Most Wanted - Part 2

Here's the rest of my experience with the "10 Most Wanted Birds" which  Birding Watching Magazine (August, 2013) compiled from a readers' survey.


No. 6 Spotted Owl

Another species that Audubon missed, so I'm in good company not having the bird on my life list.

No. 7 Kirkland's Warbler

Audubon missed this one too. As a native Michiganer, I should hang my head. This rare species nests in the jack pines in north central Michigan, an area where I spent many summers working at a camp. But I was not a birder then, and I have not been back to the area in many years. Perhaps its time to change that.

No. 8 Ferruginous Pygmy Owl - King Ranch, Texas, November 12, 2009.

A field trip with the Rio Grande Birding Festival successfully targeted this species (and then went for Sprague's Pipit). Big birding groups do not provide a photographer with his hoped for opportunities, so my photos of this owl are from Belize in March, 2011.

Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl

Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl

No. 9 Green Jay - Southern Texas and Rio Grande Valley - February, 2002; November, 2009

I have birded southeastern Texas and the Rio Grande area twice. This most colorful bird is common year-round, with the same delightfully roguish personality of the Corvids.

Green Jay

Green Jay

No. 10 Blue-footed Booby

This bird rarely strays north of the U.S.-Mexico border, and rarely appears at the Salton Sea. Since I have never birded anywhere near this area, my odds of having seen it are far greater than exceptionally rare. Maybe I'll change that someday.

I hope you get to see the birds you really want to see, but whatever happens, have fun doing it.

Good Birding!!

Birding in the Rio Grande Valley

Couch's Kingbird ...

Green Jay - like most of the Corvids, noisy, intelligent, wary - and also strikingly beautiful ...

American White Pelican ...

Red-shouldered Hawk ...

Osprey - this bird was fishing over the pond at Edinburgh World Birding Center. The photo is minimally cropped, and was taken with the zoom at less than 400mm ...

Merlin - This large female was perched on one side of the tree; on the other side and somewhat higher, sat a small male Merlin, looking covetously, or perhaps hopefully (excuse the anthropomorphizing) at the female as she mantled her prey. We were with a group from the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival in a residential neighborhood of Weslaco looking for parrots when we spotted the two Merlins. The male left, but she stayed put, slightly bothered by our presence but unwilling to fly off with her unconsumed prey. She was dining on an Inca Dove ...

Northern Mockingbird - fairly common in the river valleys near my Vermont home - very common in southern Texas - but that's no reason not to include this joyful mimic in a gallery of bird travel photos ...

Good birding!

More Images from the Rio Grande

We've had two full days at the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival. It's been good birding! Here are just a few more images of birds not seen in Vermont (unless the bird is very lost). First two are lifers.

Sprague's Pipit ...

Hooded Oriole ...

Black-crested Titmouse ...

Green Jay(the Texas equivalent of the Blue Jay, with a personality to match) ...

Neotropic Cormorant ...

Good birding!!

Early Photos from Rio Grande

We had our first day along the Rio Grande, mainly at Santa Ana NWR - a delightful way to begin our birding with the Rio Grande Valley Bird Festival, which begins tomorrow. First, a few of the southern Texas specialties:

Green Jay ....

Great Kiskadee ...

Buff-bellied Hummingbird ....

Least Grebe ....

and a White Pelican, not a Texas specialty, but not a bird seen in Vermont ...

Good Birding!!