Birding on March 9 at Estero Llano Grande State Park

The Bay Area Birders once again ventured up the Rio Grande Valley to Estero Llano Grande State Park at Weslaco. We hoped to see the rose-throated becard but we were not so fortunate.

At the pond by the deck, we saw a green kingfisher diving for food.

We also got a good look at a cinnamon teal.

At one of the ponds, there was a 'flotilla' of northern shovelers busily feeding.

Over towards the grebe pond we saw the 5 least grebes and turtles. Then it poured rain and we got soaked. The rest of the group went on ahead to see if they could see the pauraques. No dice. It's the first time I've been there that they weren't there.

We did, however, see 6 yellow-crowned night herons as well as this immature one.

We saw a few golden-fronted woodpeckers. This one was getting the last of the orange pulp at the feeding station.

This is also a good place to get quite close to chachalacas. They run around like chickens and usually make a lot of noise.

Other birds spotted but not pictured were a clay-coloured robin, starlings, grackles, kiskadees, a curve-billed thrasher, a vermilion flycatcher, blue- and green-wing teal, an inca dove, and white pelicans. On the way there we spotted two Chihuahuan ravens at the side of the highway and on the way home, a white-tailed kite.

Last night Skip and I sat down with a regional birding list and determined that since we arrived on February 2nd, we've spotted 111 bird species. Today we added 4 more to that list. 115 and counting...