BWT Travel Guide

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