Laguna Atacosa National Wildlife Refuge

Sometimes its better to be lucky then  good and I really think that goes for the luck of spotting birds. On the way to the refuge we had already bagged a new life list bird, a white taied kite. It had hovered on both sides of the road and while we didn’t get a good image we were able to clearly observe its beautiful markings.

So as we drove the sixteen mile beach access drive we stopped and glassed and just plain enjoyed the day. Renita was the first to notice a javelin, as it left it’s hiding spot in the brush to feed below us. There were quite a few long billed curlews, pintails, and the ever present great blue herons.

The visitor center feeders had been our first stop and of course the plains chacalacas fed greedily on the feeders. Grey jays were also abundant as were a couple of cardinals. An altimira oriole added to our days list and while it wasn’t a new bird,(we saw one by Mission two years ago), it was great to see it and get a good image at a feeder.

The biggest excitement was the sudden appearance of a cotote at the feeders and the chacalacas were the first to give warning. The coyote soon gave uo on the idea of a lunch and instead settled for a long drink at the feeders pool.

Several times we had spotted small flying birds and of course they turned out to be more curlews. The only other flying birds were the soaring vultures but at least they were the black or Florida vulture, instead of the usual turkey vultures<, (they are easily told apart by the white and black undersides of the turkey vulture).

Then, at mile marker 11, I saw a bird hovering, and it continued to hover as we both watched it. Renita got out the bird book, but we reallt didn’t need it as we had studied the pictures of the Aplomado Falcon. There really wasn’t any doubt, it was a female aplomado, one of the rarest falocns.

It had disappeared from the United States as a result pesticides and  of its nest being raided for the eggs. Now there is a nesting pair in New Mexico and its being reintroduced here in the Texas Coastal Bend.

Again, its better to be lucky than good and to see a wild aplomado  falcon was more then we could hope for our first visit. Now we only have one falcon left, but to see that we will need to travel to Alaska, a trip about as far as we can possibly go from the southernmost tip of Texas! Clear skies.