BWT Travel Guide
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UNITED STATES<br />
UNITED STATES<br />
Bob Gibbons / Alamy<br />
TEXAS<br />
It’s birds aplenty in this grand, rich and varied habitat<br />
WORDS: STUART WINTER<br />
T<br />
here is certainly no better way<br />
to embrace TexMex species in<br />
all their colourful grandeur than<br />
by participating in the Rio<br />
Grande Valley Birding Festival (RGVBF).<br />
British expat Julian Hough, who lives<br />
in Connecticut, has become a leading<br />
light on the American birding scene, and<br />
helped introduce me to some of the Rio<br />
Grande’s most eagerly-sought birds, as<br />
I worked through a five-day itinerary of<br />
field trips that the birding festival<br />
organisers had customised to help me see<br />
most of the valley’s specialities.<br />
Leading a crocodile of birders – or<br />
should that be alligator in these parts<br />
– along the labyrinthine trails of the<br />
famous Santa Ana National Wildlife<br />
Refuge, Julian was quickly pointing out<br />
birds that had been high on my wish list.<br />
Feisty Great Kiskadees with their<br />
bandit masks held us up as they dashed<br />
from look-out to look-out. Even brighter<br />
Green Jays, a dream for any colouring<br />
book fanatic, played tag in denser cover,<br />
their striking green and yellow plumage<br />
absorbed by the leaf colour. An Altamira<br />
Oriole exploded into view in all its fiery<br />
glory. Think flying Christmas lights!<br />
As we made our way out of the riparian<br />
forest into open wetlands, Julian served<br />
up another Rio Grande delicacy, Green<br />
Kingfisher, an emerald gem of a bird but<br />
surprisingly easy to overlook on a<br />
concealed perch. Amid the hubbub of<br />
wildfowl and shorebirds, there were<br />
Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge<br />
Common<br />
Pauraque<br />
Black-crested<br />
Titmouse<br />
much-sought Least<br />
Grebes and Mottled<br />
Ducks to pick out from<br />
the Blue-winged Teal<br />
and countless American<br />
Coot. Suddenly, the<br />
already buoyant mood<br />
went up several<br />
notches. Julian was on<br />
a Hook-billed Kite. The list-hungry<br />
Americans went into a frenzy. This was<br />
a lifer for many of them, a real doodledandy<br />
of a bird for those who had<br />
travelled from New York, Washington<br />
state and California to see Texas’ finest.<br />
On paddle-like wings, it soared<br />
effortlessly over the dense stands of<br />
moss-covered ebony trees, avoiding the<br />
attentions of a passing Harris’s Hawk,<br />
before disappearing from view. The hawk<br />
had no doubt found a supply of its<br />
favourite food – tree snails.<br />
One day’s Texan birding, a notebook<br />
littered with asterisks denoting lifers,<br />
and the adventure was only beginning.<br />
Mike Weedon<br />
TEXAS<br />
Mike Weedon<br />
Santa Ana<br />
National<br />
Wildlife Refuge<br />
Two hours<br />
upstream of the<br />
festival headquarters, Salineno, with its<br />
population of 302, is unlikely to feature<br />
on many tourist itineraries, but for<br />
American birdwatchers, the views this<br />
hummingbird of a hamlet provides over<br />
the Rio Grande has made it a place of<br />
legends. The dusty shoreline is pockmarked<br />
with tripod feet and engrained in<br />
the memories of all those have made<br />
a pilgrimage here over the years to see<br />
truly wild Muscovy Ducks. I had to make<br />
do with three species of kingfisher.<br />
Belted and Green were quickly under<br />
the belt, but a copper-breasted Ringed<br />
Kingfisher, a brash, bruiser of a bird that<br />
has ‘gone large’ with the bill order, was<br />
simply mesmerising as it disintegrated<br />
the Rio Grande’s tranquil somnolence<br />
with its raucous calls.<br />
A soaring Zone-tailed Hawk, shining<br />
out amid a huge flock of Black Vultures,<br />
followed by a ghostly Grey Hawk,<br />
quickened the pulse to such an extent<br />
that some people needed a sit down.<br />
There was only one place in town: the<br />
nearby winter feeding station with its<br />
amphitheatre seating plan to allow<br />
perfect viewing of more RG – I was now<br />
using the local language – specialities.<br />
Among the ostentatious Green Jays and<br />
blazing Altamira Orioles, squabbling over<br />
strategically positioned orange slices,<br />
diffident Olive Sparrows lurked. A<br />
Black-crested Titmouse, a recent split<br />
from its Tufted relation, and superb<br />
Altamira Oriole, another Mexican<br />
speciality with a restricted range in<br />
2 World Birding 2016