All eight are among those mentioned above, but
I won't single them out. Matt and I between us saw close to 200 species.

Anyway, this report picks up where Rick Romea's enticing account of his
trip to the Upper Coast leaves off. I saw a lot of Jason Starfire down
there, on ABA trips and just around and about; he received a fellowship
for young birders from the ABA and was really taking advantage of it,
learning his Texas birds and being mentored by long-time ABA leaders. The
day I left, Jason and a couple of other young birders he had teamed up with
were off on a scouting trip, to be followed by a Big Day this weekend. We
can look forward to reading of more Texas birding experiences when he gets
back. From still another quarter of that vast state, Andy and Susan
Stepniewski are at Big Bend right now. Maybe Andy will be willing to treat
us to highlights of the Chihuahuan Desert when they return later in the
week.

Well, that's a lot of free advertising for Texas birding. I hope birders
who visit our area post similar accounts on their local e-mail lists when
they get back home from their trips. Maybe we need to set up a Great
Cascadia Birding Trail of our own. It works.

Hal Opperman
Medina, WA