Today the Groundhog went away and I got a ride to the convention center without incident. Probably because I think I had the same driver as yesterday and he remembered the way. This routine was putting me in a foul mood for awhile there, leaving me feeling like this:
Today’s field trip was the Big Day van, a Big Day within a Big Year, I wonder if this has ever been done before. I didn’t know what to expect or where we would go. First stop was Estero Llano Grande State Park, where Yellow-throated Warbler has been seen, but we didn’t see one, while other groups there did. We got a good close look at one of my favorite birds of this area – Common Pauraque, day roosting on the ground.
From there we headed to the coast, with a stop at the Zapata Boat Ramp like yesterday. Again, the birders already there told us that American Oystercatcher was there but just flew off. But after a careful scan we relocated two of them resting on a mud flat (548). That’s nine for the trip, I just need one more to reach my goal of ten for the trip. A small patch of mangrove adjacent to the parking lot housed a Clapper Rail. One birder said he just heard it but I didn’t get anything. While my teammates scanned the bay, I kept focused on the mangrove. But nothing, no sight, no sound. Time to go. As the van pulled out, a quiet voice from a young lady in the back called out: “Clapper Rail.” We screeched to a stop, backed up, and looked. I saw some legs, or a shadow, or a blur move past the base of a small bush, that’s the bird, but as I got my binoculars up, it vanished the way rails do. How close! It slipped right through my fingers! I felt like Bill Buckner.
We finished up at South Padre Island where we thought we had a perched Brown Booby with its head tucked in but careful scrutiny confirmed it was a young pelican. No rails could be found on the boardwalk, no new warblers were in the trees, so I ended the day with nine new species for the trip. Our team tallied more than 160 species but not enough for even honorable mention. I don’t fly out tomorrow until noon, so early in the morning I will take one more look around the neighborhood for Green Parakeet and Yellow-throated Warbler. Even without one, I’m declaring the trip a success, I had a great time, and I can’t wait for my next trip to “the valley.”
robsbigyear2019.com 