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| A Green Jay at Santa Margarita Ranch |
It provides scientists, researchers and amateur naturalists with real-time data about bird distribution and abundance. It essentially uses amateurs to gather data on biodiversity for use in science.
And, for birders, it provides a couple of features: a good way to catalog and retain information on personal sightings; tools for finding hotspots and locations to look for birds; alerts for birds you are trying to find; and support from ornithologists who will let you know when you have misidentified a bird (especially if you post a photo, which I always try to do). On several occasions, I have discovered that a bird I misidentified was actually a lifer, increasing my life bird count.
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| Mottled Owl; Photo: Simon Kiacz |
I had always wanted to check it out and I knew, from the posts, that it is accessible only by guided tour.
So, after I had planned my initial trip (and replanned it with an extension I will discuss in my next post), I started seeing posts about Brown Jays, a Bare-throated Tiger-Heron and a Mottled Owl at the Ranch. I tried to find information. Googling yielded a website that talked about a hunting lodge.
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| This didn't seem to match what I was looking for |
After poking around a bit, I found a Facebook page that listed both day and evening tours on a Saturday that I had open.
There was a day tour with a broad list of target birds including the Brown Jay and Bare-throated Tiger-Heron and a night tour focused on the Mottled Owl.
Of course, the most appealing was one that I just couldn't do because of a tour I had booked for Sunday morning several hours away. I had already seen a Brown Jay and several Bare-throated Tiger-Herons in Costa Rica, but I wanted a better Brown Jay photo and I figured there could be lots of other birds and critters.
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| I took this Brown Jay photo through a bus window in Costa Rica |
So, I booked it. The instructions I received said that we'd meet at 6:45 a.m. and park "by the border wall" in Roma, Texas. OK!!??!!! They recommended a lodge in Roma that was all booked up or the Holiday Inn in nearby Rio Grande City. Holiday Inn it was.
Getting There
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| My route |
Along Highway 16, which was about half of the five-hour drive, I saw few people but more Scissor-tailed Flycatchers than I could count ...
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| They love to perch on barbed wire |
... one Greater Roadrunner and 22 (yes, 22!) Crested Caracaras ...
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| I love these birds |
Was This Legit?
When I got to Rio Grande City, it was early afternoon, so I decided to go find the meeting point for the next morning's tour because I was (it turns out rightfully) concerned that it might be tricky. At that point I realized that I should have planned the detour first because I had to back-track for about a half an hour. Oh, well, what else was I going to do?
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| A bit of a drive |
Anyway, as I was prepping for the trip, I had printed out a map using the GPS coordinates I had been given and it indicated an address. Since putting GPS coordinates into my car's GPS is a bit tricky, I just used the address. When I exited the highway, I was on a somewhat sketchy gravel road and I ended up in front on someone's house. Didn't seem right.
So, then, I used my phone and put in Santa Margarita Ranch. At first, it gave me a spot two and a half hours away (had I made a mistake?), but then I found one close by. That one delivered me to a locked gate next to an even sketchier house with a giant "Beware of Dogs" sign and a contingent of dogs to be aware of.
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| Where was I? |
Yikes!!! I pulled over to rifle through all my papers and I finally found the original GPS coordinates. They took me further down the gravel road (which did get wider and better) following "Construction Vehicles" signs. I arrived (as indicated) at a relatively short span of border wall and a number of construction workers who were building more. Maybe this was the right place because we had been told to park by the wall, but I expected a ranch building or, at the very least, a sign for the Santa Margarita Ranch (even if it was a no trespassing sign). I sat there for a minute, contemplating, when a worker in a huge truck pulled up and asked if I needed help. I asked if this was the ranch and he responded, "Oh, if you're coming for a tour, they always park there," gesturing to a line of light poles along the Wall.
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| Parking spot |
So, I was at the right place, but now was quite unsettled. Was this legit? Or was it some sort of scam, where they would steal my car and throw me in the river? I was freaking out.
I went to the hotel, checked in and furiously Googled the ranch and the tour until I satisfied myself (well, almost) that it was fine. I was concerned that I would have to leave my car with all my luggage (including cameras I wasn't carrying on the hike) in such a remote spot. It just seemed like an invitation to be robbed.
I asked the Holiday Inn if they would store my luggage because I would be driving right by the hotel after the tour as I drove to my next destination. They said no. I don't think they were familiar with the concept.
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| The blue is our tour; light brown is the wall |
The next morning, I loaded up the car and left early just to make sure I could find the spot again. Because it was still dark, I knew navigating would be a bit trickier.
I was feeling very uneasy because I figured I'd be the first to arrive.
All my fears dissolved when I drove up. Half the group was already there.
There was no mistaking them for anything but birders: camp shirts, khaki quick-dry pants, binoculars, hats and SUVS (many much nicer than my car, so I probably dropped down on the car-break-in list).
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| Parked and ready to go |
So, we were doing this thing.
Santa Margarita Ranch Tour
The guides were Zach Johnson and Simon Kiacz, two transplanted biologists (Zach from New York City and Simon from Michigan) who originally moved to the Rio Grande Valley for research/work. The Santa Margarita Ranch is an actual cattle ranch that sits along the Rio Grande River and is not to be confused with the other three Santa Margarita Ranches in Texas (plus at least one in California).
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| On the border |
That explains my confusion. This one has no lodge or facilities and just allows limited guided access for birding. Simon and Zach have a deal with the owners for a limited number of trips.
While we waited for the rest of our group to arrive, we watched three Lesser Nighthawks hunting just on the other side of the border wall. I am not sure why I didn't just walk through the gate to try to get a better view of them, but I did get a smidge of video. It was too dark to try to get any photos of these fast little guys.
The first part of the trip was a short walk through the gate, down a hill and then back up to a bluff looking down on the Rio Grande and across to Mexico.
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| Our spot |
We spent about two hours just standing there watching birds. It became obvious at that point that this was what I call a "pure birding tour." A decent number of birds you can check off your list (and, yes, Simon handled keeping the list for us), but most of them too, too far away for a decent photo. In fact, some were too far away for me to even see. Many of my companions bird by ear as well. I have to see it to count it, so I had to delete some from the list Simon provided.
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| Birding from Texas to Mexico |
I have target birds for south Texas and I know it's ripe from new exotics and vagrants, but I have birded there several times, so my list of lifers shrinks every time. The trip was good, but not great for my photos and life list.
Here's what I photographed from way up above the Rio Grande (you can see how tough getting good photos was) ...
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| Great-tailed Grackles and Red-winged Blackbirds |
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| Ospreys |
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| Caspian Terns (not a lifer, but first photos) |
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| Great Egrets |
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| Plain Chachalacas (also not a lifer, but first photos) |
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| A variety of ducks, including Blue-winged Teals |
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| Green Jays (this one is eating a caterpillar) |
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| A female Summer Tanager |
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| Green and Ringed Kingfishers that I never captured, but I did get a Little Blue Heron |
Lots of Raptors, including ...
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| A very distant Gray Hawk (very distant) |
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| Cooper's and Sharp-shinned Hawks (this is a Sharpie) |
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And, finally, a lifer: a Zone-tailed Hawk that flew close by |
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| When there weren't birds, I amused myself photographing a Powdered Dancer |
We did not see the Bare-throated Tiger-Heron that had been drawing birders to Santa Margarita for the past few weeks (and was one of the birds that put the Ranch back on my radar). It's a Central American bird that doesn't belong there, but had shown up recently. The day I went, it had been a week since it had shown. I was OK with that because I saw them in Costa Rica.
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| Bare-throated Tiger-Herons in Costa Rica |
After standing in the cool morning air above the river, we walked back to our cars and drove a short distance, passing through a gate right by the "Beware of Dogs" house I had seen on my reconnaissance mission and parked. It was getting hotter, but our couple-of-miles hike took us into shade down to the Rio Grande's edge.
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| Better as the day got hotter |
The recent rain and some volume increases in the river (managed releases from dams above where we were) altered the normal route a bit and submerged several areas where the tour usually goes, but we still saw birds (and heard a lot more).
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| Down by the Rio Grande |
Right by the parking area, we saw some birds in the dense thicket (nothing I hadn't seen before, which was good because my photos were awful).
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| A Pyrrhuloxia and a Painted Bunting (both males) |
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| Up in the treetops was an Altamira Oriole, a very pretty bird found in South Texas |
Then, we started the hike, which was down a pretty well-maintained gravel and dirt trail (the high water did force us to climb over a barbed-wired fence and under a few trees, but it was pretty easy walking).
One of the birds we were looking for was the Brown Jay that I mentioned earlier. We did find the nest: way back in some dense foliage. A juvenile bird was sitting on the nest and I did manage a shot, but it wasn't better that the poor pic I got through a bus window in Costa Rica.
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| Juveniles help raise the next brood |
The nest is the first confirmed Brown Jay nest in the United States in 30 years, so at least I got to see something special.
Zach and Simon loaded up a feeding area, hoping to attract the Brown Jays, but they weren't having it. We did, however, see quite a few regulars ...
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| Including their prettier cousins, Green Jays |
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| They like bananas |
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| A couple of Golden-fronted Woodpeckers |
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| They like oranges and peanut butter |
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| Great Kiskadees (they like to make a lot of noise) |
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| ... and an Olive Sparrow too shy to visit the feeders |
We also had fun watching a Hispid Cotton Rat ...
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| It was running from a pile of twigs |
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| ... to snatch peanuts ... |
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| ... and marshmallows |
Hispid, by the way, means "covered with stiff hair or bristles."
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| Looks like fur to me |
Further down the trail, near the river, the birds got trickier to see because of the dense thickets. We did manage to spot a few ...
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| A Northern Cardinal and a Brown-crested Flycatcher |
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| A Black-and-white Warbler |
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| A Ladder-backed Woodpecker |
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| Plus, a nice variety of bugs and plants |
Another target for this group was somewhat rare for the U.S.: a pair of Morelet's Seedeaters, which live primarily in Central America, but can also be found in very far south Texas. We heard them long before we finally saw them in some tall grass across a small streamlet. Very tricky to even find in the camera, much less photograph.
I managed to get about a dozen shots of the female that were nothing but a blur and two that were at least identifiable.
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| Female from this trip, left, and male from my Costa Rica trip |
The guy standing right next to me got a shot of the male flying in to mate right after I put my camera down! I probably wouldn't have gotten it anyway.
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| Money shot! Photo: Austin Coleman |
As is obvious from my pictures, it wasn't a super successful photo excursion, but I did get one lifer and a chance to visit a spot I had heard about.
I just wish I could have gone on the evening walk to see the Mottled Owl, which does not usually show up in Texas.
But, I had to head on down to South Padre Island for a tour I had booked for the next day (starting at 7:00 a.m.).
About the Wall
Before I move on, however, I just wanted to share a bit more about the border wall that we parked next to. Eighteen-feet tall and constructed of metal slats that look rusty, it seems utterly ridiculous.
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| The wall in Roma, Texas (Starr County) |
The stretch we were next to, which is part of the State of Texas' border wall program, will run only 20 miles before giving way to open land on either end.
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| We need to protect them |
The National Audubon Society says, "More than 450 rare species live here. Some cannot be found anywhere else on the planet. At least 700 neotropical birds, mammals and insects migrate through the borderlands each year." Unfortunately, little attention has been paid to the effect the walls will have on those species.
Audubon continues, "Abundant evidence has shown over the past decade that these barriers do not stop people. But they have destroyed and fragmented rare habitats, blocked migration corridors for endangered species, undercut the borderlands economy and, along with a policy of militarization that dates to the early 1990s, they have led to the deaths of more than 6,000 human migrants."
It's sad, just sad.
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| The wall bisects the land; Photo: New York Times |
And a Word about Pickles
Whenever we visit Texas, we buy Best Maid Hamburger Slices, delicious crinkle-cut dill pickle rounds that we cannot get in Colorado, to bring home. Our local pickles just aren't as good.
I knew Scott had bought six jars for us and Caty, but when I was in an H.E.B. grocery store in Cedar Park, I picked up two more and put them in the back of my car.As I was leaving the border wall, hot, hungry and tired, I noticed that my car smelled of vinegar.
Fearing that the heat (by now the outside temperature was over 90°F and the interior of the car was probably well over 100°F) had caused the jars to explode, I stopped to check.
It wasn't that bad. One jar, however, had either lost its seal or had not been sealed when I bought it. It had tipped over and spilled all the juice in the back of my car (over some of Caty's things and Scott's shoes that I was taking back and across the bottom of my emergency bag).
So, after seven hours of birding in the heat and dust, I found myself in the Roma, Texas, McDonald's parking lot sopping up juice with my extra roll of paper towels. That evening, I was able to (somewhat) clean the damp items and, because I was in South Padre Island two nights, let them dry.
My car smelled like pickles for a few days, but it could have been so much worse! At least, it wasn't dairy or meat!
Smelling of dill and vinegar, I headed south for my last major stop, which I will cover in my next post.
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| South Padre Island |
Trip date: April 7-17, 2024
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