Down in the Valley

Starting just before 5:00 AM I drove to the Lower Rio Grande Valley today (with my detour it was a trip of about 530 miles). As I was about to zoom past Choke Canyon State Park, I realized that it would be really dumb not to go look for the Northern Jacana that has been seen there regularly for weeks. So I went, and I was delighted to see it poking around at the edge of 75 Acre Lake at the Calliham Unit of the park. It was a very busy bird, often flying a short hop to another patch of sedgy-stuff, picking at the water for awhile and then flying a short hop again. There were quite a few birders there, most of whom were also on their way to the TOS meeting in Weslaco. There was also an active non-quite adult male Vermilion Flycatcher and a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher.

After that I drove like mad to the Valley, having decided to bird at Anzalduas County Park for the hour or so that was available before I needed to go to the TOS meeting. At Anzalduas highlights for me were a Gray Hawk (imm) and a Zone-tailed Hawk, both well seen and photographed, the usual Black Phoebe, and a Black-throated Green Warbler, as well as some of the usual species.

The TOS meeting is now underway, after registration tonight, hearing a great talk by Roy Rodriguez about NE Mexico and its birds, and getting instructions about the field trips that will happen tomorrow. The forecast is for up to 8 inches(!) of rain tomorrow, so things may be a bit different than planned.