Texas Trip :: Day 1 – Laguna Atascosa

Texas Trip :: Day 1 – Laguna Atascosa
We should have known that Laguna Atascosa NWR was going to be good when the trip there was so fantastic. We hadn’t even left when we got close-up views and pictures of a Couch’s Kingbird and a very friendly Northern Mockingbird. Along the way to the park, we were treated with sightings of Loggerhead Shrikes, Long-billed Dowitchers, several species of waterfowl, a kestrel, tons of turkey & black vultures, and other common species. Shari got her ‘trip bird’ before we got to the park when we saw a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher sitting on a fence along the way down the paved-unpaved-paved-dirt-paved-there’s a road here?-paved-dirt-paved road that is County Road 106. We got TONS of shots, thinking it might be one of our few opportunities. Little did we know that we would have them practically fly in our car window later…
The highlight of the trip en route was probably seeing the endangered Aplomado Falcon just sitting there on a wire as we came close to the park. It was a beautiful bird, and one that we wouldn’t see a second time – at least, not after we saw the mate sitting two telephone poles down the road.

Once we finally actually made it to the park, we found out just how good it was: in fact, we liked it so much, we went back twice on other days (it helped that it was only 10-15 minutes away). If south Texas was a birding heaven in general, then this was one of it’s jewels. From the moment we went into the visitor’s center and spoke with the volunteers (who were awesome – a common threat for most of the people in Texas, we’d find), it was a great experience.

Their viewing areas – a wide open feeding area next to the visitor’s center and a blind about 100′ away, were awesome. We got to see a lot of species close-up and perhaps a bit friendlier than we would have otherwise. We didn’t get to see their unique “blue green jay” (an aberrant jay with no yellow pigment), but otherwise were treated to quite a show and shot a lot of pictures there.

From there, we went to the main driving path of the park. The mosquitoes down there, supposedly not too bad most times, were horrendous while we were there.* As such, we decided against some of the driving trails, particularly here were they seemed to be swarming pretty badly. So, off to the Bayside Drive we went for a leisurely 15-mile loop around lagoon, marshes, scrub plains and desert arroyos. And it was awesome, so awesome that we did 3 loops in one day.

At first, it was quiet and we were speeding around fairly quickly until we got to the stretch that faced the bay and Laguna Madre, when we started seeing some herons and osprey. The day was getting slightly cooler as we inched further into the afternoon, and the wildlife started to show: Eastern & Western Meadowlarks, Curve-billed Thrashers, and a number of hawks wheeling through the air. Then we saw our first Crested Caracara, a really cool hawk that stands taller than most (similar to Africa’s Secretary Bird).

As we did our second and third loops, we got to see more and more, particularly as the sun went down further and futher. More caracara’s, willets, Long-billed Curlew, more osprey, various smaller birds, herons, egrets, and a long-distance White-tailed Kite. Eventually, the sun was too low for great shots, so we decided it was time to call it a night. As we left the drive, I saw a hawk sitting on a wire in the distance, and as we approached I knew what it was and knew that I had to see it closer (hard to do in the dark) – my first Harris’ Hawk. I inched up carefully, hoping to get close enough to see it in the dusk and yet not scare it off; maybe I’d even get a picture. Luckily, he wasn’t very nervous about us and we both got pretty good shots, despite the darkness.

Our drive ‘home’ gave us lots of other opportunities to shoot, and we really worked the brakes on our rental coming to a stop to try to get lower-light shots of species we don’t see often or at all at home. A 17-mile trip took an hour as we couldn’t help ourselves. The downside was that by the time we got home, it was nearly too late to get a real dinner – which in Los Fresnos was a challenge to begin with. It’s a nice, quiet town but they don’t exactly have a wide variety of places to eat. I guess it has something to do with the Texas culture of driving 20 miles is no big deal to get a bit of fast food or better. But we were starving by the time we got home and the Mexican food wasn’t exactly the best we’ve had (oddly enough).

Bird Tally

LAGUNA ATASCOSA NWR (link)

See the whole set on Flickr