Birding King Ranch

I arrived at the King Ranch Visitor’s Center in the pre-dawn at 5:45 am. Yawn. There were 8 people milling around 2 vans. We would be driving an hour south to the Norias Division of the ranch and meeting 5 more people at the southern gate. On the list, the big 4—Ferruginous Pygmy Owl, Audubon’s Oriole, Northern Beardless Tyrannulet, and Tropical Parula. The scouting the guide had done several days before really paid off. We found a Tropical Parula and a Hooded Oriole right away. We looked long and hard for the owl though. We walked through live oak motte after live oak motte searching, listening, straining for any flicker of movement. Finally one owl started calling, coming closer, coming closer.... It popped out and we got great views. Fantastic.

The day passed with life bird after life bird flitting through. I ended up with 12 life birds on King Ranch. Ferruginous Pygmy Owl, Northern Beardless Tyrannulet, Audubon’s Oriole, White-tailed Hawk, Olive Sparrow, Vermillion Flycatcher, Sprague’s Pippit, Green Jay, Harris Hawk, Black-crested Titmouse, Cave Swallow and Bronzed Cowbird.

I loved the Ranch and would highly recommend it to everyone.

Deep in the Heart of Texas

Greetings from Texas.

I am in San Antonio for a conference. I flew down here a little early to go on a Whooping Crane tour and to pop over to King Ranch for a full day birding tour. I flew into Corpus Christi and stayed in Aransas Pass. There is a very birdy local park just outside of Portland called Indian Point Park. You can get great pictuers because the bird are fairly close. I spent a morning there with some very nice folks from the Audubon Outdoor Club. I then drove to Rockport to board the Wharf Cat for a 4 hour tour (10a-2p) of Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. There were only 9 people on the boat. No jostling for rail space. We ended up seeing 56 cranes and the Wharf Cat was able to get fairly close. It was awesome. Many of the cranes were in family groups like the one in the picture (the baby is brownish). But there were also some juveniles hanging around together in cliques. If you want to go, you gotta go soon though, they are already starting to leave. It was a mere $30. Best of all, I didn't get seasick.

And King Ranch! What an amazing experience. I picked up 10 life birds including the Ferrigunious Pygmy Owl. Sweet. If you are anywhere near Kingsville, you must arrange a tour. Definately worth it. The local birding is great as well. There are Harris Hawks and Crested Carcaras sitting on utility poles like we have Red-tails in the Northeast. I got some great pictures which I will post. If you are anxious, you can go to my Flickr page. http://www.flickr.com/photos/ucbradley/
More later. Gotta go to work.