Wednesday, March 6, 2024

Downy Woodpecker on South Padre Island, 3/6/24

On this past Oct 22, Gray Hawk researcher and all around fantastic birder Evan Farese found the first Cameron County record of a Downy Woodpecker at the Convention Center on South Padre Island.  Word got out late in the afternoon and several people got to see it, but those of us who arrived the next morning were surprised to not be able to refind the bird.  Who would have thought that a poor little lost Downy who had been most likely wandering for days down arid treeless South Padre Island would be so quick to leave an oasis like the Convention Center?

Well two months later Evan found another Downy Woodpecker while covering the Island for the Christmas Bird Count.  The first was a female while this second was a male found on a vacant lot on Retama Street.  The bird bird hung around a week and was seen by a dozen birders but not me despite a couple of efforts.  Then it was refound at the Valley Land Fund's Sheephead lot on 2/20 after being absent for two monts.  I put in five hours the next day to no avail.

At this point I had given up hope of ever seeing this Downy Woopecker.  But then two days ago Javi Gonzalez found the bird again at Sheepshead.  I couldn't get over there yesterday but I made it today.  I put in a couple of hours in the morning to no avail.  Though I did see a Northern Parula, Hermit Thrush and an early female Rose-breasted Grosbeak.  I got bored and ran up to the Convention Center and ate lunch and birded a bit.  Not much going on up there either except for a second Rose-breasted Grosbeak.  I went out on the flats and helped some visiting birders with their shorebird IDs.  Nothing interesting on the flats.

So I drove back to Sheepshead and put in another hour.  At this point I was getting desparate so I started whistling my Ferruginous Pygmy Owl immitation.  No way a Downy Woodpecker would know one of those but maybe something would come in.  And soon an agitated Northern Parula and a Myrtle Warbler were scolding me..... and seemingly out of nowhere there was the Downy Woodpecker.





This Downy Woodpecker is the 433rd species of bird that I've seen in Cameron County and the eighth species of woodpecker I've seen in the Valley.  The only other Downy Woodpecker to ever be seen in the Rio Grande Valley was one found by the late Greg Lasley at the Santa Margarita Ranch way back in 1980.  Why two of them would show up on South Padre Island over forty years later is a mystery.  I would not be surprised if their occurrence is drought related.  Texas had a terrible hot dry summer but who knows where these Downies came from?

Thursday, February 15, 2024

Green-tailed Towhee, Mission, TX 2/15/24

I was birding today south of  Mission when I ran into a couple who had just found a Green-tailed Towhee.  There's been quite a few in the Rio Grande Valley this winter with a particularly cooperative one at the Edinburg Scenic Wetlands so it's no big deal.  When they described the location I realized it was Los Ebanos Road just east of the National Butterfly Center.  This area was famous a few years ago for several Hooked-billed Kites that were feeding on the Rabdotus snails that were having a good year.  I had not seen a Green-tailed Towhee yet this year so I made the run over there.

I found the spot they described by three old telephone poles and started pygmy owl tooting and pishing.  It didn't take long till the local passerines came rushing in.  First were Black-crested-titmice, Blue-gray Gnatchatchers and Myrtle and Orange-crowned Warblers.  Then a Northern Cardinal and a Pyrrhuloxia.  Bewick's and Catus Wrens called nearby.  Well pretty good but where's the Green-tailed Towhee?  As the flock tired of me and wandered off, I finally spotted the towhee and got a couple of distant documentary photos of this locally uncommon species to keep eBird happy.  I kept tooting and  pishing and the towhee kept creeping closer.  I finally got a decent shot of the bird perched in a nearby mezquite when it dropped to the ground.  I was shocked when it popped out just a few feet away.




Well that was a nice surprise.  Birding is just like a box of chocolates.  You never know what you're going to get.  Maybe a little cheesy but it's true!