700 Quest! Part I: 699 Quest

For as long as I've been birding in the U.S., 700 was the number. Hitting 700 meant that you'd been everywhere, and seen most everything. I've been on a slow march towards 700 for a long time now, but, as any birder knows, it gets harder the closer you get. I saw 500 species in my first 5 years of birding, getting a Kentucky Warbler for my 500th ABA species in north Mississippi in early 2011. 600 was two years later -- still a pretty good clip -- a Gray Vireo in southern California. 

Things slowed after that. I got 12 ABA birds in 2016, 11 in 2017, 1 in 2018, 0 in 2019, 3 in 2020, and 3 in 2021. There just weren't a lot of birds I could see without a lot of effort and expense, two things in short supply with a youngster in the house. At the beginning of 2022 I was sitting at 697 ABA birds and after two years of pandemic madness I was itching to get moving.

Plus, I wanted to hit 700 so I could start focusing elsewhere. In my younger birding days, international birding seemed somehow impossibly complicated and exotic. The U.S. was big enough. But that's changed, and the lure of totally unique birds and big trip lists has overtaken everything else. 

But I was within striking distance of 700, and wanted to cross that finish line. Texas obliged, and at the beginning of 2022 there were 4 lifers hanging around the Lower Rio Grande Valley pretty regularly - a Bat Falcon (!), Social Flycatcher (!), Golden-crowned Warbler, and Crimson-collared Grosbeak. I could do it in a long weekend, I thought. My wife acceded, and I booked it. 

I texted my birding dudes in case anyone wanted to join. They couldn't. I prepared to go alone. (I love birding alone and was fine with it, and it felt actually like a full-circle completion to U.S. listing, where I birded alone for years before meeting birding friends.) But the day before I left I texted the group again and talked about my preparations. My friend Ed texted back - wait are you actually going? I thought you were joking. No, I'm going. Want to come? Leaving tomorrow. Yes. Incredible. Ed's a great birder and one of the best guys and had never been to Texas before, and all of a sudden this trip just got a lot more fun.

The flights down were uneventful, and we met in San Antonio at about the same time despite taking different airlines. We grabbed a car and drove the always-long-than-you-remember trip straight south to McAllen. We headed straight to Santa Ana NWR hoping to catch the Bat Falcon at dusk, but missed. No matter, we were suddenly among the palm trees and cacti in South Texas and life was good. That night we dined at a auto-mechanic-turned-taco-shop, giddy that this was actually happening, happy to be out of the Maine winter, and ready to get some good birds. 

Bat Falcon at Santa Ana

We were up at dawn and headed back to Santa Ana. The Crimson-collared Grosbeak hadn't been seen for a few weeks, so now I needed hit all 3 of the remaining birds to make 700. A tall order, but they'd all been reliable. We waited along the entrance road in front of the Bat Falcon's favorite perch -- a telephone pole above a noisy road -- and - there it was. No one even saw it fly it, it was just there, suddenly, perched on the pole. 

Black-necked Stilt in the morning light at Santa Ana

An incredible bird. The first ABA record, and just an attractive species. We were pleased because sometimes it wasn't cooperative at the telephone pole and birders had to chase it all over the Refuge, but not us. We were in good spirits, and now had time to kill. The Valley Nature Center, where the Golden-crowned Warbler had been hanging out, didn't open for a few hours, so we explored Santa Ana.

young Gray Hawk at Santa Ana

We had the place to ourselves, and spent a beautiful morning walking the trails past spoonbills, stilts, pelicans, kingfishers, woodpeckers, Green Jays, Long-billed Thrashers, Gray Hawks, and a bunch of south Texas specialities. Ed saw the Rio Grande for the first time, and we pondered over this sleepy stretch of river that caused so much heartburn and heartache. 

We made the drive to Valley Nature Center, and walked to the back section into one of those scenes you hate to see as a twitcher: a bunch of birders aimlessly walking around shrugging, saying "haven't seen it yet, not sure where it is." Oh. We poked around for a few minutes and then -- there it was. This tiny warbler came chipping through the dense vegetation, briefly posing for good looks. Golden-crowned Warbler is rare but regular in the LRGV, and I was thrilled to connect. Sitting now on 699.

Golden-crowned Warbler at the Valley Nature Center, ABA 699

We had hit two of our three targets and it was Saturday at noon. We figured we'd walk right into the Social Flycatcher at the University of Texas RGV campus and then have a whole extra day to explore. Our minds raced. Should we head up to Laredo and get the seedeater? Should we go to Aransas NWR and get Whooping Crane, Ed's number one most wanted bird? We were dizzy.

We rolled up the campus and walked to the beautiful resaca habitat. There were a ton of birds around in what proved itself to be a perfect migrant trap, including my lifer Texas Black-throated Gray and Black-throated Green Warblers, and Fulvous Whistling-Duck. But ... there was no flycatcher, and no one had seen it that day. We waited, and walked around. The weather worsened. Brownsville is much closer to the Gulf than McAllen, one of the local birders said, and it's often much windier. It was howling, and raining. We spent six hours at the campus, and left birdless.

We were back at it the next morning, but decided to make a stop at dawn at nearby Eserto Llano before making the hour plus drive back to campus. EBird checklists showed that the Social wasn't really a morning bird, and we wanted to pick up Buff-bellied Hummingbird and White-tipped Dove so we stopped and enjoyed those birds and more before heading back south. 

We arrived to find another stomach-dropping scene: a bunch of birders celebrating and high-fiving after seeing the Social Flycatcher and then seeing "We just saw it, but it's not here now." We had missed it by maybe 10 minutes. At least it was around. We settled in with our hopes renewed.

the best sighting at UTRGV

Six hours later we still hadn't seen it. We'd seen every goddamn bird (and Bobcat) in every goddamn bush in the whole park, but not the Social. Our legs were sore from walking laps. We wanted to do something else. So, stuck on 699 and with no clear next lifer in sight, we bailed. I was so ready. 

Unburdened from the wait, we have a great afternoon of birding. We drove out to Old Port Isabel Rd. and got distant looks at Apolomado Falcon, as well as a number of trip birds including Long-billed Curlew and a bunch of waders. Then we scooted up to a Red-crowned Parrot roost in Brownsville and reveled at the squawking mass on telephone wires right over our heads. We listened to the Super Bowl in Spanish on the way back to the hotel, reveling in the not-Maine-ness of it all. 

Green Jay /heart eyes emoji

We got up early the day of our flight out but didn't have time to head back down to Brownsville, so cranked up towards San Antonio, stopping at a few out-of-the-way places en route. We scored some distant Mountain Plovers (only my second ever) at a random farm field in Frio County, and picked up some nice little common state birds in a park in Castroville. 

I left Texas sitting on 699 with no clear answer for 700. How long would it take? What bird would it be? Connecticut Warbler was the most likely possibility - though would still require a ton of effort - and everything else was a wild card. I'd have to wait and see. 

Turns out, it didn't take long at all. TO BE CONTINUED!

Top Fives of Texas

I don't like doing trip reports on this blog, but I do like doing whatever the hell I want to. So here's a trip report.

I went with two friends, Jason and Zach, to South Texas for a few days in early June. We saw a crap-ton of birds, ate a crap-stone of great food, and had a crap-kip of good times. Here are some highlights, recounted in a Top 5 format, for some reason.

Best Meals

3243. Pepe's in Harlingen

3242. being hit by a car
4. Ultimo Taco in Brownsville

3. Ribs at Cowpokes BBQ in Pearsall, TX.

2. Every single meal at Laredo Taco Company in Stripes Gas Stations throughout south Texas. Fresh tortillas made for you in a gas station!

1. Barbacoa tacos with bright red hot chili sauce at Roadside Inn Meat Market, Hidalgo Texas. We were hot and tired and driving around looking for some food. We pulled into the first place we saw that had a sign for Tacos out front (but, like, 90% of stores in Mission have tacos, even muffler repair stores, it seemed). It was about 2pm, though, and the kitchen in Roadside Inn was closed. After looking around for a few minutes to try to piece together a meal, some guy came out from the kitchen holding a styrofoam container saying something to the effect (in Spanish) of: "Oh well we have this barbacoa, you want this?" Yes, we did. Standing out front of the restaurant scooping up the juicy meat with fresh tortillas and dousing it with spicy red sauce ... it was just the kind of surprise moment I love about birding.

Best Dogs

5. The dog that kept barking at us while we were looking for Ringed Kingfishers.

4. The skinny Chihuahua that almost ran in front of our car that time.

3. The yappy white dog in the purse in Leakey.

2. The puppy that Jason pet next to the breakfast taco stand in Sabinal.

1. Tulip, the rescue dog that we met waiting for Red-crowned Parrots in Harlingen.

Weirdest Ladies
5.
4.
3. The butterfly lady who yelled at me at the NBC for walking too fast when she was looking for a Gray Cracker
2. Stripes worker who really wanted to give Zach a fork
1. Paranoid waitress/conspiracy theorist in Leakey, Texas

Read more »

EVERYBODY STOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING: IVORY-BILLED WOODPECKER IN TEXAS

Listen, everyone, this is big news.  Noonday, Texas resident and frequent The Learning Channel viewer David Gabbard has found a pair of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers in his neighborhood.  ARE YOU LISTENING?

In case you were skeptical of this sighting, we've got video to prove it.  News station KYTX - a station billing itself as a "news leader" and would never run a story without fact-checking so don't even worry about it - has made a visit and taken conclusive video.  Here's the story. 

As a birder, I am flabbergasted.  How did we miss this pair?  Maybe because it's been so long since Ivory-billed have been seen - 5 whole years according to the totally accurate, not at all embarassing KYTX story - that maybe we all forgot that they look exactly like Red-headed Woodpeckers?  Who can say for sure, but I'll be glued to KYTX to find out.

Interview with Dr. Keith Arnold, founder of the Texas Bird Records Committee

Records Committees are those bodies of expert birders who examine unusual bird sightings from within their state to determine their validity and accuracy.  As a regular birder, I have a tendency to romanticize such proceedings.  What power!  Are the Committee members sitting around a big round table like the Knights of Camelot?  Do they spend late nights in the backrooms of nightclubs, smoking cigars and politicking about Canada Geese subspecies?  

It's an extremely interesting subject, and I am very thankful that Dr. Keith Arnold has agreed to help me clear up my imagination.  Aside from being one of America's most respected ornithologists, Dr. Arnold is an author, a Professor Emeritus at Texas A&M and a founder of the Texas Bird Records Committee.

I'm grateful (and honored) that Dr. Arnold was able to take the time to help me clear up some of my misconceptions about Record Committees, and give me a glimpse of what actually goes on behind those closed doors:

Birdist: What was the impetus for the creation of the Texas Bird Records Committee?

Keith Arnold: Birders have a problem with rare birds and acceptance by the scientific community. Our committee started [in 1972] when George Newman, then president of the Texas Ornithological Society [and also my graduate student] asked me to form a committee to examine such records and to develop a state checklist for all birds. I did so initially by recruiting a well-known birder from each of the 8 T.O.S. regions.

What exactly were the problems? A lack of uniformity in terms of what birds were countable? A lack of knowledge of what existed, or what was common or uncommon, in Texas?

KA: Where to start?
1. The reputation of the birder for "finding" rarities...usually not "re-found" by others...
2. Species easily confused...
3. Need for documentation, even written details, but photos, recordings, etc., preferred...
4. Where are records available...
5. How does one evaluate a record that appears simply as a name in a printed account such as in American Birds or its predecessor or successor...

Given a bit of time, I'm sure that I can add to this list, but it should give you an idea as to what the birding and scientific communities face.

So you sat down with your 8 T.O.S. birders and began examining records. Because these pre-TBRC birders didn't realize that they needed a certain amount of proof for a sighting (because the TBRC didn't exist yet) did you find yourself disallowing a large number of sightings?

I imagine there must have been some controversy, or at least heated discussions, among the members of the committee and with local birders, do you remember any specific incidents?

KA: After the formation of the committee, we only considered records that were submitted to us by birders. After Greg Lasley joined the committee in the 1980s, he began to dig into the birding literature for rarities. He and Chuck Sexton complied a list of "review species", based on less than 4 records a year over a ten-year period. The committee adopted that list as its staring point, although it has been modified -- birds added or deleted and, in some cases added again; at least one committee member didn't think that we should remove ANY species because of a loss of information.

And yes, we had some "differences of opinion" with some birders, some to the extent that they refused to submit details on any rarity they encountered. Along those lines, we have a number of birders who will not submit details on a species that occurs almost every year, but does not meet the criteria for removal, simply because they know that they can find the bird in Texas almost any year. The parrots and parakeets have been a problem in that we now have sustaining populations, but the origin is in doubt; one of our former members [I think he is now back on the committee] took it upon himself to survey for breeding birds of the Red-crowned Parrot and Green Parakeet and we added these species to the Texas list, based on his findings.

While I'm sure I could dredge up some controversial records, I don't think it would do the birding public any good to do so. As stated above, we have enough difficulty in gathering details on rarities, even though dozens of birders saw [and many photographed] that particular bird. I will give you one example in which I was directly involved. I refused to accept [vote for] records of Lesser Black-backed Gull for a number of years because the only species considered in those reporting was the Greater Black-backed Gull: I wanted the committee [and birders] to consider other "black-backed" gulls. Since that time, mostly in the 1970s, the birding community has become more adept at IDing gulls and we have since added Western, Slaty-backed and Kelp and possibly Yellow-legged -- all dark-backed gulls. I continue to struggle with Iceland and Thayer's Gulls.

How are Committee members chosen and how long do they stay on?

KA: Current committee members suggest names for open positions; if more are nominated that the number of positions - usually two, then those receiving the most votes at the annual meeting will be elected. We have two members rotating "off" each year, with each serving a 3-year term, and eligible for a second term if so desired. The committee chair and the academician [the position I hold] are elected each year, usually without opposition, and have no limit to the number of terms that person can serve.

How is a sighting presented to the committee? Is it like a courtroom, where a birder or a committee member presents the information and pleads his case, or does someone in charge present each case and opens it to discussion?

KA: The TBRC has a form on the T.O.S. web site that anyone reporting a Review Species can use; we occasionally get information in a less structured way, however. We ask that all relevant photographic materials be submitted: today, that usually means digital images sent as e-mail attachments. The record [usually one of at least six] is then sent out to the committee members via an e-mail, with access to them on a web-site. 

A record that receives no more than a single nay is accepted on the 1st round; those that receive 2 or more nay votes, but at least 5 yea votes are sent as a 2nd round, with copies of votes and comments of all committee members; this may be repeated in a 3rd round with the same criteria. If the record still has at least 2 nays and 5 yeas, it goes to a fourth round for discussion and a final vote at the annual meeting; we try to hold an actual "in person" meeting and, because of the size of the state, not all members may be present. A few years ago, we modified the bylaws to permit electronic or tele-conference meetings. That came into play this year as the annual meeting was scheduled for the day Hurricane Ike hit Texas!

We don't say that we "reject" a record, but that it is a "non-accepted" record; any record can be recall for the committee if additional evidence comes forth and such a recall is usually initiated by a TBRC member.

What effect did the advent of records committees have on birding?

KA: Has this affected birding in Texas? Without doubt. We have some birders who, having submitted a "non-accepted" record, simply will not submit another record. That is unfortunate, not just for that person, but also for Texas birding. On the other hand, many Texas birders have begun to write better field notes [or begin to keep field notes], carry a camera with them and some, even a recorder, since in some cases, vocalizations are better evidence than photos. I also think that having the TBRC and a Review Species list has sharpened the skills of a number of Texas birders, as they come to understand the difficulties in identifying certain species complexes. ø

Great American Birding Road Trip

Last Tuesday I left the lovely mountain town of Aspen, where I had been working for the winter, and began and epic journey across these United States back to my childhood home in Maine. Being an avid birder I could not resist the opportunity to pass through some of the country's most famous birding spots (during migration no less!), regardless of whether or not they were on a direct route to New England.

And so, loyal reader (haha), what is to follow will be the account of my journey. Over the next few days I will be writing about my experience at:
Natural Bridges National Monument, Utah
Coronado National Forest and Portal, Arizona
Lake Balmorhea, Texas
Pedernales Falls State Park, Texas
High Island, Texas
Dauphin Island, Alabama
Francis Marion National Forest, South Carolina

I write these in the hopes that other birders will come across it when they google something like "birding" + "lake balmorhea" and thus be given lots of helpful information and not fall into some of the pitfalls that I fell into. THUS BEGINS OUR JOURNEY!

OK well actually not yet. There are some things I'd like to thank for helping me come though in one piece.

-My 2002 Subaru Legacy sedan. This car was my trusty steed throughout the entire journey and never let me down. Whether it was whipping around the dangerous dirt roads of the Coronado National Forest or driving endless miles of our nation's highways, I always trusted that my car was there. The $1200 worth of exaust repair right before the trip didn't hurt either.

-My copy of The National Geographic Guide to Birding Hot Spots. This book was indespensible when it came to figuring out where I should go and what birds to expect there.

-The Sibley Guide to Birds. What can I say? Everything I need to know.

-My American Map 2006 Road Atlas. Very comprehensive. Never led me astray.

OK that's over with LET THE JOURNEY BEGIN!