Today the lower Rio Grande Valley is the best place in the USA to be birding. The National Rare Bird alert reported 7 rare birds in the entire USA yesterday and four of the are within an hour's drive of my hotel. Although I did not see any of the four, I did add 40 birds to my year list bringing my total to 79. Twelve of these were life-birds bringing my North American life list to 391.
It was also a great day to see other birders. I am currently reading John Vanderpoel's book "Full Chase Mode: Big Year of Birding in North America." It is a good read and I highly recommend it. While birding this morning I met a tall man from Colorado named John. I put two and two together and correctly deduced that he was in fact the author of the book I am reading and the owner of one of the top USA big year records.
John, his brother Larry, and their friend Liz were great company and graciously allowed me to tag along with them for part of the morning. I got some good advice and some help with finding and identify a few nice birds.
I met a few other new friends and enjoyed a beautiful day. Everyone I talked to seemed to mention Tiffany Kersten. She seems to be finding all of these rare birds on a regular basis. Tiffany is a local guide who did her own big year last year. i wasted no time in booking her guide services for tomorrow. Let's see how many of those rare birds we can find.
In the meantime, here are some photos of birds I saw today. Most were seen at Santa Ana national Wildlife Refuge. The rest were taken at Valley Nature Center.
Northern Pintail
Least Sandpiper
Green Kingfisher
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
White ibis
Great Kiskadee
Inca Doves
Plain Chachalaca
Green Jay
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