We followed a couple from Ohio who were back for their 2nd try for these birds. On the way, a male Summer Tanager and a Blue-headed Vireo were nice distractions for this west coast birder. Within minutes this couple had found a "green" Crimson-collared Grosbeak feeding quietly at the back of a tree. Occasionally Plain Chachalachas would disturb it but over the course of the next hour, a female and juvenile CC Grosbeak performed well but not well enough to digiscope.

Next stop was McAllen where a Green-breasted Mango had been reported sporadically in the backyard at 500 Rose Ellen Blvd. We arrived at 8:30 and dutifully paid our $10 per head "donation". I hope everybody who sees this bird pays up. Immediately upon arrival, the mango was seen sitting in a bare tree next to the feeders. What a stunner! Occasionally fanning its tail to show off its purple/russet tail feathers and chasing the dimuntive (in comparison) Buff-bellied Hummingbirds off the feeder. Other nice birds here included an Eastern Phoebe.

Below is a photo. I posted another one in the N. American Stop Press gallery.

Anyway, thanks again to Texas birders who are always so friendly and organised. Hopefully I can come back soon.

Flying in to El Paso, the park is a 5 hr drive from there. I stopped in Ft Davis, where I met up with the others who had a staked out Black Hawk nest by the side of the road. Within minutes I had this difficult bird under the belt. It was certainly a nice change to see a lifer so easily but it did make me appreciate the thrill of seeing a lifer after you've had to suffer through hours of waiting. It almost seemed a little anti-climactic that it was so easy.

On to Big Bend, where we had rented a cottage right at the trailhead for the Colima Warbler dash in the Basin at Chizos Lodge. That evening we enjoyed some dinner on the porch whilst watching the wildlife go by:

White-winged Dove

The guide books had duly warned us of the strenuous hike and they were spot on. I won't lie, it was quite hard work. We left at about 6am to give us maximum time on the trail before the searing heat picked up. By 10am we were about halfway and had reached the Laguna Meadows. This was Colima Warbler territory (although still not quite sure why it is called a meadow). After a short while we found a Colima amongst a flock of Bushtits immediately after we had brief views of a Virginia's Warbler.

We continued onwards and upwards to the famed rarity hotspot of Boot Springs where we also happened upon local guru Mark Lockwood. A well-earned rest at Boot Springs (the non-birding companion was starting to complain bitterly about the lack of lunch) also brought us Blue-throated Hummingbirds, Painted Redstart, Hepatic Tanager, Canyon Wren, Cordilleran Flycatcher and another Colima for those who went up the trail.
Boot Springs

Reluctantly, we left Boot Springs and headed back on the steeper Pinnacles Trail. This trail is meant to be a shorter route back to the cottage but a lot steeper and not sure I would recommend it for those going up for the Colimas. On this route, we stopped briefy to look at some Broad-tailed Hummingbirds noisily chasing each other around a tree. I focussed on one sitting bird and saw bright white ear coverts, a reddish base to the bill and before I could shout male White-eared Hummingbird, the birds all dashed off. We waited for about 45 mins but no re-appearance of this tantalising sighting. Throughout the walk, we could hear the mewing of a young Zone-tailed Hawk on a nest in the canyon and later on, we saw an adult bird soaring with Turkey Vultures.

Boot Canyon (with the famous boot shaped rock)

The hike down seemed an eternity and little birding was done but at least it was downhill. We ran out of water about 45mins from the end of the trail (I hiked in with 4 liters!) and arrived at our cottage exhausted. We managed to get back in time to make it for a well-earned BBQ dinner at the Lodge.

We were up early on Sunday morning to hike the Window trail. Not wanting to overdo it after yesterday, I only hiked a short way but enough to see Varied Bunting, Bell's Vireo and some handsome male Scott's Orioles. Looks like I headed back too soon as the others had a Black Bear!

We headed back towards Alpine from Big Bend and stopped off at Marathon for lunch. Life looked nice and slow here:

While the others headed on to New Mexico, I stayed the night at the Hotel Limpia in Ft Davis to give myself another chance to look for Montezuma Quail. These birds haven't been seen here for a while and it didn' t look like they would break from tradition for me.
Hotel Limpia

Skunk whilst waiting for the Quail

The next morning, the drive back to El Paso was punctuated by some roadside stops along prairie to see Lark Bunting, Lark Sparrow and Swainson's Hawk
Swainson's Hawk in the prairie

Deserted Gas Station

What's perhaps even more remarkable are the owners (the Williams) who not only tolerate the constant stream of birders but even welcome them providing lawn chairs and free bottles of water for the weary (sometimes it is hard work relaxing on the recliners whilst watching Kiskadees come to the bird bath a few feet away :) Never has there been such a pampered set of birders waiting for a US first. Remember that next time you can't feel your toes as you stand in a drenched Gambell boneyard.

Birders waiting for the Black-headed Nightingale Thrush. As you can see, conditions were quite tough:

The Williams bought the property when it consisted of a few trees and a dried out lawn and through a lot of hard work turned it in to a wild birding oasis. Even if there were no vagrants, you could still spend a very pleasant few hours enjoying the Kiskadees, thrashers, Golden-fronted Woodpeckers , Black-bellied Whistling Ducks, Clay-colored Robin and Plain Chachalacas and much more feeding on the fruit and visiting the drip every few minutes. Photo ops are very good. There is a donation box at the front for $10 and it's worth every penny. I hope all who come give generously and tip too.

Anyway, after a flight that was delayed by 45mins and then a 6 hour drive, we arrive at 8am only to find the bird was last seen at 7:15am. If only my flight wasn't 45mins late! At least the bird was still around and so we felt confident it would pay one of its regular visits within then next 2 hours...14 hours later and not a sign! Boredom and a sense of failure was setting in. Even the team captain John Odgers who has been great at updating Texbirds every day on the thrush's movements and was making encouraging noises about it making an appearance any moment had a sense of resignation on his face. He looked like Phil Jackson waiting for the inevitable final whistle in the Lakers/Pistons final. Still, on paper, it was a great day on the chairs with Blue Mockingbird making regular appearances along with White-eyed Vireo and Great Kiskadees. We went to bed that night mentally preparing ourselves that perhaps the thrush had moved on.

Sunday at 5:30am, we were back on site, trying to find our seats in the dark. We only had a few hours before the drive back to Houston so if this bird was going to show, it had to be soon. Almost immediately, we heard a tantalising vireo-like song from the thicket next to us. After a short while it stopped, its identity unresolved. 8am saw us napping and still no sign of said thrush. By this point, I had resigned myself to failure and a long drive back and at least wanted to be awake for the drive. Suddenly, the vireo-like songster started up again and immediately woke us. We jumped up and joined some birders by the fence who were watching the thrush. What a relief and what a great bird. We watched it for almost an hour singing and feeding on the thickets on both sides of the bird bath. An attractive thrush with orange orbitals and bright legs and bill.

Now back to Houston but on the way a stop off to see some Aplomado Falcons by the side of the highway. Heat haze was pretty bad so photos even poorer than my usual standard but you get the idea.

A stop off at Jesse Jones in Houston to look for Swainson's Warbler was derailed by a massive thunderstorm. We witnessed a thundering bolt of lightning explosively crash down on a freeway sign ahead of us. The sign exploded in a shower of sparks. This truly looked like the hand of god! This storm meant more waiting - another 4 hours at Houston airport coupled with missing my connection in Phoenix and a night there. I arrived at work on Monday morning a little exhausted but at least it wasn't a run of the mill weekend.

Here's a Short-billed Dowitcher

and Western Sandpipers

Land of the Condors

Los Angeles in the background

Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley in the background

And a little further on this young bird

Directions - take 405 north to 5 north to 14 north. Exit Sand Canyon and head south east in to the mountains. After about 15mins drive, turn right on Bear Divide. Continue up this narrow road for a few miles until you reach Camp 9 fire suppression station. Birds hang out on road up to camp 9 and also on the radio towers. Do not try to feed the birds - they need to be kept wild and afraid of humans.

Almost immediately I got out of the car, a shorebird flew past looking for all the world like a Ruff. It paused briefly by a pool and shot off again. I grabbed my scope and found some yellowlegs and dowitchers at a distance. And there was the Ruff. It was getting dark and it was windy so the shots are more record shots (there's another one also posted on the Stop Press Page)

Light was running out, so I decided to head back to look one more time for the plovers. It was obvious that many more plovers had showed up and I quickly found the 3 Pacific Golden Plovers amongst 20 or so Black-bellied Plovers. I managed to get some record shots as the sun was going down.

Sunday afternoon found me looking for Condors in the San Gabriel mtns above the San Fernando Valley. Many birders had seen birds most of the morning and as I was driving up I met a birder who had just seen a young bird by the side of the road. However, something wasn't right. I started to doubt I was in the right place. I searched extensively but no luck. It's not out of the realm of possibility that I'm just not very observant and wouldn't know a condor if I drove right past one...Perhaps, next weekend I'll have time to give them another try.

Recent Rarities Gallery

If anyone wants Yellow-chevroned Parakeet, I can definitey help you there - they wake me up at 7am every morning!

from Mitch Heindel

Spotted Doves are very common in the PV/SoBay area still. Driving south on the 405 from LAX one usually starts to see them about Redondo Bch. Blvd. exit, which you can take a mile east to Alondra Pk. and probably see them. Most South Bay or PV Peninsula parks have them...

They are also at Banning Pk., Harbor Pk., Peck Pk. in San Pedro.... A dozen live around the intersection of Western Ave and Torrance Blvd. They like areas with large trees, but will accept sparsely treed residential areas too, particularly those with tall dense hedges. While they have declined somewhat here in the last decade, they remain "common".

I believe the declines are related to the recolonization of breeding Cooper's Hawks. Spotted Dove is the most common pile of feathers found in our city parks. One pile today at Banning was SPDO. Spotted Doves expoloded in a period when Coops were absent as nesters locally. Now with their return of the last decade, SPDO is the primary food source.

from Kimball Garrett

They are still common in western Long Beach (e.g. along Ocean Dr. east of the end of the 710), but have declined greatly or vanished from much of eastern Long Beach (and essentially all of Orange County).

Some visitors are restricted to an hour or so around LAX. Although Spotted Doves are still to be found in the residential areas around the airport (Westchester/Inglewood/El Segundo), they're not the instantaneous slam-dunk they used to be. Nevertheless, with a little bit of driving around, birders should have no trouble finding them in this area. They're also in the residential areas east of the Harbor Freeway (e.g. Compton north to Huntington Park), and they are holding on in the southwesternmost part of the San Gabriel Valley (e.g. Alhambra).

Spotted Doves remain fairly common in parts of the central L. A. Basin; one spot I recommend is Echo Park, just NW of downtown Los Angeles. (Easy to find daily, though fewer than in past years).

As for the causes of the striking decline in this species, I agree with Mitch that it likely has something to do with urban predators. Cooper's Hawks (which, amazingly, were a blue-listed species of concern not too many years back) are common urban breeders now. But we can't ignore the phenomenal boom in American Crow (and Common Raven) numbers in urban areas and their impact as nest predators. I suspect that proliferating Eastern Fox Squirrels are also a factor, though Spotted Doves have declined in some areas where these squirrels are still scarce or absent. Why haven't these predators wiped out Mourning Doves as well? Here, I think it may be the much narrower ecological range of Spotted Doves -- they're pretty limited in their nest sites (medium heights in large shrubs or trees) whereas Mourning Doves will nest just about anywhere and everywhere. Finally, we should at least consider the possibility of disease as a cause in Spotted Doves decline, though there is no concrete evidence of this.

One thing that is certain is that the decline of Spotted Doves cannot be attributed to the establishment of Eurasian Collared-Doves (unless they've committed suicide in anticipation of the invasion). The decline of Spotted Doves in Ventura County began before ECDs boomed, and over much of southern California (including L. A. County) the loss of Spotted Doves has occurred in places that still lack ECD populations .

It seemed that everything was very skittish this morning.

I decided to sit and wait and see if I could get some shots of the White-crowned Sparrows- I managed one of a young bird. Now with some time in photoshop maybe I can get rid of that annoying branch...

Red-winged Blackbirds were also very vocal and getting ready for spring.

Suddenly, a Sora Rail popped out of the bush next to me and fed unpeturbed along the reeds.

Occasionally some coots would rush it but for the next 15 mins it showed very well.