February 7 - Birding the Big Mesquite

I had arrived in Laredo last night, and the alarm set for 4 a.m. so I could get down to breakfast at 5 a.m.  The hotel was a little slow getting breakfast out, and the field trips leaving at 5:30 were a bit rushed.  I was on Field Trip No. 3, which was the Birding the Big Mesquite trip, led by Kelly Bryan and Jim F. was the driver.  We left north on Interstate 35, stopping briefly at “the Wall”, a Homeland Insecurity check point, to have the Border Guard glance at us gringos and ask “All US Citizens?” while waving us through.

The trip was described on the Festival's web page:

An historic gem of birds and wildlife, one of our newest private ranch additions, La Martineña, is located near the Olmos Creek system that feeds the Nueces River.  Large ponds and beautiful vistas welcome birders as they approach the headquarters and lodges of the ranch established by the early settlers of Webb County.  Besides great birding, visitors are treated to a grand view of the large pond while relaxing, eating and mingling with fellow birders - all from inside a luxurious lodge.

We drove on out to the Martineña Road and onto the ranch, which was owned by Sr. A.M. Bruni’s family.  We stopped at the lodge for a rest break, then scoped the big pond from the deck.
I pulled out my Canon Rebel T6, and realized that I’d charged the battery yesterday, but forgot to put the battery in the camera!  Old age ain’t for sissies . . . .

We continued out onto the dike along the pond, looking for sparrows.  We found mostly Savannah Sparrows along here, but also got good views of some of the other pond birds.  Afterward, we took the van out into the mesquite and prickly pear, and occasionally got out to walk along and pish for sparrows.  Kelly pointed out the range grass was mostly the introduced species of Buffelgrass Cenchrus ciliaris.  This is apparently a nasty invasive.

It is a perennial shrub-like grass from the family Poaceae. On average adult plants reach a height of 1.5 feet and a width of 3 feet. Immature forms of buffelgrass look similar to bunchgrass because of the condensed appearance. Larger adult plants split at the nodes as they grow developing a messy unorganized appearance with leaves extending multiple directions. New leaves and flowers are formed at the nodes of each grass blade allowing for extensive seed production following rain. Flowers are usually reddish brown, but occasionally stramineous. Each flower is covered with small spiked or burrs packed in a dense formation to facilitate seed dispersal by attaching to animal fur or human clothing.

Buffelgrass is known for its high drought tolerance and tendency to grow in dense clumps. These characteristics allow the invasive plant to crowd native plants and compete for available resources. Taller desert plants are eradicated by the establishment of buffelgrass because the native plants lost the competition for water. Smaller vegetation suffers from a lack of sunlight and prevented seed dispersal when buffelgrass becomes established because of crowding. In addition to being drought tolerant, buffelgrass is adapted for regular burning and supports extremely hot fires, causing further death to native plant species that haven't adapted for regular fires of high temperatures. Once buffelgrass invades an area, it quickly becomes a monoculture and plant diversity is lost.

Introduced in the 1930's to the United States as a livestock forage in Arizona, buffelgrass did not survive very well. Several experimental plantings occurred from the 1930s to the 1950s with little success. Buffelgrass was rare when surveyed in 1984, but by 1994 it was expanding rapidly for unknown reasons. Today it is seen nearly everywhere within the southern portions of Texas to Arizona.

It is certainly everywhere on the range here in Webb County, and we are told that it does not provide much habitat for native birds, mammals, etc.  But, there was enough habitat to provide for a few butterflies, as we saw Pipevine Swallowtail and Dainty Sulphur.  We also saw a few Blackbucks, which have been brought in for the hunting.  Game farming is big business in this part of the country, and provides value-added income for the ranchers.

Birding the Big Mesquite

We ended up with 58 species for the trip.  I did not see the ground dove, Great Horned Owl, or Lark Bunting.  Neither did I get any bird photos.  Hey, I’m old.  Wait till tomorrow . . .

At 4:45, I caught a van over to the park block at Houston and Main where they expected a fly-in of Green Parakeets.

But Don't Stop birding . . .

There were nearly 30 birders watching the park, and we had about 7 of the species fly over, and three lit by the afternoon sun so that you could get a view of them.  There was also a small flock of three Monk Parakeets,

My cell phone photo of a Monk Parakeet

as well as White-winged and Inca Doves in the park.

White-winged Dove - Zenaida asiatica

Inca Doves - Columbina inca

The best sighting was of a Cooper’s Hawk feeding on a dove in the neighborhood.  Of course, I missed a shot of that one.

Bill and Carol Langford, birding friends from Olympia (and Carpenteria, California) were in town, and had gone on the Birding to the Max trip today.  They, Linda, Greg from Texas and I had supper at the hotel.  The food was good enough, but we waited nearly an hour to be served, and missed the Festival talk on the wild Muscovy Ducks.  Back to the room, I was in bed by 10 p.m., with some weather blowing in.

I Never Met a Texan along the Border who was in favor of Trump's Damned Wall

La Martineña Ranch eBird Checklist is Here
Laredo St. Peter's Park eBird Checklist is Here