WE DID IT ! ! ! ! This is a summary report of Norm & Fran Saunders' 9-day trip to the Lower Rio Grande Valley, November 7-15, 1998. Fran and I stayed in Harlingen, central to almost all of the locations we visited and we were registered participants in the 5th Annual Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival. We can't say enough good things about the Festival and the people behind the Festival, especially Father Tom Pincelli, who took the time to draw map after map and outline strategy after strategy for finding the birds on our target list. Thanks, Father Tom! Target birds for our trip: (27 species, we saw 23) Least Grebe (got it, Santa Ana NWR) * Muscovy Duck (wasn't reported by anyone; we missed it) Hook-billed Kite (got it, Bentsen-Rio Grande State Park) White-tailed Hawk (got it, Santa Ana NWR) * Aplomado Falcon (around at Laguna Atascosa NWR, we missed it) Plain Chachalaca (got it, Santa Ana NWR) * Red-billed Pigeon (around at Saleneno, we missed it) White-tipped Dove (got it, it was everywhere) Red-crowned Parrot (got it, downtown Harlingen) Green Parakeet (got it, downtown San Benito) Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl (got it, King Ranch) * Elf Owl (wasn't reported by anyone, we missed it) Pauraque (got it, King Ranch) Buff-bellied Hummingbird (got it, downtown Harlingen feeder) Ringed Kingfisher (got it, Santa Ana NWR) Golden-fronted Woodpecker (got it, it was everywhere) Great Kiskadee (got it, Santa Ana NWR) Tropical Kingbird (got it, Harlingen Bird Sanctuary) Couch's Kingbird (got it, it was everywhere) Green Jay (got it, it was everywhere) Brown Jay (got it, Chapeno) Mexican Crow (got it, Brownsville Dump) Sedge Wren (got it for Fran, King Ranch) Long-billed Thrasher (got it, Santa Anna NWR) Olive Sparrow (got it, all over the place) Altamira Oriole (got it, Santa Anna NWR) Audubon's Oriole (got it, Chapeno & King Ranch) Unanticipated life birds: (2 more) Sprague's Pipit (got it, King Ranch) Le Conte's Sparrow (got it, King Ranch) Now, before Phil Davis can jump in here, we know that the Aplomado Falcon (the released birds at Laguna Atascosa NWR) and the Green Parakeet are not currently on the ABA list. Nonetheless we wanted badly to see them to round things out a bit. We dipped on the falcon but had a great display put on by a largish flock of the parakeets when they were dive-bombed by a Merlin. Where we birded the past nine days: Downtown Harlingen, various locations Lon C. Hill Park Hugh Ramsey Nature Park Santa Ana NWR Sabal Palm Grove Sanctuary Brownsville Dump Brownsville Zoo South Padre Island Salaneno Chapeno Falcon Dam Spillway Falcon Dam State Park Bentsen-Rio Grande State Park Harlingen Bird Sanctuary King Ranch Laguna Atascosa NWR Our Statistics: Birds for the trip: 177 species Lifers: 25 for Fran, 24 for Norm Major Milestone: Norm & Fran both surpassed 600 species for their N.A. Life List! Fran and I will be working on a more detailed writeup of the trip. If there are specific questions, however, don't hesitate to write us off the list. Glad to be home... Norm =============== Norm Saunders Colesville, MD osprey@ari.net