With Arden and Sherry Hagen my wife and I co-lead a nine day trip which
started on April 7th to the Rio Grande of Texas for the Vancouver Audubon
Chapter. We came up with 203 species including most of the Rio Grande
specialities, along with the BLACK-CAPPED VIREO and GOLDEN-CHEEKED
WARBLER in the San Antonio area. I would highly recommend contacting the
King Ranch about tours on the Norias Unit. Tom Langschied, our guide on
the ranch, led us to several FERRUGINOUS PYGMY OWLS along with so many
TROPICAL PARULAS that we quit stopping to look at them. We totaled 72
species in the Unit in about nine hours of birding. Tom is knowledgeable
and well informed on both the birds and the history of this 825,000 acre
ranch.
Along the Rio Grande the "good" birds were LEAST GREBE, MUSCOVY DUCK,
HOOK-BILLED KITE, APLOMADO FALCON (not countable), RED-CROWNED PARROT,
GREEN PARAKEET, RINGED KINGFISHER, GREEN KINGFISHER, CLAY-COLORED ROBIN,
BROWN JAY, TAMAULIPAS CROW, WHITE-COLLARED SEEDEATER and AUDUBON'S
ORIOLE.
Shortly after bumping into Tyler Davis of Mercer Island at Laguana
Atacosa we had a Jaguarundi cross the roa din front of us on the auto
tour route.
Wilson Cady
Washougal, WA.
gorgebirds at juno.com