Birds always find ways to surprise us. No matter how much you know, no matter how well you prepare, no matter how long you’ve been tuned in to the wild world of birding, there will be times when you get caught completely off guard. I think that’s wonderful. This Tuesday morning, I was standing in the Tucson airport after a … Read More
South TX Raptor Notes – April 2016
From savannas, to subtropical forests, to desert scrub there is no better springtime paradise for hawkwatchers than southern Texas. Huge numbers of migrant raptors slip northward along the coastline, taking the shortest possible route around the Gulf of Mexico, and 11 different species call the southern portion of the state their year-round home. There are even a few species that can … Read More
Close encounters of the feathered kind
Late last week brought the first spring fallout of warblers to South Padre Island. Trans-gulf migrants, or birds that cut straight across the Gulf of Mexico from the Yucatan Peninsula, find themselves exhausted upon reaching land. If the winds are “right” (“right” being a rather awful term, because although great for birding, it is awful for the birds as many … Read More
Laguna Atascosa NWR — South TX Spring Break
March 8th kicked off a week-long tour of southern Texas with my friends Ian Gardner, Chris Markiewicz, and Mark Markiewicz. We landed in Corpus Christi in the early afternoon, and made a quick trip north to the Rockport area across from Aransas NWR in search of Whooping Cranes before dropping back south to Rio Hondo. On the drive up, we … Read More
Rio Grande Valley Raptors
As fellow Nemesis Birder Alex Lamoreaux was out looking for one of his nemesis birds today, I was sitting in my office a few miles away, pining to also be on the Mission Nature Park levee, scanning the skies for the local group of Hook-billed Kites which have been rather faithfully putting on a show for any interested birders who … Read More