A Day of Raptors

(November 29th) After making the long drive down and staying at a great hotel on San Padre Island, I woke up early to drive out to Laguna Atascosa NWR. Last year I had great luck out at Laguna Atascosa - waterfowl, raptors, songbirds, tortoises, mammals, etc. I was planning on coming back a day, so my main goal was to make sure I found the best places to be. It was a little bit later and a heck of a lot drier than last time. What was ponds and marsh when I last was here, was now dry fields so all the waterfowl were out in the bay, but most of the other wildlife was present in abundance. I saw my first amphibian in Texas - a Rio Grande Leopard Frog - a new species for me. I also ran into several osprey, including this one who was eating a fish. It flew around for a short while when it saw me, then landed again on the mudflats to finish eating after it decided I was not a threat.

I headed to a small lake to see what it might bring. I wound up seeing a sight I had never seen before. I've seen some American Avocets before, but usually solo individuals or a few at a time. Here there was a large flock of around 50 birds. The whole flock was in a tight formation all feeding together - like an army on the march. A few terns were even following the group and diving after the fish they scared. Maybe it's a common behavior on their wintering grounds, but it was new to me.

As I drove around some more, I was in for a few treats. Laguna Atascosa is always full of Loggerhead Shrikes and these little spitfires are great fun to watch. One of the highlights was a White-tailed Kite. I noticed that the wind was really gusting and it was using the wind to pretty much hover as it scoured the land for prey. I moved up ahead of it and waited for the wind to bring it to me. When it reached me, it hovered directly over me at a pretty low height just watching me for a few seconds before continuing on its hunt. To me, it's one of our most pretty hawks.

There were more raptors waiting for me. An American Kestrel perched up nicely near the road, but in the wrong direction for the sun. I found a Harris's Hawk perched atop one of the large bushes. This bold hawk you can only find in Texas and Arizona. They seem to love Laguna Atascosa and I always see a few here. The light was great, but I didn't have the best angle on this hawk.

The best treat of the day was as I was driving back to the hotel. Just off the refuge I ran into one of the birds I was most hoping to find - the highly endangered Aplomado Falcon. This falcon has a wide range and is common down in South America, but it became extirpated in the U.S. back in the 1950s. It has been introduced in Texas and it is a great sight to see. Of course, I saw the falcon when there was virtually no light left as the sun was setting. With a little bit of flash magic and thanks to the falcon being extremely cooperative, I was able to pull off a few shots using the car as a blind. All in all, it was decent day of photography and I witnessed some wonderful things - in the length of this blog, I only had the opportunity to describe about a quarter of the wildlife I saw.