Perfect Timing!

     Today was a day full of great timing and a lot of success. We decided to hit Goose Pond first thing in the morning to try for whooping crane which required us leaving at 4:45 from the hotel to get there around 8:15. I was running on about 3.5-4 hours of sleep. Great fun. Anyways, we get there and as soon as the little pond comes into view I spotted these 2 Whooping Cranes. They stuck out, huge white birds. Good thing we got there when we did because after 5 minutes they picked up and cruised right out of there. Our first good timing event of the day. While flying they were joined by 3 others for a total of 5 Whooping Cranes but they were soon out of site. Almost missed these spectacular birds. We did pick up a few other year birds on this stop like Vesper Sparrow, Common Loon, and Redhead. Finding these cranes quickly was a big boost for the day, now we could head south again by 9am and try for a few other birds. Our next stop, a rest stop on 281 on our way back to the valley. Target. Painted Redstart.



     It took us about 2.5 hours from the cranes to get to the rest stop on 281 where a Painted Redstart has been hanging out at. Yes I said a rest stop! We got there at about 11:30, way ahead of schedule. This was a pretty large area with lots of trees and a decent number of birds (of course, I mean it is Texas after all). So we are looking, and looking for this little guy but just finding other birds including my first Blue-Headed Vireo of the year. After a while we split up, Dan and Shawn go back towards the restrooms but I wanted to stay by the loop trail cause I had a feeling it would be there. Not long after I hear the chip call note! Look around. Boom. Painted Redstart. Absolutely stunning but this was no time to take pics or admire it. I had to find Dan and Shawn! I turn back and start booking it towards them. They got pretty far away. Shawn spots me running and immediately starts going to the loop. Now where is Dan? Of course he is so far away looking in a tree. Hey Dan! I got it over here! Soon we are all watching this gorgeous little guy. One of the prettiest birds I've ever seen and very friendly and active. Quick little bugger. We spend some extra time with him since we are ahead of schedule then back on the road. Bye pretty guy.

     One other bird of note from today was a Scissor-Tailed Flycatcher that Dan spotted along the road while we were driving to Edinburg! I was not expecting to get this bird on this trip since they really aren't in Texas in the winter months. I am extremely happy about getting it so I don't have to make a special trip later this year for it. Dan will probably just another one in Erie County, Ohio this year anyways though. He seems to have a knack for spotting these awesome birds!

     Since we have so much extra time we decided to stop at Edinburg Scenic Wetlands Park and do some birding on this beautiful Texas day. What a good choice. We ended up getting good looks at many nice species like Curve and Long-Billed Thrasher. I also managed to snag my lifer Lesser Goldfinch which was very nice. This place had quite a few birds hoping around in it and some nice new warblers for the year. Somehow we just kept adding more and more year birds the longer we birded there. Oh there's a Nashville Warbler. What's that? Oh Wilson's Warbler, It was kind of ridiculous actually. After we left that park with 7 new year birds, we headed south to a park that might give us a slim chance at Tropical Parula. Of course once we got there we discovered it is closed on Monday. Most of the parks in the area were closed today. Bummer, not even a chance to look for the parula. We now turned our focus to finding the two Texas special (and countable) parrot species. Green Parakeet and Red-Crowned Parrot. They can be tricky to nail down because you can only reliably get them when they are at their roost in the morning or coming in to roost at dusk. They are MIA throughout the rest of the day. Nobody really knows what happens to them. The hard part here was finding their roosting spot. We managed to figure out a good spot for Green Parakeet and thanks to help of Greg back home (command center) we were able to find the location for Red-Crowned as well within a few miles of each other. Green Parakeet first. We get there, look up and way out in the sky is a flock of them! Parrots fly in a loose flock and swirl around a lot. Incredibly noisy birds too. We chase the flock around until we get them perched on a wire. 300+ Green Parakeet was certainly a sight to see. If we weren't at that spot at the right time we would have missed them! Next stop, Red Crowned. We turn down the road we needed to and I looked up and was like "oh look there they are" as a flock was flying around. Again, perfect timing for these birds. We chased them around until they landed in a tree right around dusk. Score! Both targets here! Great way to finish the day strong! Covered another 400 miles today! Looking forward to tomorrow, a key day to really nail down some rarer birds in the valley on our best weather day. Year total is now 190.