LA Birding

Stork Nest

new favorite site:
Live Stork Cam
if you have real player, watch the "live video" rather than web cam - if you're feeling stressed, sit back turn the volume up and watch the baby storks play with each other.

Not so Pharr Pharr Away

There's been a lot of waiting around this past weekend. It started with a last minute impulsive internet ticket purchase on Friday morning for a flight that evening to Houston where I would meet a friend at 2am and drive through the night to Pharr in the Rio Grande Valley for a first for USA Black-headed Nightingale Thrush (see photos) . The bird had been discovered 2 weeks ago in a backyard. What's remarkable about this yard is that it is also hosting a Blue Mockingbird (less than 5 US records) (see photos) and has also hosted other megas such as Slate-throated Redstart.

What's perhaps even more remarkable are the owners (the Williams) who not only tolerate the constant stream of birders but even welcome them providing lawn chairs and free bottles of water for the weary (sometimes it is hard work relaxing on the recliners whilst watching Kiskadees come to the bird bath a few feet away :) Never has there been such a pampered set of birders waiting for a US first. Remember that next time you can't feel your toes as you stand in a drenched Gambell boneyard.

Birders waiting for the Black-headed Nightingale Thrush. As you can see, conditions were quite tough:

The Williams bought the property when it consisted of a few trees and a dried out lawn and through a lot of hard work turned it in to a wild birding oasis. Even if there were no vagrants, you could still spend a very pleasant few hours enjoying the Kiskadees, thrashers, Golden-fronted Woodpeckers , Black-bellied Whistling Ducks, Clay-colored Robin and Plain Chachalacas and much more feeding on the fruit and visiting the drip every few minutes. Photo ops are very good. There is a donation box at the front for $10 and it's worth every penny. I hope all who come give generously and tip too.

Anyway, after a flight that was delayed by 45mins and then a 6 hour drive, we arrive at 8am only to find the bird was last seen at 7:15am. If only my flight wasn't 45mins late! At least the bird was still around and so we felt confident it would pay one of its regular visits within then next 2 hours...14 hours later and not a sign! Boredom and a sense of failure was setting in. Even the team captain John Odgers who has been great at updating Texbirds every day on the thrush's movements and was making encouraging noises about it making an appearance any moment had a sense of resignation on his face. He looked like Phil Jackson waiting for the inevitable final whistle in the Lakers/Pistons final. Still, on paper, it was a great day on the chairs with Blue Mockingbird making regular appearances along with White-eyed Vireo and Great Kiskadees. We went to bed that night mentally preparing ourselves that perhaps the thrush had moved on.

Sunday at 5:30am, we were back on site, trying to find our seats in the dark. We only had a few hours before the drive back to Houston so if this bird was going to show, it had to be soon. Almost immediately, we heard a tantalising vireo-like song from the thicket next to us. After a short while it stopped, its identity unresolved. 8am saw us napping and still no sign of said thrush. By this point, I had resigned myself to failure and a long drive back and at least wanted to be awake for the drive. Suddenly, the vireo-like songster started up again and immediately woke us. We jumped up and joined some birders by the fence who were watching the thrush. What a relief and what a great bird. We watched it for almost an hour singing and feeding on the thickets on both sides of the bird bath. An attractive thrush with orange orbitals and bright legs and bill.

Now back to Houston but on the way a stop off to see some Aplomado Falcons by the side of the highway. Heat haze was pretty bad so photos even poorer than my usual standard but you get the idea.

A stop off at Jesse Jones in Houston to look for Swainson's Warbler was derailed by a massive thunderstorm. We witnessed a thundering bolt of lightning explosively crash down on a freeway sign ahead of us. The sign exploded in a shower of sparks. This truly looked like the hand of god! This storm meant more waiting - another 4 hours at Houston airport coupled with missing my connection in Phoenix and a night there. I arrived at work on Monday morning a little exhausted but at least it wasn't a run of the mill weekend.