TEXAS - 14th February

Caught the free ferry across to Mustang Island from Aransas Pass at first light accompanied by 15+ Bottlenose Dolphins and loads of Cormorants, Pelicans, Laughing Gulls etc. I then drove down to Mustang Island State Park adding a 1^st winter RED-TAILED HAWK to the list.   There was a MARSH WREN by the visitor centre before I explored a creek where birds included a REDDISH EGRET, a couple of Roseate Spoonbills, several ROYAL TERNS with Caspian and Forster’s Terns and a few waders with Willets, Grey Plovers and Long-billed Curlews especially prominent while a Crested Caracara, 2 Peregrines and couple of Northern Harriers including an adult male were over the saltmarsh.

                After a while the increasing heat and mosquitos forced me drive on down the road where I saw a distant FERRUGINOUS HAWK and a couple of female BUFFLEHEADS on a small pool before I had a walk around Packery Channel Country Park where the highlights were a big flock of Royal Terns, 6+ SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHERS amongst other waders including a few Marbled Godwits, 10+ AMERICAN OYSTERCATCHERS, plenty of Willets, a couple of Greater Yellowlegs, Dunlin and Sanderling, a smart flock of 25 HORNED LARKS and big numbers of Forster’s Terns.   It was by now, lunchtime and very warm indeed and the whole area was crawling with fishermen and tourists as it was a Saturday so I left the coast and headed inland.

                On the way I stopped off at a small Country Park just west of Robstown which proved to be very profitable with a range of Sparrows especially prominent with a very smart flock of 20+ LARK SPARROWS the definite highlight in which there was a single SONG SPARROW and good numbers of Savannah and Lincoln’s Sparrows; other birds here included a BROWN CREEPER and a couple of INCA DOVE pairs.

                I then had a couple of hours at Falfurrias Rest Stop – a crazy 100m wide stretch of Oak trees in between the two lanes of a very busy duel carriageway!   It was brilliant though with loads of birds around, the definite highlight being a stunning and confiding PAINTED REDSTART – a very rare vagrant to the States although this one is wintering here for its third year.   Other new birds here included a cracking YELLOW-THROATED WARBLER, at least 6 GREEN JAYS, 4+ GOLDEN-FRONTED WOODPECKERS, a LADDER-BACKED WOODPECKER, several BLACK-CRESTED TITMOUSE (the Mexican race of Tufted Titmouse) and a few AUDUBON’S WARBLERS (the eastern race of Yellow-rumped Warbler with a yellow throat which is quite scarce in Texas).

                Other birds here comprised a Barn Owl flushed from the trees, Collared Dove, a male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Eastern Phoebe, Carolina Wren, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Eastern Bluebird, Orange-crowned Warbler, Lincoln’s Sparrow, Northern Cardinal and House Sparrow.

 

Lincoln's Sparrow

Long-billed Curlew

Reddish Egret

Lark Sparrow

Eastern Bluebird

This Painted Redstart was ace!