Knowing that we would soon be heading out, we decided to get
in as much last-minute birding as we could. Heading back to McAllen, we headed
back to several gems we had been to earlier in our visit. At Bentsen State Park
we spotted some of the same characters we have become used to seeing. A juvenile
Painted Bunting had been spotted at Quinta Mazatlán, but other than seeing its
blue streak flying by in the branches, we were skunked. At the World Butterfly Center,
we scored this Lifer, an Eastern Starling. Its bill in the summer is bright
yellow, but in the winter, it looks like this.
We hit the Edinburg Scenic Wetlands & World Birding
Center hoping to score another Lifer. We saw Egrets and even spotted a Black
Crowned Night Heron in a tall tree. But the birds were few and far between,
probably because it was warm and still. Then we spotted our Lifer. A Double Crested
Cormorant. They winter in US Coastal areas.
We paid likely our last visit to the South Padre Island
Birding Center hoping to score another Lifer. Apparently, we got really lucky. Our
Audubon book suggests most birders never see this guy. It suggests he is so shy
that birders may only see him by either waiting for hours for him to peek out
from the reeds, or to put on waders and make their way through the reeds in
search of a score. We just happened upon him sunning himself for a few minutes
before he ducked back into the reeds just like Audubon said.
Talk to you soon!
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