November 11, 2019 - Lower Rio Grande Valley after the Festival

The Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival concluded yesterday.  I was still on the crack-of-dawn field trip schedule so woke early and got out a blog post for 10 August 2019… yeah, I was that far behind with my journaling.  You notice that, at this point, I’m over a year behind.  But Life and Birding have taken precedence over journaling.  I’ll finish documenting  the 2019 Peregrination year, and move on to more informative posts.

It was time to go down to the Best Western Casa Villa’s breakfast bar and say my goodbyes, after participating in a really well-done Birding Festival.  I’d picked up seven “Lifers” during the week, thanks in great measure to being out with some excellent trip leaders, and having the assistance of the sharp eyes of a lot of good birders while in the field with the group.  3910

Dave Irons dropped off a couple bottles of Negra Modelo, and I had to explain to the other birders there that, no, I wasn’t having beer for breakfast (although, the song lyrics remind us that “You can’t drink all day if you don’t start in the morning”).  I checked out, thanking Sam, from behind the desk, for straightening out the glitch in making reservations last month.

I drove down to Brownsville and out to the Sabal Palm Sanctuary.  You have to drive over the levee, where there is a "Border Wall", complete with a "dummy" Customs and Border Patrol truck guarding the premises.

I’d been to the Sanctuary earlier during the Festival, but had “dipped” on trying to see the Groove-billed Anis, which would be a “Life Bird” for me if I could re-find them.  It was around 85º F, and pretty breezy when I finally made it to the old Rabb Plantation around 11 a.m.

The Rabb House and buildings provide a nice backdrop for this nature area.  The historic Plantation House, built in 1892, was the center of a holding, originally known as Rancho San Tomas, that encompassed 20,353 acres and functioned like a small self-sufficient city.

The 550 acres around the house was purchased by the Vaughn family in 1957, acquired by the National Audubon Society in 1971, and then by the Gorgas Science Foundation in 2010 which conducted some impressive restoration work.

I am really impressed with the remnant Tamaulipan forest along the river here, and can only imagine what it must have looked like before the river was tamed by Falcon Dam and the riparian areas cleared away.

But, the birding here is still fantastic. I had good views of the Rio Grande Valley specialties, such as the Great Kiskadee, Green Jays, and Gray Hawks.

At the resaca, there were quite a few Least and Pied-billed Grebes.

One of the Pied-bills had captured a relatively large frog, and spent quite a while subduing the little beastie before choking it down.

There's always something to see besides birds when one is Birding.  Cloudless Sulphur butterflies were out gathering nectar from the long-tubed winter flowers.  This individual is taking nectar from a Turk’s Cap Malvaviscus drummondi.

This butterfly ranges from southern Texas, south to Argentina.  I understand that its caterpillars eat the leaves of the Cassia plants.

One of the flowers that was blooming in the riparian zone was the Rio Grande abutilon, Abutilon hypoleucum.  This tall sub-shrub of the remnant Tamaulipan brush habitats hosts a number of pollinator insects.  Interestingly, the famous Boll Weevil Anthonomus grandis feeds on the pollen of, besides cotton, a wide range of malvaceous species, including this one.

I got stung by a couple of ants when kneeling to take photos, but these were not the dreaded fire ants.  Instead they appear to be Pogonomyrmex barbatus, the Red Harvester Ant.  I think the only reason they bothered stinging me was because I accidentally knelt on their nest.

But, even the ants have their nemeses - here, an ant lion Myrmelon sp. catches one.

I went out to the boardwalk where the Anis had last been seen, and circled the loop a couple of times, but alas, could not pick them out, or hear them vocalizing.  Ah, well . . . this isn’t the first - and surely won’t be the last - species I’ve “dipped” on over the year.

I finally left at the Sanctuary’s “closing time” at 5 p.m. and returned to Brownsville & checked into the Sure Stay.  I was kind of tired but made the mistake of turning on the television and seeing that the Monday Night Football game was the Seahawks playing the unbeaten 49ers.  It wouldn’t have been all that bad, except the game went into overtime, with Seattle beating San Francisco at the end of the overtime period with a 42-yard field goal by Jason Myers.  It was kind of a cluster-hug game, but full of razzle-dazzle.  Fun to watch, but not that good football.

Morning Sabal Palms Sanctuary eBird checklist is Here 

Afternoon Sabal Palms Sanctuary eBird checklist is Here