Another beautiful day for Texas birding!
We decided to go to Quinta Mazatlan today to check out the Blue Bunting that has been reported there. The Blue Bunting is a rare bird for south Texas. There was a brisk warm wind today from the gulf and the day was hot around 88 degrees but with the wind it was pleasant.
We arrived at Quinta Mazatlan. This is a restored adobe mansion that the city of McAllen purchased and it is a unique place. A World Birding Center location, a museum and room for a gallery.
The Blue Bunting was seen about 10 minutes before we arrived. We went to the feeder area where the bird had been showing up consistently the last week and we sat and stood and we talked and finally after an hour, we saw it. Immediately everyone was focused on the bird. The blue is azure and almost a blue chromed-looking bird. It is a ground forager and pretty flighty. One birder told me Blue Buntings are sporadic and never stay in the same place, just keep moving so this particular bird is unusual. We enjoyed seeing this little fellow and then checked out the rest of the 9 acres of gardens and bush. We also caught views of Inca and White-winged Doves and the cadre of usual winter birds here which are all beautiful. We also sat and watched a House Sparrow take a good soaking in a bird bath and he looked so funny. The House Sparrow must have been hot.
From here we went north to Brushline Road which was recommended to us by a volunteer guide. On the first road from the highway there was a game farm with Buffalo, and Antelope-type animals (Oryx & Leche) in the fields and we stopped as the Buffalo was pretty close to the fence.
It took a while to find the road and then we thought we were on it and suddenly we were no longer on it and there were some signage challenges. So when we finally found the road we had gone a long way. In the north end of the road, there was a Wildlife Refuge and we parked and walked down the trail. We were miles from anywhere and there was a locked gate so that no cars could come down the road. We were down a ways and a truck appeared and stopped for us and it was a farmer who uses the farm road which is on the refuge to his fields. We asked him questions about a plant we had seen in fields that went on for miles and we did not recognize it. We could see huge fields of cabbage and shallots and some other things but these mystery fields had a dense plants about 10 feet high which looked like long skinny palms or something. But very very dense. The farmer confirmed our guess, sugar cane.
The farmer said the only Texas sugar plant that processes the sugar cane was nearby and the first field of sugar cane we had seen (nearyby the 281 and Alamo Road) was his field. He also told us that up the road we were heading there were some Javelinas that had crossed the road. Javelinas usually have a community group of about 20. And even further up the trail/farm road we could see huge horse-like animals crossing the road. The farmer told us that these were escaped game from the King Ranch, I forget the name of the African animal. So it was really interesting to talk with this farmer. We thanked him and off we went another couple of hundred feet looking for the Javelinas, but they were long gone. We did not go further as the day was waning and we still had to slowly drive the south side of Brushline Road. We were looking for Bobwhites and Cactus Wren but had no luck. Barbr was happy though as we saw several Crested Caracaras in the fields, which is one of her favourite Texas or Florida birds. Colleen spotted a pair of Pyrrhuloxias in the bush on Brushline but the photo op was not there, but Colleen was amazed that they were in this dry bush area.
We headed home and with some take-out and prepared food and we had a lovely supper. For splash today it was Michelob Ultra beer. Yesterday, when we stopped for gas, the gas station had these huge 1/2 liter Michelebob Ultra cans of beer, so I bought one. So tonight for our supper splash we had that beer with lime to toast the lifer Blue Bunting.
Right now Barb and Colleen are looking at their photos and I am writing this. We are all busy!
We decided to go to Quinta Mazatlan today to check out the Blue Bunting that has been reported there. The Blue Bunting is a rare bird for south Texas. There was a brisk warm wind today from the gulf and the day was hot around 88 degrees but with the wind it was pleasant.
We arrived at Quinta Mazatlan. This is a restored adobe mansion that the city of McAllen purchased and it is a unique place. A World Birding Center location, a museum and room for a gallery.
From here we went north to Brushline Road which was recommended to us by a volunteer guide. On the first road from the highway there was a game farm with Buffalo, and Antelope-type animals (Oryx & Leche) in the fields and we stopped as the Buffalo was pretty close to the fence.
It took a while to find the road and then we thought we were on it and suddenly we were no longer on it and there were some signage challenges. So when we finally found the road we had gone a long way. In the north end of the road, there was a Wildlife Refuge and we parked and walked down the trail. We were miles from anywhere and there was a locked gate so that no cars could come down the road. We were down a ways and a truck appeared and stopped for us and it was a farmer who uses the farm road which is on the refuge to his fields. We asked him questions about a plant we had seen in fields that went on for miles and we did not recognize it. We could see huge fields of cabbage and shallots and some other things but these mystery fields had a dense plants about 10 feet high which looked like long skinny palms or something. But very very dense. The farmer confirmed our guess, sugar cane.
We headed home and with some take-out and prepared food and we had a lovely supper. For splash today it was Michelob Ultra beer. Yesterday, when we stopped for gas, the gas station had these huge 1/2 liter Michelebob Ultra cans of beer, so I bought one. So tonight for our supper splash we had that beer with lime to toast the lifer Blue Bunting.
Right now Barb and Colleen are looking at their photos and I am writing this. We are all busy!
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