Dates: March 30 - April 8, 2026

Leader: Barry Zimmer

E-bird

Total Species: 220 birds

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Overall Summary

Once again, our Spring in South Texas tour was a huge success. We tallied virtually all of the South Texas specialty birds, had a wonderful experience with Whooping Cranes, found several great rarities and had a very good fallout on South Padre Island. Our weather was generally good, except for one really stormy day, and that one bad day resulted in the aforementioned fallout! Along the way, we tallied 220 species of birds! It really is hard to beat South Texas in the Spring!

A summary of five exceptional days of our tour follows:

Our first full day, we headed north towards Rockport for our charter boat trip into Aransas National Wildlife Refuge in search of the endangered Whooping Crane (the entire natural population of this species winters on this part of the Texas coast). By this time in April, most of the cranes that winter here have already started heading north, so there is always some apprehension about finding this highly-sought species. Well fear not, we had 8 individuals, including a group of four that came within 40 yards of the boat allowing superb viewing. It was magical, as one of the rarest species on earth put on a great show! But the cranes weren’t the whole show. We also tallied a very rare Sooty Tern (only my second ever in Texas), American Oystercatchers with a baby, four Lesser Black-backed Gulls, Seaside Sparrow, and countless terns, herons, egrets and shorebirds to round out the morning.

After lunch, we headed north to Cavasso Creek, where we found Boat-tailed Grackles at the very southern limit of their range. We then headed back down to Corpus hoping for better views of the Cattle Tyrant. After about a forty-minute wait, it appeared out of nowhere and landed on the dumpster. This time, he put on show, stalking round the dumpster rim and catching one fly after another. His spunky attitude enchanted the group, and the tyrant was ultimately voted the favorite bird of the tour!

The following day, we did an extensive loop from Corpus Christi to Mustang Island to Port Aransas and back to Rockport, hitting a wide variety of locations and habitats. For the day, we would see an impressive 100 species of birds with countless highlights. Blucher Park yielded many good birds including Chuck-will’s-widow, Great Kiskadee, Clay-colored Thrush, Long-billed and Brown thrashers, Northern Parula and Hooded Warbler to name a few. A Brown Booby near Oso Bay caused quite a stir (only a second time ever for this tour). In the grasslands of Mustang Island, we found a wonderful pair of Aplomado Falcons and a perched White-tailed Hawk. The Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center in Port Aransas produced Cinnamon Teal, American Golden-Plover, Stilt Sandpiper and a lovely Prothonotary Warbler, while Mustang Island beach revealed Piping and Wilson’s plovers and Least Terns in record time.

On day 5, our luck continued on the famed King Ranch. We very quickly found one of the two main ranch targets, the Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl. A new ban on playback, and even whistling, makes finding the owl very hard, so we were fortunate to literally find one silently perched in an oak within two minutes of getting out of the van! We watched this tiny owl for nearly thirty minutes and eventually just walked away. Other ranch specialties fell quickly into place as we had excellent views of Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet, Audubon’s Oriole and Tropical Parula (at one point no more than ten feet away!) in short order before lunch. Other ranch highlights included Northern Bobwhite, several Greater Roadrunners, more White-tailed Hawks, Brown-crested Flycatcher and spectacular Vermilion Flycatchers. By mid-afternoon, we headed south to McAllen, our home for the next three days. Late in the day, we birded residential areas of north McAllen in hopes of finding Green Parakeets coming in to roost. In rather quick fashion, we found a raucous group of 42 parakeets in the Walgreen’s parking lot! It was quite the spectacle and the noise was deafening!

Nearby, we had nesting Yellow-crowned Night-Herons, Plain Chachalaca and another Clay-colored Thrush before dinner.

Edinburg Scenic Wetlands was our destination the next morning. A very rare Crimson-collared Grosbeak (a northeastern Mexican endemic) had overwintered at this site, and we were hoping that it would linger for long enough for us to see it. With the help of the park staff naturalist, we had fantastic views of the grosbeak within fifteen minutes of arrival. It was only the fourth I have ever seen in the United States and a great bonus for our tour! Ther many other great birds to see at Edinburg, including our first Least Grebes, glittering Buff-bellied Hummingbirds and a Green Kingfisher. Estero Llano Grande State Park filled our afternoon. It was warm and breezy, so bird activity was rather low, but we did add White-tipped Dove, White-faced Ibis and fluorescent Altamira Orioles to our rapidly growing list. We capped the day with some very productive owling---getting crippling views of Common Pauraque and Eastern Screech-Owl (McCall’s subspecies). A Bobcat on the way to owling was the icing on the cake!

The next day, we headed back South Padre, stopping en route in west Harlingen to look for parrots. There we had a fantastic showing of Red-crowned Amazons (30+), as well as a White-tailed Kite and a pair of Tropical Kingbirds thrown in for good measure.

We arrived at the island at a site called Sheepshead at around 8:30 AM, and it was obvious from the outset that the front had brought in migrants. Numbers of birds were already being spotted by birders who had gotten there before us, and birds were dropping out of the sky as we arrived. In short order, we had Eastern Wood-Pewee, Eastern Kingbird, Yellow-throated, White-eyed and Red-eyed vireos, Wood Thrush, Swainson’s (rarely seen on this tour and right out in the open), Kentucky, Hooded, Prothonotary, Black-and-white, Orange-crowned and Tennessee warblers, Northern Parula, Louisiana Waterthrush, Orchard Orioles, Summer Tanagers and Indigo Buntings. Birds were all around us. Tearing ourselves away, we headed to the nearby convention center, and although it had fewer birds overall, we did see Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, American Redstart, more Prothonotary Warblers, Orchard Orioles and Indigo Buntings. The South Padre Island Birding center was next in line. Top birds there included a very late Bufflehead, Sora, Pectoral Sandpiper, Roseate Spoonbill from twenty feet, Yellow-throated and Northern Yellow warblers and still more Indigo Buntings. We had just enough time after lunch to return to Sheepshead to look for new arrivals, and we were not disappointed. Two brilliant Blue-winged Warblers, a handsome Worm-eating Warbler as close as ten feet away and a Swainson’s Thrush had joined the parade of migrants. On our way off the island, a flooded ditch had a late Wilson’s Snipe and a Solitary Sandpiper, while mangroves at the end of the causeway hosted a Scarlet Tanager.

Our final full day was amazing as well. We spent the morning on Santa Margarita Ranch, and most of that on a bluff overlooking the Rio Grande (my single favorite spot in all of the LRGV). From a vantage point slightly above tree top level, and with expansive views of the river, we saw over 60 species. Among these were the hoped-for Gray Hawk, Ringed & Green kingfishers, Red-billed Pigeon and Audubon’s Oriole. What we didn’t expect was a pair of Hook-billed Kite sailing distantly over Mexico and five Baird’s Sandpipers on a mudflat below us.

In all, we tallied an impressive 220 species of birds on our fantastic journey through South Texas, seeing virtually every area specialty bird, having an epic Whooping Crane experience, enjoying a nice South Padre Island fallout (with a tour record 18 species of warblers) and adding several great rarities to boot. This is a magical area that simply must be experienced in April.

Day-by-Day Summary

March 30 – Arrival in Corpus Christi; brief afternoon visit to “refinery road”, the “blue dumpster” spot on Water Street, Corpus Christi waterfront (25 species)

March 31 – Rockport Beach Park, morning boat trip aboard the MV Skimmer from Fulton Harbor to Aransas NWR, the Intracoastal Canal and rookery islands; Cavasso Creek, Bayfront Park & Water Street in Corpus Christi (69 species; 75 total)

April 1 - Blucher Park, the original Whataburger, Oso Bay, Hans Suter Boardwalk, JFK Causeway, Mustang Island----The Willows, Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center, Mustang Island Beach, ferry ride, Port Bay Road, Fulton cemetery (100 species; 114 total)

April 2 – Hazel Bazemore Park, Calallen sod farms, Mustang Island (Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center, Charlie’s Pasture, the beach), Packery Channel Park, Chapman Ranch (99 species; 136 total)

April 3 – Norias Division of King Ranch, residential McAllen (78 species; 160 total)

April 4 – Edinburg Scenic Wetlands, Estero Llano Grande State Park; owling in Bentsen State Park (63 species; 173 total)

April 5 – Drive out to South Padre Island in driving rain and wind; basically turned into a total rainout (25 species; 173 total)

April 6 – Altas Palmas Road of west Harlingen, South Padre Island (Sheepshead, the convention center, South Padre Island Birding Center, east end of causeway); drive to Zapata with a stop at Santa Margarita Ranch (110 species; 202 total)

April 7 - Santa Margarita Ranch & Bluff, Las Palmas Road, Salineño, Falcon State Park, Bravo Park in Zapata (87 species; 215 total)

April 8 –Las Palmas Road, CR 3169 out of San Ygnacio (42 species; 220 total)

Wildlife Seen: 

MAMMALS:

Eastern Fox Squirrel (Sciurus niger)

Mexican Ground Squirrel (Spermophilus mexicanus)

Eastern Cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus)

Desert Cottontail (Sylvilagus audubonii)

Bat species Bobcat (Lynx rufus)---nice views on our way to Bentsen for owling

Collared Peccary (Pecari tajacu)---four at Bentsen while owling and a single on Santa Margarita Ranch; the “habaneros?”

Feral Hog----on our boat trip

White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus)

Nilgai (Boselaphus tragocamelus)---introduced; an impressive twenty seen

Scimitar-horned Oryx---quick views of this critically endangered mammal on the King Ranch; exotic

Bottle-nosed Dolphin (Tursiops truncatus)---great views on the boat trip

total species - 12 (counting exotics)

REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS:

Texas Spotted Whiptail

Rose-bellied Lizard

Brown Anole

Green Anole

Ribbon snake species

Gulf Salt Marsh Snake

Indigo Snake

Red-eared Slider

Spiny Soft-shelled Turtle

Gulf Coast Toad

total species – 10

BUTTERFLIES:

Pipevine Swallowtail

Giant Swallowtail

Great Southern White

Cloudless Sulphur

Clouded Sulphur

Lyside Sulphur

Reakirt’s Blue Texan

Crescent Zebra

Longwing Gulf

Fritillary Red

Admiral Painted Lady

Common Buckeye

Monarch Queen

total species - 15

Gallery