Birders see 151 species in eight hours
WESLACO — On the first day of the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival, vanloads of birders engaged in what could be called “power-birding” – a friendly competition to identify the most species of birds in eight hours.
The participants, who worked in teams, were from locations as diverse as the birds they saw Wednesday.
A team named the Roseate Skimmers found 151 species of birds, said Michael O’Brien, a leader of the competing Armadillos, which identified 134 species.
The Malachites tied with 134 species, O’Brien said, and the Javelinas saw 114 species.
The vans covered a lot of ground, from Weslaco to South Padre Island, O’Brien said.
Participants marveled at the plethora of birds swarming around Lake Llano Grande at the Estero Llano State Park, part of the Valley-wide World Birding Center system.
Keith and Carol Radford of San Diego, Calif., were making their first birding foray into the Rio Grande Valley.
“We’ve been on a couple of trips out of the country, but first time down here,” Keith Radford said.
“We went down to Peru one time and Costa Rica.”
Radford said he and wife, who is retired from the Natural History Museum in San Diego, have also visited the Galapagos Islands.
O’Brien, of Cape May, N.J., and his wife, Louise Zemaitis, led one of the teams on Wednesday.
Zemaitis walked ahead or behind the group to spot for desirable birds and then O’Brien would bring the other seven birders to see what she had found.
O’Brien listened carefully to the bird calls before pointing out a species that might be new to the visitors.
“That kingbird, by the way, just called and gave its twittering call, which is a really diagnostic way to tell them apart,” he said.
He also acknowledged a black-bellied whistling duck as it flew by.
O’Brien said he and his wife travel around the country to participate in birding events.
“We come and do this festival every year,” he said.
At one site Wednesday, participants logged sightings of numerous chachalacas, green jays and scores of other bird species.
“That should be a clay-colored robin, but he’s looking for a clay-colored sparrow,” Judy Jordan of St. George, Utah, said.
The father-and-son team of Mark and Joe Moore visited the RGV Birding Festival from Sulphur Springs, northeast of Dallas.
“This is our 10th year,” Mark Moore said. “We’ve loved it every time.”
“The herd birds count,” he said of identifications for birds that travel in groups.
“You’ve got to be happy with the herd birds, today at least,” O’Brien told his group.
O’Brien pointed to marsh wrens, least grebes, Savannah sparrows and a vermillion flycatcher overhead.
“Look, there’s a barn swallow,” he said at one point.
Binoculars and cameras aimed upward quickly when O’Brien said there were several notable birds to the left, such as an Altamira oriole.
Jordan called out to other group members when she saw a peregrine falcon and some mourning doves.
During the afternoon, the group went on to South Padre Island where they observed the many types of shorebirds. The most interesting were an olive-sided flycatcher, reddish egrets and a clapper rail, O’Brien said.
