The Secret of my (our) Success (Great Texas Birding Classic) - Part I (long)
Miliff@aol.com
Mon, 1 Jun 1998 20:51:32 EDT
Hello Ospreyers,
As promised in my prevous email...this is my long trip report for the
Texas Classic. Delete or read as you see fit...it is LONG, but details the
ups and downs of our triple header (almost) Big Days in Texas this past April.
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In case any of you aren't familiar with the event, the Texas Birding
Classic, is a week-long event sponsored by Texas Parks and Wildlife in
cooperation with a number of other state agencies, and is something akin to
New Jersey's World Series of Birding. Teams compete on one, two, or all three
competition days (24 hour Big Days) which are separated by a day to rest and
recuperate (or drive and scout, as in our case). This year the first day
(Apr. 27) was in the Lower Valley (San Ygnacio to the coast, north to
Kingsville), the second day (Apr. 29) was on the mid-Coast (roughly Kingsville
to Freeport, and up to 150 mi inland), while the on last day (May 1) birders
were limited to the coastal area from Freeport to the LA border, and including
Houston and sites inland up to about 150 mi). The Grand Prize is awarded to
the team which has the highest cumulative list for those three competition
days. Best of all, like the World Series, it raises tens of thousands of
dollars for conservation and the Grand Prize winners have the honor of
allocating $50,000 to the conservation project of their choice.
Strategy for the Classic was unusual, since the single day lists are
unimportant and all that matters is the cumulative total. Thus, the routes
necessarily change if essential species are found earlier than expected and
bonus time (something unheard of on a typical Big Day) may rear its rarely-
encountered head. I
arrived down a week early and scouted the Upper Coast region, which hosts a
number of species (mostly eastern breeders like Brown-headed Nuthatch, Pine
Warbler, Praire Warbler, Bachman's Sparrow, Boat-tailed Grackle, Red-cockaded
Woodpecker etc... ) which cannot be found elsewhere. I scouted every day
from dawn to dusk, and spent most of the nights logged onto email strategizing
with teammates and bugging local Texans for tips on whatever species had
eluded me. The scouting week was phenomenal, with good migrant flights at
High
Island and nearby on most days, and spectacular concentrations of roosting
gulls, terns, shorebirds, etc...on Bolivar Flats. I truly fell in love with
Bolivar Flats, on a high tide at dusk, the sheer volume and diversity of birds
there is mind-boggling.
The scouting effort was entirely paid for by our sponsor, Wild Bird magazine
(our team name was the Wildbirders), which was all the nicer. Among many
highlights during that scouting week were: 9 species of
gulls at Bolivar Flats and nearby, including Iceland, Glaucous, Lesser-black-
backed and Thayer's - all Texas Review species; 3 loon species (Common, Red-
throated, and Pacific) at once; a minor fallout at Sabine Woods with 25+
warbler species, including 100+ Hooded Warblers, along with many other
colorful migrants such as Scarlet Tanagers and Baltimore Orioles; up to 20
Swainson's Warblers in a morning in the Big Thicket; getting a tip on Red-
cockaded Woodpecker and observing 6 birds around their nest holes for an hour
one morning, while other target species Wood Duck, Brown-headed Nuthatch,
Bachman's Sparrow, Pine Warbler, American Kestrel and Pileated Woodpecker
sound off around me.
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I met teammate #1, Ned Brinkley (VA professor and naturalist who some
of you may know from his help on Brian Patteson's pelagic trips) in Houston on
the 24th, and we scouted the Central Coast section over the next two days.
(where
scouting is least important and fewer specialties occur). We met our team
captain, Andy Farnsworth, VENT leader and birder extraordinaire (who I first
met as a 13 year old at a VENT camp in Arizona), on Sunday, Apr. 28, in
Harlingen where we made our plans for the first time over a bottomless salad
at The Olive Garden. Andy had been scouting the Valley over the past week
(though interrupted by a few mishaps, including a broken sunroof) so we
drafted
a route based mainly on his successes and failures, but to a lesser extent
based on the little scouting that Ned and I had done that morning (we found
Botteri's Sparrow, Red-crowned Parrot, and Tropical Kingbird, all of which
Andy had missed). Finally,
after a little shopping and some logistical things to clear up, a little bit
of last minute scouting (no Black Rails :-(), we checked into a hotel room at
10:30 p.m. for 1 hour's rest before heading to Bentsen for our nocturnal work.
[A quick note on the car: Andy's Subaru outback has to be one of the best
birding vehicles available: Four doors (key feature for easy in and out of
car), all wheel drive (obviously necessary), decent pickup and excellent
cornering (which we put to the test at least once), and, best of all - TWO
sunroofs (anyone who has done a big day knows how great the sunroof is for
birding from the car)]
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April 27, 12:01 a.m. - A Paraque calling at Bentsen is our first bird,
followed closely by Eastern Screech Owl and Elf Owl. A Bobcat sleeked across
the road fast enough to leave at least one of us (me) wondering (hopefully) if
it
wasn't an Ocelot. After a little effort, we heard a distant Great Horned
Owl. A few other birds sounded off (i.e. YB Cuckoo, Olive Sparrow) but the
wind
was very strong and little nocturnal migration was taking place. With those
essential four nightbirds, we struck out westward where we hoped to pick up
Barn Owl, Lesser Nighthawk, and, with luck, a Poorwill (which we had no
location for). Lesser Nighthawk came easily at Salineno, and the sound of a
distant Poorwill was a shocker and certainly a good omen for us all. At that
point
it was 2:30 a.m. and we were fresh out of ideas for how to spend the 4 hours
until daybreak. After a bit of aimless driving (hoping more for rare mammals
than any new birds, though we still needed Barn Owl) we finally surrendered
and got a bit of shuteye. We woke as the first birds started to chip, did a
quick loop in the Falcon Dam Trailer loop and then bolted for Zapata where we
hoped to catch the White-collared Seedeaters as they woke up. Imagine our
despair (afer the costly 50 minute round trip drive during dawn chorus) when
we found, instead of the seedeaters, three bulldozers rampaging the lot RIGHT
NEXT to the shrubby area favored by the seedeaters. Needless to say, our
elation at having swept the night birds was dampened somewhat. Constant
attention to the skies, wires, and roadsides gave quick remedy to our morale
as we picked up some key species on the return trip, and a quick loop through
Falcon (again) netted essentials such as Western
Kingbird, Cassin's Sparrow, Ash-throated Flycatcher, and Black-throated
Sparrow. We really caught up once we reached the Dam spillway, where Muscovy,
both kingfishers, and stakeout Yellow-headed Blackbird and Black Phoebe (only
our team knew of this bird, though it was easily visible from the Dam where
all teams must have gone) came easily. Brown Jays were at Chapena, and
Salineno
saved a miss on Audubon's Oriole. We tried Santa Margarita ranch as Red-
billed Pigeon, a stakeout Surf Scoter, and Hook-billed Kite were creeping
towards the miss category, and our last ditch effort didn't help with those
species. Almost an hour behind schedule, we hauled eastward to
Bentsen enjoying a massive raptor flight from the sunroof as we went. Among
the several thousand Turkey Vultures were hundreds of Swainson's and Broad-
winged hawks, a Harrier, a few Sharpies, a couple Red-tails, kestrels, and
several Peregrines. At Bentsen, we picked up Cooper's Hawk, Tyrannulet,
Mississippi Kite, and, the best of the day, an immature dark morph Short-
tailed Hawk. Texas has only a small handful of accepted records of this bird.
Trying to make up lost time, we virtually flew to Anzalduas Park, where the
Tropical Parula sang as if on cue when we arrived (though the Red-breasted
Nuthatch there the day before stayed quiet). Another speedy trip from there
to Santa Ana, where we decided we would have to RUN if we hoped to include
the essential Cinnamon Teal in our
list, and still make the Brownsville Dump by closing time. A bit out of
breath
but with Cinnamon Teal (and a few others) we hopped back in the car ahead of
schedule for the first time since those blasted bulldozers. A Vesper Sparrow
along the road on the way (which I missed) turned out to be essential. No
crows at the dump, so with Horned Lark and a nice dark adult Harlan's Hawk, we
rolled on to the Sabal Palm Grove. We did a quick check at the Tamaulipas
Crow nest site (though no birds had been there the day before) and were
shocked to see a bird sitting on the nest! The Palm Grove had a good number
of migrants, as well as Groove-billed Ani. No Yellow-green Vireo though. We
missed the Brownsville Tropical Kingbird that Ned and I had seen the day
before, but got Green Parakeet easily. A trip out to our Botteri's Sparrow
location had no Botteri's in the late afternoon heat and wind, but was a
smashing success nonetheless: bonus birds
included King Rail and Northern Pintail, and Swamp Sparrow and Sedge Wren
were good to get out of the way. At that point we were at a crux - should we
go north for a stakeout Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl or try South Padre Island which
has some great migrant spots? The owl was a major time sacrifice, but South
Padre could be a bust or could be good, but might still produce nothing we
wouldn't get
on the other two days. Resisting the glamour bird, we chose South Padre and
were rewarded with a mini-fallout that contained a number of essential birds
(a lateish Ruby-crowned Kinglet among them). Certainly our best move of the
day. Efforts after dark to improve our list
failed miserably as the wind (which had been calm since dawn) picked up and
tired bodies tried to continue the effort despite severe sleep deprivation. We
packed it in even before midnight.
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The next morning we got a late start, but split into two teams (me and Andy
as
team #1, and Ned as team #2). By now, some discussions with other teams made
it obvious that there were three main contenders out there for the first
prize. We, of course, were one. The Mac Attack (arguably the best team name
in the Classic - Tony Leukering (CO), Brandon Percival (CO), Jim Dowdell (NJ),
and Brian Gibbons (TX) from Colorado Bird Observatory, whose emblem/mascot is
MacGillivray's Warbler (hence the great pun)) were also front runners. And,
of course, the returning champion team, sponsored by Compaq computers and
composed of top birders Giff Beaton (GA), Roger Breedlove (LA), Ron Weeks
(TX), and Dwight Peake (VA/TX). The year prior they had had 298 over the
three days, leaving all other teams in the dust by at least 30 species. They
were the Big Bad Wolf we feared most - we knew we had more scouting time than
The Mac Attackers, and were fairly confident it would pay off in the end. The
Compaq team was ultra competitive, and refused to give out ANY info to us
newcomers, which can't be held against them at all - no reason they should
give out all their hard earned secrets. I did run into Roger Breedlove while
looking for Red-cockaded Woodpecker early on and he steered me towards a nest,
under penalty of death or worse if I spilled it to anyone else. Apparently it
is the only nest in the area that is accessible. Sort of ironic that our one
tip came from Roger, considering...well, read on.
Our scouting that day did not solve much of our trouble with nailing
down a good Central Coast route. Only a couple birds were most easily found
on the Central Coast, and the only species really unique to that section
(Whooping Crane and Greater Prairie-Chicken) were out of the question - the
cranes had migrated and the last of the chickens had been taken into captivity
just weeks prior. We did find some good migrant spots and centered our route
around those. Otherwise, we decided to try to clean up as much stuff as we
could, and had a few target stakeouts (ducks, Black-chinned Hummer, White-
crowned Sparrow). We went out for Japanese the night prior - one of the "cook
on the table" places that I loved so much as a kid (and still do) where the
cook is more a comedian than a chef, and spends all his time cracking jokes,
juggling, and throwing food (we took it as a good omen that all three of us
caught the shrimp in our mouths that he flipped to us). A token three hours
of sleep then some cleanup night work...the figure 8 route we had decided upon
was more like a Formula 1 racetrack than a big day route, but we thought it
would serve us best to net the species we needed.
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April 29, 4:00 a.m. - A Chuck-will's-widow perching on wires in Bluchard Park
in downtown Corpus Christi was the first new bird of the day. A fair
migration was underway and Dickcissels and thrushes were passing overhead. We
circled north out of Corpus and caught the ferry over to Mustang Island. A
small marsh and observation tower there had held two rails and Least Bittern
12 hours prior, and Sora and Virginia Rail were easily agitated in the
relatively still night. Though we were only after birds new for the
cumulative list, we kept track of everything for the day list, and the Upland
Sandpiper that whit-whitted overhead was a nice little bonus. The remainder
of the night was spent wandering about trying for Whip-poor-will or Barn Owl,
but as dawn started to break, we pushed the pedal down and returned to
Bluchard Park for dawn chorus. A good number of migrants were in there. The
park has a number of scrubby little trees, an overgrown stream area, and some
big mulberries in the center of the park which lure the grosbeaks and tanagers
in like a backyard feeder does the cardinals. Rose-breasted Gros, Scarlet
Tanager, Northern Waterthrush, Acadian Flycatcher, and several other migrants
we had missed on South Padre Island fell into line easily. Gray-cheeked
Thrush was good to get out of the way early (and was a potential nocturnal
migrant, and one we could (theoretically) trade in for a little more sleep
down the line!). House Wren was a complete bonus - they are only migrants on
that section of coast and most had passed through long since. A Black-chinned
Hummingbird on the nest (with a male nearby to simplify the ID) was essential.
Though we already had the bird, the Chuck-will's-widows in that park are
possibly its greatest attribute. Invariably, in an hour there, one would
flush several out of the thickets and trees, and at dawn and dusk many would
fly around and around looking for a roosting spot. I had never seen the
species in the daylight before, and here were 10 or so flying around and
flushing at my feet! Never mind, a big day was on. Though we couldn't
solicit information from other birders, the Mourning Warbler that another had
found and blurted out to us before we could stop him was fair game. We looked
for a good 15 minutes, but never found it. Our next stop was a little
shorebird marsh where we cleaned up most of our shorebird misses, and found
our stakeout Long-billed Curlew (though we missed the stakeout Hudsonian
Godwit - a spectacular bird in breeding plumage!). Then we crossed back over
to Mustang Island for the second time that ay, and hit a few good migrant
spots there. We cleaned up a few misses, and found the Canada Warler that we
needed so badly. Following the Canada was the most serendipitous hour of the
day. We took a small road down through the bayshore shrubbery hoping to clean
up a few missing migrants. While driving Andy and I picked up a flyby
warbler, glassed it through the windshiled, turned to each other as we jumped
out of the car and said "That looked like a Nashville" (one we needed). I
stayed on it and watched it drop into a shrub, that we charged for regardless
of what pit vipers might be laying in the beach grass (Western Diamondback is
reputedly common there) and with abundant spishing and other noisemaking,
lured the Nashville into view. We hopped back in the car, and zoomed on to
the spot where a Traill's Flycatcher had popped up the previous day. No
flycatcher there, but House Wren and Yellow-headed Blackbird were surprises
(though neither was new). Better, and more shocking, was a Snipe that flushed
from a wet area. Not a bird we counted on, it raised our spirits and we
charged ahead hoping now for an American Bittern (we had spotted a Least
Bittern an hour earlier just before the ferry crossing). Next, a Merlin,
another surprise and one of few raptors we still needed buzzed by. More
elated and with even less regard for rattlers, we charged on, circled round a
row of bushes, and startled a snake! It darted away and its pale gray body
and rattleless tail indicated a Coachwhip but reminded us to use a little more
caution. After I darted over to look at the snake, a sparrow flushed and Andy
and I again turned to each other, this time saying "that looked like a Le
Conte's"!! A hot pursuit and two more flushings convinced all three of us,
and the bird gave good looks (though in flight only) as it hovered away and
settled in again. Quite a distinctive sparrow in flight. Not believing our
good luck, we completed the circuit, momentarily sidetracked by a twitch in
the bushes,. I charged over, followed by the other two. No bird revealed
itself, but on returning out Ned froze in his tracks, and shouted some vulgar
expletive. Though we had each used similar language to express our surprise
at the snipe, Merlin, and sparrow, something in Ned's tone was different.
Stepping carefully, I made my way over and followed his startled expression to
a 3.5 foot Western Diamondback Rattlesnake coiled in his path. We must have
passed within scant feet of the reptile on our way in. We stepped slowly and
carefully back out to the road and headed back out. As we hit the pavement
again a bird flushed next to us and we cried almost in unison.....CUCKOO!!
..Bl...Bl...BLACK- BILLED!!! Four complete bonus birds since the Canada
Warbler, and a few others that we entirely missable e.g. Nashville Warbler).
A quick seawatch was a bust, save for a Red Knot. We moved on to another
migrant spot, Packery Channel, but only Wood Thrush was new there, and we had
to do some elaborate evasive maneuvers to ditch a camera crew that was filming
the event. Fortunately, we were able to lead the cameraman past the more
photogenic youth team, the Texas Audubon Thrashers. After losing them, we
returned for the THIRD time to Bluchard Park and cleaned up a few misses (in
the company of about 6 other teams this time) including Traill's Flycatcher.
After the second loop was completed, we hit Rockport where Ned and I had
scouted out some diving ducks - and we quickly nailed Redhead, both scaup,
Canvasback, and Common Loon. It was now close to 1:00, and we had few more
key species to try for. Our plan was to go on a wild goose chase for two
birds. We had a rumor of a Common Goldeneye 1.5 hours to the north (but had
not had time tov scout it out) and had made arrangements in Victoria to visit
a feeder that held a lingering White-crowned Sparrow. The Goldeneye was a
complete bust, and cost 2.5 hours of time (that we didn't know what to do with
anyhow). The sparrow however was one of our favorite moments of the event.
We had been in touch with the woman in advance and had made arrangements to
visit and see her bird. We had instructed her in advance to not even mention
if the bird was around - even though it would have been incredibly costly to
make the 3 hour round trip if the bird was not there, the rules prohibited
soliciting info from others under any circumstances. We called from the road
(Andy had a cellphone - essential piece of equipment!) and she dutifully kept
her mouth shut. When we arrived at her house, we were welcomed inside and
positioned by the window nearest the feeder. After five minutes of small
talk, a short callnote revealed the bird's presence atop a brushpile.
Instantly she and her husband burst out with a gasp of relief. Apparently the
bird had been there just minutes before we arrived and they were scared silly
it wouldn't show up for us. But, sworn to silence, they were having a
terrible time not spilling the beans! The couple was so friendly and
hospitable that they wouldn't let us out the door without two bagfulls of
homemade cookies - costing us a few minutes of Big Day time, but the most
worthwhile sacrifice of all - the cookies were excellent. We still had a
couple hours of daylight left and elected to drive backroads near Aransas for
Wild Turkey. We had no turkeys, but as we drove along, I spotted a strange
looking flycatcher atop a willow, that seemed to have a strange patch of
misarranged feathers on its back. Either it was a Kingbird with strange
plumage or...OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER. Total bonus! We got a few other cleanup
species (Solitary Sand, Myrtle Warbler) in Aransas that were essential, but
the Javelina (Peccary - life mammal) that crossed the road caused the most
excitement by far. We stationed ourselves, alone, at the top of the Aransas
Tower for any dusk flight. Our only new bird was a White Pelican that Ned
found roosting many miles off, a mere white speck in the fading light, but
amazingly the only one we would see (up to several hundred had been around the
Upper Coast earlier). Thinking only of sleep on the way out, we were as
startled by the Whip-poor-will (another complete bonus that we had long since
written off) as it was by us. A spectacular end to a very fortuitous day. A
couple Barn Owl stops were unsuccessful and relegated that species to our
final night effort, May 1.
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Up early and still 6 hours short of a good night's sleep, I drove the six
hours north to the Upper Texas Coast's Pineywoods region to perfect our dawn
route and try to find a few additional species (Worm-eating Warbler, Hairy
Woodpecker, Eastern Towhee, Yellow-shafted Flicker). We ended up renting
another car to maximize scouting (and so that one of us could drop off the
"official list" at an "official drop off location", a weird quirk of the rules
of the event). Our scouting went well, though we only found a few of our
targets. We met up at the Holiday Inn where the event was to finish, got some
dinner, planned our final Big Day and headed out to Anahuac where we hoped to
be as the clock turned.
continued in Part 2