April 2025 Texas birding trip

Tuesday April 15th Earliest flight to Houston Hobby. After a long wait at Hertz I was headed to Attwater. It became clearly obvious that I wasn't seeing any prairie chickens. I know where I will see them. Kansas on a Lek Trek one April. Kansas Lek Treks. I was greeted as I came in to the refuge by killdeer, upland sandpipers and bobwhite, as well as eastern meadowlarks in abundance. I spent several hours there and in retrospect I should have walked the four mile auto drive. I would have probably seen more birds. I went to Eagle Pass where I was staying and ate at Maxwell's Meat Market. I had one of the best cheeseburgers I've ever eaten and a fried balogna sandwich. On my way from HEB I saw a Swainson's Hawk. I went back to Attwater right at sunset. I'd seen whistling ducks in Memphis last year but had never heard them. At Attwater I did and now I know why they're called whistling. The last bird I saw landed on a tower. I took pictures and turned out it was a great horned owl. Good way to end a good day.

40 species, 5 lifers.

Wednesday, April 16th I woke up at 2:00 AM and I was on the road to Ballcones by 3:00. It was a strategic decision because I didn't want to fight Austin rush hour traffic. I got to just outside Ballcones early enough to have second breakfast. I got to where the golden cheeked warblers were supposed to be so early I had to wait three minutes to official sunrise. And I was not disappointed. These stunning little birds were calling and displaying well. And at the end of my time Woodhouse’s scrubjays flew in. After looking at warblers and wrens they looked huge. Then I headed out to look for black-capped vireo. I stopped at the refuge headquarters first to see if they had merch. There was no merch but man were there birds. In just over an hour I found over 30 species including several lifers. On to the black capped vireo spot. There was a circle path there and loads of white eyed vireo. Towards the end of my first lap around Merlin suddenly picked up black capped vireos. It took about 10 more minutes but I got good views of two. Then I headed south to Kingsville.

40 species, 10 lifers.

Thursday, April 17th I got to King Ranch at 6:00 AM for the 6:30 tour. From the visitors' center parking lot I heard common pauraque. There were seven people on the tour, mostly much older than me. The tour leader had only guided for King Ranch for a month but he was an outstanding birder. We spent most of the day in one spot unsuccessfully looking for an owl. We never found it but we found many other species, including many lifers for me. I think the best bird for me was a Botteri’s sparrow. Then it was back north to Rhonda's. On the way I had two bites of one of the worst meals of my life. Just outside of San Marcos I stopped at Schulze’s Pit Room, a BBQ pit to get the bad taste out of my mouth. It was nearing closing but all I wanted was a brisket sandwich. It was the best brisket sandwich I've ever eaten. The barbecue sauce was a perfect complement to the tender brisket. I got it to go and as I was nearing the car wave after wave after wave of western cattle egret flew over. There were at least 300 over a period of 20 minutes or so. What a sight. The rest of the trip to San Marcos was uneventful.

57 species, 13 lifers

Friday, April 18th to 10:00 AM Saturday, April 19th. Got up at 5:00 AM Friday and was greeted with a great surprise. Two chuck-will's-widows calling back and forth in my sister's yard. They have a vineyard and have specifically left one part of their property wild. That little space is a bird magnet. In spite of pretty big winds the birding was good. Friday evening I heard a huge group of birds coming in the sky. Merlin picked up Franklin's gulls and pictures I took verified that ID.

39 species, two lifers.

Saturday, April 19th I headed south to Santa Margarita ranch. Along the way I birded the south shore unit of Choke Canyon. Lots of varied habitat. Fun stop.

31 species, one lifer

Saturday April 19th to Sunday, April 20th I birded with two groups of very experienced birders at Santa Margarita ranch. Zac and Simon led the tour Saturday, Simon on Sunday. These two are amazing birders and great guides. They put us on loads of great birds including my two Texas nemesis birds, verdin and pyrrhuloxia. And I got my 500th lifer. According to ebird scaled quail.

96 species, 27 lifers.

Monday, April 21st A transition day with no big drives. I birded a couple spots. I spent the past two nights at Rancho Lomitas on Zach's recommendation. A cool spot that's a bit of a challenge to get to. As I was leaving this morning a pyrrhuloxia was on the ground at the gate. What a fun way to end a great two days of intense birding.

55 species.

Tuesday, April 22nd The first day of the Migration Madness tour with Tiffany Kersten of Ninja Birding. A fun group. We birded spots in Hidalgo County today. Tiffany is an incredible birder and an outstanding guide. She makes sure that everyone gets on the birds and has incredible knowledge and anecdotes about birds. A greater pewee was seen and we went twitching to find it. After some searching we did find it and got really great views. Peculiar Nest, the spot we're staying in, is fun and unique and the food is fabulous.

92 species, 4 lifers

Wednesday, April 23rd First thing we went searching for red-crowned amazons at the north edge of their range. We found them but the stop became very special for me. I noticed a hotspot in the middle of a palm tree. It took me a long time but eventually I determined it was probably an owl. Tiffany put her scope on the bird and determined that yes indeed it was an owl, an Eastern screech owl. I was so excited to find this bird. We had a fun day of birding that ended with a nice view of an elf owl.

79 species, 5 lifers

Thursday, April 24th. The day started for me locked out of my room. Lois our wonderful hostess unlocked my room for me. I shared my quinoa salad recipe and she made it as part of our yummy dinner. Last day of the tour. The day was spent on South Padre Island. Lots of birds, the highlight for me was great views of black skimmers. For the whole migration tour we saw 154 species. 11 lifers for me.

79 species, 2 lifers

Friday, April 25th

I left McAllen right after breakfast intending to twitch to Galveston. I found two targets (snowy plover and Aplomado falcon) and missed a third and realized it was a long drive to Galveston still ahead of me. So I headed down the road stopping for some incredible shrimp tacos from a truck in a town in the middle of nowhere.

34 species, 2 lifers

Saturday, April 26th

I went on an organized tour as part of Feather Fest to High Island. Because the south winds are helping blow the migrants north the bird activity was low. We still saw lots of good birds. Then I went to the vendor area and talked to Forrest from Rockjumper Birding about my future birding plans. He was very enthusiastic and said it was doable. He gave me suggestions of tours to go on. I will sort through them when I get home. He also told me a spot to look for two target birds, clapper rail and boat-tailed grackle, in Galveston. It was basically two county roads that intersected with one being surrounded by fresh water marshes, the other by salt water marshes. He birded it the day before. I found my target birds and loads of others. I was most fascinated by the common nighthawks. I reported 5 but that was probably low because I heard them all over the place. It was late and pretty dark when I finished.

102 species, 3 lifers

Sunday, April 27th

I left Galveston early for north of Houston. In W.G. Jones State Forest I looked for and found several red cockaded woodpeckers and a brown headed nuthatch. Then I went south of Houston and had incredible barbecue at Killen's. I noticed a small park close by and decided to bird it. It was a wonderful wetlands with lots of woods as well. I had lots of fun there, lots of birds including another lifer. Nice way to end a fabulous Texas birding trip.

52 species, 3 lifers

Totals for entire trip:

248 species, 77 lifers.

https://ebird.org/tripreport/351906