After a lovely evening and morning walk at Balmorrhea State Park we completed our drive to El Paso on Wednesday. On our last day of driving, I-20 we reached an elevation of 4,400 feet and passed well below the surrounding mountain ranges. West Texas is a place of big land as well as big sky where a landmark may become visible ten or more miles away. Tree yuccas are appearing among the sagebrush. Beautiful, cool weather.

Our bird walk this morning yielded birds behaving tamely around the spring and its precious water. A sharp shinned hawk discouraged the song birds but belted king fishers chattered, a snowy egret fished, and scaup ducks and pied billed grebes remained within the spring pool giving us superb close up views. Both eastern and Say’s phoebes chased flies and (Audubon’s) yellow-rumped warblers fluttered after gnats.

Once again we are enjoying the western birds. No new “life” birds yet this year, but the year’s list already includes 151 species. Last year was a banner year for us with a total of 365 official (and one unofficial) species. Our circle through California, Alaska, and back East this year gives us a good chance of breaking that record this year.

Although we bird seriously, we are not truly into numbers. A serious “big year” today means finding many more than 600 species in the American Birding Association (ABA) Area, that is North America north of Mexico. Those who accomplish this must be in the right place at the right time all year. Texas and Labrador in winter and again in spring, Florida in April, Alaska and south Texas in May, and at sea from both coasts whenever possible. Most important, big year birders must run after exotic “vagrants” whenever and wherever they appear. A serious contender must see essentially all birds that breed, migrate across, or winter in North America, the sea birds that reside well off shore, and those exotic birds that for whatever reason appear within the boundary. We are not working that hard.

Instead we drift across new landscapes and attempt to gracefully harvest birds that are there when we are. At the end of last winter we toured south Texas and found most of the wintering birds. We did not stay long enough (or return) to observe the arrival of Botteri’s sparrows. We also left Big Bend Park when it got too hot (and a week before the arrival of Colima warblers.)

This year we will tour southern Arizona in February and early March and miss all of its summer specialties. Instead, late spring and early summer will find us in Alaska chasing its spring species. Many of these will be new or “life” species for us. Among our “target birds there are arctic loon, crested auklet, bluethroat, and great gray owl. Some will be easy to find. Others will require considerable skill and luck to locate, spot, and identify. There will always be some that get away. These fine birds will provide an excuse to come back.

February 12, 2007

On Friday we explored the valley east of El Paso. First we drove and walked along a dirt road in the desert in an unsuccessful search for sage sparrows. Then we visited the McNary reservoir. This oasis provided an assortment of ducks and even a few Harris’s hawks. Finally we drove back on Texas route 10 through cotton fields and pecan orchards. The day yielded perhaps a half a dozen year birds.

Chuck first heard and then later spotted a pair of Crissal thrashers along the levee road. This was a new bird for Anne. The scope was brought out and she picked out the key field marks. Only then after walking down to the draw did we realize that the river ran through it and she did not see the bird in Texas but in Mexico. A good bird certainly, but it doesn’t yet make her “ABA Area List.”

What constitutes a good day of birding? Many birds, unusual birds, or simply great views of wild birds being wild. We visited the Rio Bosque reserve on Saturday and Sunday. This wetlands park is about a one mile wide by two miles long section of Rio Grande River floodplain east of the City of Brownsville. The land is between a now abandoned old sewage treatment plant and the new plant. Unreserved effluent is diverted into a channel that creates a stream that passes through a couple of storage lagoons that make up about a quarter of the property. The remainder is in prairie, scrub, and “bosque” woods. In February the parcel is largely shades of gray, yellow, and brown. Not exactly lovely scenery, but blessed with trees and water, it becomes a haven for birds.

We visited first late on Saturday morning. Mystified by both the landscape and the trail system, we wandered a bit aimlessly at first. We reached the park by following a wide and bumpy road across an industrial park to an effluent canal. Crossing the bridge we turned immediately left ahead of the treatment plant entry gate and onto a rough gravel road. We first noticed numerous doves and then a Gambel’s quail cock sitting on a bare bush. This fine gray bird has a chestnut cap topped by an arching black plume. Shortly thereafter we saw a large, glossy chocolate, black hawk on a wire. It flew revealing a maroon tail. It was a dark phase western red-tailed hawk. We had never seen such a dark red-tail. We nicknamed it, black beauty, and saw it on each of our three visits. We then passed several pair of so-called “Mexican” mallards. These resemble typical female mallards but are darker with plain bills. The males never develop the brilliant winter plumage characteristic of northern mallards, but are handsome in their own way.

Finally parking, we walked the shortest “paved” gravel loop trail. This revealed a few birds but nothing exciting until two Ammodramus sparrows appeared. This genus includes six species of small flat headed sparrows that enjoy hiding in grasses. They are inclined to jump up when disturbed, fly weakly some few tens of feet, and then plunge back into the grass. They are all similar, but have distinctive features revealed only by close inspection. Inspection that is impossible in the few seconds of rapid motion between clumps of grass. This makes them wonderful for the sport of advanced birding.

So we stopped our advance, set up our fine spotting scope and began hunting sparrows. Three non-Ammodramous species, white-crowned, Lincoln’s, and savannah, appeared and were easily identified through the scope. An Ammodramous appeared and then flew away without leaving his name. Finally, another mounted a small willow and peered out at us through its twigs. We peered back at 60 power magnification. Upon quick inspection it appeared to be a Baird’s sparrow. This somewhat mottled yellowish sparrow with a fine necklace of streaks is handsome and somewhat distinctive, but also similar to a couple of other species. It is an uncommon bird, and more important it is a bird that we once heard on the Canadian prairie, but had never before seen.

This created a problem. With some birds, for example a flamingo, one has little doubt when one has seen it. In the case of a Baird’s sparrow, there is the terrible possibility that it is really something else. And so we tried to turn it into something else. We tried to turn it into a savannah sparrow, a seaside sharp-tailed sparrow, and a LeConte’s sparrow. But we couldn’t do it. The cooperative bird stayed visible in the bush and gave us views of its face, breast, and back. Everything checked out and we agreed that it was a Baird’s. We even checked references when we got back to the motor home. These only strengthened the identification. Eureka! Another life bird.

We departed the park for lunch and an afternoon of shopping and checking of e-mails. We returned at four o’clock to continue a bird walk that had been cut short by sparrows. There were reports of ducks to be seen in the lagoons, but we had never reached them. Now the bosque trees were swarming with crows and ravens that would roost there. They fussed over a few raptors, harriers, Coopers, and red-tails, that were sharing their space. They made a marvelous cacophony.

A border patrol Blazer dragged tires along the levee road. This allows the officers to look for foot prints, we supposed. We lost ourselves on the trails and found only a few ducks before sunset. With dusk short at this time of year we left the Rio Bosque for home.

We returned just after dawn. On turning after the bridge we saw a grand, large gray bird bathing in the canal. A glance through binoculars showed it to be an adult peregrine falcon. It made a few hops and then flew with speed to a pole and eyed our passage. Any day that you see a peregrine is a great birding day. This time we made a complete circuit of the park and found hundreds of ducks including some twelve species. A few were firsts for this year, none were life birds for us, but all were in brilliant winter plumage. Redheads, shovellers, and green-winged teal lit up in dazzling colors. We left enriched even though we missed finding a Eurasian wigeon that had been reported. We will always remember the Rio Bosque.

Today, Monday, we toured the Franklin Mountains. The forecast was for windy weather, and it was. This kept down the birds, but the scenery was fantastic. We made a four mile round trip walk to a grove of cottonwoods. The trail was a bed of cobbles created by a record rain in August. Except for a few juncos, towhees, and Brewer’s sparrows, we saw nothing until near the end. Chuck stopped to water the desert and Anne kept on. When finishing, Chuck heard a soft “whee.” He brought up his glasses and a small bird flew up behind the pad of a prickly pear. He waited. The bird would probably disappear. Instead it flew forward a few feet and landed in in a bare shrub. A quick study revealed it to be a black-chinned sparrow, a life bird for him. He looked for Anne, but she had disappeared over a rise. The bird flew up and disappeared down a gorge. Chuck checked the field guide carefully. He concluded that he had indeed seen this species. Now Anne was returning. She turned when he didn’t follow. Seeing him with the book she continued back in earnest. He said, “you don’t want to know what I just saw.”

“Yes I do.”

He said we might turn it up again if we go down the draw. So we zigzagged through the cactus and then climbed to a platform of red rock and surveyed the canyon. Suddenly the kind bird flew up and perched in a bush and stayed for a few minutes. We savored views of this bird that looks like a cross between a sparrow and a junco with a streaky brown back and wings on a slate gray finch with an orangey bill. Finally it flew off and we returned to the car elated with our second life bird for this expedition.

We ended the day with a drive across the Scenic Drive of El Paso at sunset. A stop at the lookout gave a splendid view of the towns of El Paso, Texas and Juarez, Chihuahua at dusk. The daylight gave way to brilliant streetlight as we drove home for dinner and rest.

Tuesday, birthday morning, we returned to the McNary Reservoir at dawn to catch a Ross’s goose before rising. In fact the flock of some two hundred snow (and Ross) geese were flying off the lake as we arrived. They settled gracefully onto the adjacent pasture to begin grazing among the cattle and we set up our scope. In a couple of minutes Chuck announced that there were Ross geese among the snows. Anne took a minute to decide that she too had seen the “mini-me” snow goose and then we celebrated another life bird, this one on Chuck’s birthday.

A Crissal thrasher appeared again to us this morning, this time definitely on the Texas side. A good birding day. After the morning we stopped at the library to check e-mails, laundered our clothes, and then dined at the Cattleman’s Restaurant in the desert. A Birthday treat.

We leave El Paso tomorrow and this blog gets longer. Until we find an e-mail connection for this computer, we can’t post it.