adult Common Loon

The Longest Bird Strip Census—

The Northville-Placid Trail, Adirondack Park, NY

1-22 July 2026

 

                   At the northern termius of te NPT at Averyville trail head, reading the DEC signage (photo: Larry Master)

In July 2026 I walked the length of the Northville-Placid Trail (NPT), which transects the Adirondack Park from south to north, starting in Northville, and ending on the Averyville Road, just south of Lake Placid village. The trail is 138 miles long, and spends most of its distance rambling through forests, passing lakes and streams, and avoiding mountaintops. This makes for great walking and great forest-watching. In addition, it provided an opportunity to carry out a “mega-transect” of birdsong in the woods. I counted all singing birds heard along my 14-day walk. I did this section-by-section.

    on the trail!

When I informed my immediate family of my plan to carry out this solo walk, they were quite concerned about my safety in the woods. So I agreed to do a sample walk of four days in the southernmost section of the NPT, then, after I proved I could do the walk with minimal risk, I re-provisioned and returned to the trail a week later. This was a useful process, and in doing so I had a better sense of my equipment and food needs. In particular, I purchased a fabulous new backpack (An Osprey Aether Plus 85) that made the trip much less onerous.

    Fireweed

I am 74. I had not carried a backpack in the Adirondacks since 1974—fifty-two years ago. Back then, I hated carrying a backpack. Now, I wondered whether I could adjust to having this burden back on my shoulders. By having a nicely-crafted pack and by keeping the weight to a mininum (around 28 pounds) I was able to manage the pack with minimal suffering. I am thinking that in my teens I was much less adapted to pain than I am now, after decades of adult life. That was an interesting discovery about my adaptability.

    Ruffed Grouse

The NPT is entirely unlike the better-known Appalachian Trail. The latter follows the height of land for 2,000 miles—that means the hiker is continually ascending or descending on a rocky and difficult trail. By contrast, the NPT sticks to the valleys—visiting lakes, streams, rivers, and beaver swamps, and viewing the summits from a distance. The walker can enjoy traveling at pace through the forest and on a trail that is broad, soft and duff-laden, and easy to track. This is a plain pleasure to engage. Because most Adirondack hikers want to climb “peaks,” the NPT is little walked, and as a result the trail is not butchered by an excess of pounding Vibram soles. Some of the NPT trail is overgrown, but that just means the walker needs to push his way through light thickets of Balsam Fir, Hobblebush, and American Beech saplings.  Many of the NPT’s current trail sectors were once logging roads or fire roads, meaning ease of walking. For this 74-year-old, a day’s walk on the NPT was pure pleasure.

    Billy on the campfire and tarp in the woods...

 My focus was on birdsong and old growth forest. Because of the dates of my walk, I experienced gradual decline of birdsong as July trended toward August. The old growth forest was surprisigly abundant and on most days I saw big trees—trees that were well over 200 years old, some perhaps 400 years old. The featured species are Yellow Birch, Eastern Hemlock, Eastern White Pine, White Ash, and Red Spruce. I regularly encountered trailside Yellow Birch with a DBH in excess of a meter. Some of the Eastern White Pine were toweringly tall. And the abundance of stands of ancient Eastern Hemlock made for gloriously shady deep forest.

            Cold River

Strangely, in some areas (e.g., the upper Cold River) there was no old forest and there was much planted monoculture of conifers, some nonnative. Apparently these poorly-growing stands were planted in the 1930s. Of course, disturbance is much a part of the Adirondack forests. Logging led to vast forest fires (1903, 1908) and in 1950 a hurricane passed through and produced a great blow-down of trees up north in the Park.

                        note the huge Yellow Birch on the right side of the trail margin

Over the deacde, timber extraction worked its way down the value chain, starting with the best giant Eastern White Pines and ending with smaller growth taken for wood pulp and paper. Even this is now declining and Finch Paper (formerly Finch Pruyn) is now closing its mill in Glen Falls and now halting the taking of pulpwood from the Adirondacks.

    lots of bridges on the trail, crossing the abundant waters

So, what is it like walking 8 hours a day for a fortnight? It is remarkably enjoyable, especially when the birdsong survey and big tree encounters are thrown in. The day goes by very quickly, and one is in the sleeping bag before sundown (it is quite dark in the woods at that time). I had a dogeared paperback copy of Moby Dick with me, and I read this at meals and while inside my mosquito net under my tarp. I burned the read pages to start my fires.

    lakes galore

Here was my day: rise at 5:30am. Heat water for cocoa and instant oatmeal. Wash up and pack and get on the trail by 7:30am. Stop when a rest or snack is needed and just keep moving. Halt walking by 4pm. Set up camp. Heat water for dinner (a packet of spicey noodles or a Mountain House freeze dried dinner). Read a few pages of Moby Dick. Hit the hay.

    plenty of lean-to's to go around

My main comfort issue of the trip was the pre-dawn cold. On most nights the air temperature dropped into the 40s. I was unprepared for this and lacked proper clothing and suffered from an inadequate sleeping bag. I was forced to wear wool sox on my feet, cotton sox on my hands, a towel over my head, and two extra layers—a poncho and a ground sheet over the sleeping bag to maintain my body temperature. I purchased extra sleeping clothes in Blue Mountain Lake and Long Lake to contend with this issue (but it was never enough).

     log bridge

Solitude! I was on my own with my own thoughts 98% of my walk. During my two weeks on the trail I encountered 5 other through-walkers and a handful of day-hikers. I never slept in the company of any others. I was on my own. This solitude was splendid. I was able to daydream and think thoughts all day long. No iPhone newsfeed, no telephone calls, no emails, no MS Now, no Washington Post. The glory of no Trump! 

     a massive Eastern White Pine lords it over this lean-to 

Much of my wandering mind trailed back to the times in the 1960s and 1970s when I spent summers in the Adirondacks. Thoughts of my first encounter with a Black Bear, my first caught Small-mouthed Bass, my first canoe trip down the Raquette River, my first climbs of Mt Kempshall and Buck Mountain, digging for ancient Indian pottery in the bluff at the Verner’s Little Camp on Long Lake with Joan Verner. Lots of memories. It was nice to excavate these from the back of my brain.

    Moose Pond

I walked with a walking stick that I had crafted from a lacrosse defenseman’s long pole. This was invaluable. I much prefer the single “stave” to the standard pair of modified ski poles. I think it is much more stable and allows the walker to have a free hand to grasp at grips when losing balance.

               walkin'

I mainly drank from tiny streams that drained uninhabited forest hillsides. On occasions when I needed to take lake water I used Aquatabs to purify the water. I suffered no stomach complaints. I never saw a Deer Tick and never saw a White-tailed Deer on my walk.

    lots of beaver activity

Wild quadrupeds were remarkably few on my hike. Here is what I encountered along the trail in order of abundance: American Toad, Red Squirrel, Eastern Chipmunk, Red Eft, Garter Snake. I heard keening Coyote packs on two nights, Common Loons on most nights, and Barred Owls on three nights. I saw bear poop on the trail on three occasions and I noted a Moose track once. The Adirondacks are famous for being impoverished of quadruped wildlife. On the other hand, singing birds were abundant, even as I passed through the second half of July.

Here are the results of my bird surveys: I encountered 56 bird species of 1,221 individuals. Based on total counts, the most abundant species were Red-eyed Vireo (387), Ovenbird (121), Black-throated Blue Warbler (87), Black-throated Green Warbler (65), Blue-headed Vireo (49), Hermit Thrush (44), Winter Wren (38), and Black-capped Chickadee (37).

    Ovenbird

I made 45 individual strip surveys while walking. Prevalence on these surveys was dominated by the following species: Red-eyed Vireo (in 42 of 45 surveys), Black-throated Blue Warbler (34), Black-throated Green Warbler (28), Ovenbird (26), Black-capped Chickadee (24), Winter Wren (20), Blue-headed Vireo (19), and Blue Jay (19). It turns out the most abundant 4 species were also the most prevalent…

    this is the trail!

Seasonality undoubtedly impacted these results. Many migrant songbirds I never encountered, probably because they cease singing shortly after their first nesting. No Rose-breasted Grosbeak. No Canada Warbler, etc etc. Also as July progressed, birdsong declined. I recorded songs of 55 Ovenbirds in the first eight sectors (1-3 July), but only 1  Ovenbird in the last eight sectors (20-22 July). Clearly, the Ovenbird was running out of steam as July headed towards August.

  

    vista from Tirrell Pond in the evening after rain--looking towards Dun Brook Mountain

For those early and late surveys, Red-eyed Vireo also showed a decline: 96 individuals in the first 8 sectors, and 18 individuals in the last 8 sectors.

    Red-eyed Vireo

I hope to re-do the walking survey of singing birds along the trail in 2027 at the peak of migrant song (late May/early June). I suspect that will provide a strikingly different result, with more species and more numbers.

    Tarbell Road trailhead in Long Lake--the afternoon rain just beginning

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heart Lake, Adirondack Park, 25 May – 1 June 2026

Each year I try to get back up to the Adirondack Mountains, a place where I spent summers as a youngster at Adirondack Wilderness Camp at the north end of Long Lake (sadly no longer extant). The good news, however, is that what was once a boy’s camp is now state-owned wilderness land and much of the AWC campus is now back in forest—adding more acres to the public’s wild playground in this, the  largest park in the Lower Forty-eight. As a kid, I backpacked, mountain-climbed, and canoed across the Adirondack landscape. It was challenging, often grueling, and strangely satisfying.

    Bright morph White-throated Sparrow in Marcy Creek thicket.

Anyway, these days, at my age, I like to settle down into a nice camping spot and do day walks out from that base. Of late, I have camped at Heart Lake, at the Adirondack Mountain Club’s “wilderness campground” adjacent to the Adirondak Loj, where, yes, I am in the woods, but where I can drive right up to my campsite (with picnic table!)  and I am only a short walk from a bathroom that offers a hot shower. This is “lux” for wilderness camping, I must say. I love the convenience. If I so desire, I can also book a hot breakfast at the nearby Loj, which also has rooms (that quickly book up seasonally) for those who want to be in the forest but do not want to sleep on the ground. Heart Lake and the Adirondak Loj (with its Roosevelt/Dewey simplified spelling reflecting its Gilded Age origins) is the best location from which to venture out to climb in the Adirondack’s “High Peaks” region—Mount Marcy and Mount Algonquin are nearby, as are dozens of other rocky and challenging climbs. This is what I like to do, get out on the trail, but return to the comfort of my base camp and carry no heavy backpack (torture for somebody my age—actually torture for somebody of any age). Even in the 1970s I hated carrying a heavy backpack while trying to negotiate a rocky and muddy trail.

    Adult male American Robin on mowed lawn of Adirondak Loj. 

This year I did my standard set of hikes, some short climbs, and even led a bird-walk and gave an evening bird talk to the local crew at the Loj. It was great fun. I spent a week based at Heart Lake and never once ventured into nearby Lake Placid.

    Blue-headed Vireo

On my drive up I took the “back way” through Harrisburg and Scranton, then taking 84 east to 87 in NY, then up the Northway to the exit to Keene Valley. With two meal stops this was  an 11-hour trip. I set up camp at 5:30PM and listened to the songbirds that welcomed me to my campsite:  Black-throated Green, Blackburnian, and Myrtle Warblers; and Blue-headed and Red-eyed Vireos. Such a nice welcome!

    Male Blackburnian Warbler

26 May. Cold! Clear sky! I lead a bird walk around the campus and we get “oohs” and “ahs” when we lure in a male Blackburnian Warbler for all to see. That firey throat is a show-stopper! We also encounter a noisy male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, doing its oddly erratic drumming.

    Male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Always, my first climb is up Mount Jo, just behind the Loj. This provides a steep ascent and a lovely vista south into the High Peaks—one of my favorite vistas on Earth!

    vista from summit of Mount Jo, just next to Heart Lake (below). Mt Colden to back left and Algonquin summit to right.

In the PM I bicycle back north up to the North Elba pastures, about 5 miles distant. Biking this familiar road reminds me how hilly things are in the Adirondacks (one easily ignores that in a car). I had hopes of hearing or seeing Bobolinks, but no luck (I have read this grassland-loving species is in steep decline).

    Similar vista, but from the fields of North Elba, north of Heart Lake. Mt Colden in far left and Algonquin in middle right. 

That night, comfy in my tent with the nice thick sleeping pad, I suffer a burst of day-one leg cramps that waken me not long after falling to sleep. This is one way I am reminded of my age...

                        Major workings of a Pileated Woodpecker, excavating for ants or burrowing beetle larvae.

27 May. This morning I bicycle to South Meadows Road and drop my bike in the woods and hike up Mount Van Hoevenberg. This is a nice long woods walk that also produces stupendous views of the High Peaks.

    Visa from summit of Mt Van Hoevenberg. Algonguin dominates the mountain-scape. Indian pass and Wallface to the right. 

From the summit I get good cell phone coverage and call home (something I cannot do from the campsite in the woods). I photograph Magnolia Warbler, Myrtle Warbler, and Ovenbird this morning.

    Male Magnolia Warbler

My campsite (#23) hosts my tent, a picnic table, and of course my car. I am wakened from my PM nap today by the sound of gnawing, which sounds as if it is coming from the underside of my car (parked next to the tent). There is an overly friendly Eastern Chipmunk who “owns” my campsite, and I believe this stubby-tailed scamp may be consuming some tasty rubber hose or wiring accessible from the underside of my Nissan. That worries me! To prevent the chipmunk from eating my car I start providing a cache of luscious nuts at the edge of my campsite. This seems to do the trick (even though feeding wild animals is a contravention of local rules). Not sure what else I could do…

    Singing adult Ovenbird in deciduous forest interior. 

28 May. Today I head up Nye Mountain, the nearest of the “46”—those Adirondack peaks that top 4,000 feet elevation. Climbing the “46” is a fixation for many Adirondack hikers. I completed the 46 in 1975. These days, the climbs are longer and more difficult than they were for me in that preceding century. I travel light and I move slowly. Still, each year the trails seem to be ever-more challenging. And these days, I do not hike to the summit, I just make my way up into the spruce-fir zone where I can hunt for the Adirondack specialities: Bicknell’s Thrush, Blackpoll Warbler, Boreal Chickadee, and Black-backed Woodpecker.

    Adult female Black-backed Woodpecker peering from fresh nest hole. 

This day’s pay-off is a nesting Black-backed Woodpecker. The bird has chiseled a fresh nest hole about 15 feet up in a mature White Birch at about 3,800 feet elevation in a zone dominated by Balsam Fir. This is an area that got hit in 1950 by a big windstorm that knocked down most of the high elevation conifers in large swathes of those north-facing  ridges of the High Peaks that received the brunt of the storm’s winds. In the early 1970s, hiking thru that “blowdown” on trailless peaks (like Nye or Street) was nightmarish.  Today, the “herd path” up the mountain makes the hiking easier, but these high elevation areas are still recovering (hence the presence of White Birch and lots of ancient downed spruce and fir deadwood).

    Male Blackpoll Warbler in Balsam Fir.

I find the woodpecker nest because the birch is right next to the trail and the bright white wood chips from the nest construction are littering the ground and the trail. I look down and see the fresh workings and immediately knew I have something good. A female Black-backed makes whinnying notes and flies right up to the nest hole, just a few feet from where I am standing.

                  Female Black-backed Woodpecker on dead stub.

I spend the next two hours at this spot, watching the woodpecker (and hoping to see and photograph the yellow-capped male—no luck!). I also attempt to lure in Boreal Chickadee, Bicknell’s Thrush, and Blackpoll Warbler. These three all complied, in their own way. The chickadee comes in for a quick look but never really shows itself before retreating. The Blackpoll Warbler comes right in. It calls for me, but these days I can barely hear the bird even with my hearing aids set on high. Several Bicknell’s Thrushes move all around me but remain super-shy—all I ever see is a dark blur of the passing birds. They do give alarm notes, however (though they do not sing). The woodpecker at its fresh nest hole is the prize of the day. I am able to photograph the bird at its nest hole with my iPhone—that’s how tame the bird is.

    Male Magnolia warbler in song in a Red Spruce atop Mt Van Hoevenberg.

The hike down is slow and hindered by degrading weather. There are lots of baby American Toads in the trail as well as a few Red Efts and a Garter Snake. Also two species of Trillium.

    Painted Trillium

29 May. This AM I hike the Mr Van Trail to Marcy Creek Bog, where I photograph Mourning Warbler, Nashville Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler, and White-throated Sparrow.

    Singing male Nashville Warbler in Marcy Creek swamp.

In the PM I do a local walk around the Loj grounds in search of obliging breeders. Blackburnian Warbler and Yellow-bellied Sapsucker are the two cooperating species.

    Male Chestnut-sided Warbler in Marcy Creek swamp. 

The Loj environs was burned by a giant forest fire in June 1903. Foresters have since replanted much of the accessible burned land with stands of Norway Spruce and Austrian or Black Pine (nonnative species favored in the 1960s by “scientific” foresters). These large stands of now-mature conifers do lend a quite “boreal” feel to the area, and do provide breeding habitat for conifer-loving warblers such as Black-throated Green and Blackurnian. Still, it would have been better to plant with native species…

    Male Mourning Warbler in Marcy Creek swamp.

30 May. Awaken to cold and cloud and rain. I get a late start as a result. I do a big trail circuit: Heart Lake to South Meadows Road to the Truck Road to Marcy Dam  and then the Van Hoevenberg Trail back to Heart Lake. Highlight of the walk is an encounter with what I think is a Least Weasel running across the trail, carrying either a small rodent prey item or one of its own weasel young. The sighting is brief but iconic. The weasel is small and short-tailed. Problem is, the guidebooks report that this small predator does not inhabit the Adirondacks. Might this be a novel range extension? No, probably not. It was most likely an Ermine, another of the short-tailed weasels—and a lifer for me.  

    Myrtle (Yellow-rumped) Warbler female

The preceding night’s cold and rain produced snow-caps on the highest summits this morning—fun to see snow atop Marcy and Algonquin! The snow has melted by mid-PM…

    Fresh snow atop Wright Peak

I am always struck by the low density of breeding/singing songbirds in this forest. Lots of empty forest with nobody singing at all… The Ovenbirds, Black-throated-Blues, Black-throated Greens, and Myrtles are widely scattered. Is the forest habitat “filled” with breeding birds or is much of it empty? (Seems the latter). Wonder why? The habitat looks great!

    Red-eyed Vireo in Loj parking lot.

31 May. I walk up the Indian Pass Trail (4 miles up, 4 miles back). This 4-mile-long stretch of forest produces only 3 Ovenbirds, 3 BTBs, 4 BTGs, 1 Am Redstart, and 3 Magnolia Warblers. Very thin coverage! Yellow-bellied Flycatcher at the top of my hike is the only novelty for my trip list. No other boreal species.

                       flowering Hobblebush

This evening we get 50F temps and a heavy storm that produces a big dose of sleet/hail (white balls of ice). This fills the tarp that is strung over the picnic table and weighs it down. The temp at 6:45PM is 48F. Cold and damp! A reminder I am in the North Woods!

    Sleet/hail storm one afternoon produced this accumulation! 

1 June. I am up early, break camp, and take the Crown Point Bridge across Lake Champlain and cross Vermont and New Hampshire on my way to give a talk in Cambridge, Mass. The drive is rural and verdant and the highlight is a spectacular breakfast at the Rochester Café in Rochester, Vermont. It’s fun crossing the Green Mountains and hilly central New Hampshire at this time of year. I am already thinking about a return trip!

 

    Altamira Oriole male

Lower Rio Grande River Valley

7-12 March 2026

    Gray Hawk adult in flight

 

I joined David Wilcove on a birding adventure to the Lower Rio Grande Valley of south Texas. We flew into McAllen (via Houston) and birded by car at a half-dozen well-known birding venues up and down the Valley. Accounts for each of these are featured in the narrative below.

    Band-celled Sister

 

The Valley

The Lower Rio Grande (“the Valley”) stretches from the mouth of the River at Boca Chica beach (site of Elon Musk’s Star Base) northwestward up to Falcon Dam covering a road distance of about 150 miles.

    Ladder-backed Woodpecker male

 

The notable towns include (from southeast to northwest) Brownsville, Harlingen, Weslaco, Edinburg, McAllen, Mission, Sullivan City, Rio Grande City, and Roma. McAllen is central to the Valley and is generally agreed to be the best place for birders to base themselves, unless they are camping. There are many comfortable national chain motels here to choose from.

    Audubon's Oriole

 

Because this is a strip along a national border, the Valley is heavily developed. The area is distinctive for its abundance of highways and strip malls. What was once Texas thorn scrub and crop agriculture has been converted to urban sprawl. Luckily, some green spaces have been set aside in the form of parks and reserves. These are where birders devote their time and effort.

    Looking out over Santa Ana NWR woodlands from its high tower

 

McAllen, Texas

McAllen has an airport with regular flights to and from Houston and Dallas. The city is a network of highways and major roads offering ready access to wherever one wishes to go. Also many restaurants, featuring national chains (Chili’s, PF Chang’s, etc) and swarms of local Mexican and Tex-Mex watering holes (and of course Whataburger). We stayed in the  Holiday Inn Express (Medical Center) and found it to be perfect for our needs, with a pool, a morning breakfast bar, and large and comfy rooms.

    Green Jay

 

National Butterfly Center

We visited the National Butterfly Center on three occasions. It is a 15-minute drive from the motel and is set down on the River. The NBC has a large visitor center, knowledgeable and helpful staff, and a big trail network that gives access to gardens and woodland patches. The staff actively plant and water in order to create the best butterfly habitat, but this year it  was very dry in mid-March and neither the gardens nor the butterflies were at peak status. We saw few butterflies, mainly sulphurs and Giant Swallowtails.

    Pickers harvesting cilantro

 

The back left corner of the NBC has a large bird feeding station, which, while we were there, was the highlight of the campus. The Plain Chachalacas appeared to be preparing to breed and were flocking in numbers with some individuals cackling loudly every few minutes. The racket they made was quite remarkable. Second in noise-making were the large flocks of Red-winged Blackbirds, which filled the air with what sounded like a million cicadas going off.

    Bronze Cowbird male

 

All this bird noise seemed to attract other species of hungry birds to the feeders—orioles, woodpeckers, sparrows, thrashers, cowbirds, grackles, and more.

    Golden-fronted Woodpecker male

 

Bentson-Rio Grande Valley State Park

Bentson-Rio Grande is just a bit upstream from the NBS, and one afternoon we drove over there to see what was up. A Hooked-billed Kite had been reported there on a preceding day. By the time we arrived the sun and heat and wind made birding there a bad bet, so we hung out in the Visitor Center and the parking lot and basically bided our time, hoping the Kite would fly over. It was not to be…  I had camped in this Park in 2017 and knew it offered good woodland walking and birding by the River. A tram carries visitors to various corners of this large reserve, but we were there too late for any tram travel.

    The ominpresent Border Patrol

 

Edinburg Scenic Wetlands

There was a single bird species in the Valley at this time that had attracted David’s attention as an accomplished North American (ABA area) birder. This was a solitary female Crimson-collared Grosbeak, which had been vacationing from Mexico for several months at the Edinburg Scenic Wetlands. The grosbeak was the only novelty that David could add to his list, and it was this bird that started our conversation about visiting the Valley.

    Crimson-collared Grosbeak female

 

So on our first day in the field we drove 13 minutes to this urban green space just a bit northeast of McAllen. The site is mainly lush thorn-scrub and artificial ponds with an abundance of trails for birding. It, too, has a nice visitor center and friendly and helpful staff. We were assured the grosbeak was present and that it would call from time to time.

    Least Grebe

 

It took us about 45 minutes to get our first look at the handsome bird, and we encountered it on 3-4 occasions during our morning stay there. We watched it feeding on the globular green fruit of the Potato Tree (Solanum erianthum). We did hear it calling several times—something that makes it possible to locate.

    Gray Hawk

 

Other birds we saw there included Least Grebe, Green Kingfisher, Orange-crowned Warbler, and White-eyed Vireo.

    Fox Squirrel

 

Estero Llano Grande State Park

We twice visited Estero Llano Grande and walked its trails. Here some young college-age super-birders showed us a Common Pauraque roosting in the dry leaves near a trail-edge.

    roosting Parauque, looking like dry leaves

 

We spent considerable time examining roosting brown ducks to determine whether they were female Mallards, Mottled Ducks, or Mexican Ducks.

    back left: female Mallard, front left hybrid Mottled x Mexican Duck (?), right side: 2 Mottled Ducks

 

    Mottled Ducks

A Tropical Parula had been reported on the Green Jay Trail of the Park and we walked this trail a number of times in search of this tiny sprite, but to no avail. Instead we saw a Nine-banded Armadillo, Black-capped Titmice, and Wilson’s Warbler.

    Nine-banded Armadillo

 

The wetlands featured a large aggregation of wading birds—White Ibis, White-faced Ibis, Snowy Egrets, Little Blue Heron, and two Soras.

    White Ibis, White-faced Ibis, Snowy Egret

 

Couch’s Kingbirds were the most common flycatcher in the Valley at this time, identified by voice.

 

    Couch's Kingbird

 

Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge

We started one morning at Santa Ana. It, like Bentson-Rio Grande offers lots of trail-walking down by the River, both through woodlands and open wetlands. This morning, the woodlands were remarkably quiet but the wetlands were more productive. Three highlights were memorable: A Gray Hawk by the woodland edge, a Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs posed side by side to show the size difference, and several Cinnamon Teal drakes showing off the red iris and rich burnished plumage.

    Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs

    Cinnamon Teal

 

We bumped into a group of young naturalists in search of spiders. The group was accompanied by a well-appointed guard with automatic weapon and a cadaver dog at his side. Not sure why spider-hunters needed the chaperone…

    On the trail in Santa Ana (note automatic weapon)

 

Salineño Wildlife Reserve

On our last morning, we drove 90 minutes north and west to the Salineño Reserve, just below Falcon Dam. Here there is nice access to the wooded banks of the River and also a nice array of bird feeders within the tiny reserve itself. Along the river we hunted for Morelet’s Seedeater and Northern Beardless Tyrannulet, but no luck! No Muscovy ducks either. But we glimpsed a single Red-billed Pigeon high overhead, racing  over the River into Mexico. That was a lifer for me.  The feeders were rather ho-hum, but did feature a hybrid Bullock’s-Baltimore Oriole.

    looking across to rural Tamaulipas

    Wild Turkey gobbler

 

Roma Bluffs

On our drive back from Salineño we stopped in Roma for lunch and also visited Roma Bluffs to look out over the Rio Grande into Ciudad Miguel Alemán.

    vista across to Mexico from Roma Bluffs

    Tacos Reynosa platter with Charro beans (and Topo Chico!) at Poncho's, McAllen

 

Restaurants

One does not travel to south Texas for its restaurants. Naturally, Mexican fare is the cuisine offered in greatest abundance, and we sampled an array of Mexican eateries. All were adequate but few meals would have earned more than a couple of stars. My favorite meal was a Tacos Reynosa platter served at Poncho’s in McAllen. That restaurant would garner zero stars for beauty or tidiness, but the food was good, especially when washed down with a chilly Topo Chico!

    Great Kiskadee

 

Driving

South Texas is the land of highways and frontage roads. Posted speeds of 65, 70, and 75 are not uncommon. Everybody is in a hurry to get wherever they are going. Be prepared for some serious defensive driving…

    White-tipped Dove

 

Weather and Season

Warm or hot and dry, often windy, especially in the afternoon. Not great birding weather. Best to start  the day  before sunrise to take advantage of the cooler hours just after dawn. We were lucky to be there just after the time change to Daylight Savings, when the sun did not rise until 7:40AM. Seasonally, mid-March apparently is not the best time to bird the Valley. For butterflies, October and November are best, and mid-winter may be best for the birdlife as well.

    close-up of flank feathering of Wild Turkey gobbler

 

The Wall

The border wall is in place in many places along the River, but it poses no constraints on visiting naturalists. It is far from complete, and these days the wall is being constructed both by the Feds as well as by the Texas state government.

    A chunk of new border wall produced by the Texas state government (taller and grander than the Fed wall). 

 

Both the National Butterfly Center and Salineño Reserve are under current threat of habitat destruction from wall builders. The bare-earth clearing created to make a corridor for the wall is excessive, often 200-300 meters wide. And of course wildlife cannot pass through the wall, so this is another problem for Nature in the LRGV.

    Here's a chunk of Fed wall near the Butterfly Center (on Military Road)

 

Recommendations

Though we did see the Grosbeak, our visit to the Valley for birding and butterfly hunting was a disappointment. We assume the combination of season and weather weighed against us.

    Clay-colored Thrush

    Green Jay
 

We suggest future visitors carefully plan the timing of their visit to line up with the peak season for either butterflies or birds. Year-to-year variation (such as El Niño La Niña) may have an impact that should be considered as well. Happy travels!

    female Crimson-collared Groasbeak chomping on a fruit of the Potato Tree

 

    Ceiba speciosa