In April. When the weather is just right. It was just right last week. Another Big Day. We started at midnight, in the dark on the boardwalk, in the marsh at the Birding Center in Port Aransas, listening to Clapper Rail, Virginia Rail, and Sora. We ended the day standing in a swarm of mosquitoes in a marsh in the Guadalupe River Delta well north of here, listening to Least Bittern and King Rail call. In between, we spent 22 hours, covering 450 miles, making 22 specific stops at birding sites, and tallying 203 species. Not a new record for us, last year was 207, but 200+ birds in a day is a respectable count nonetheless. I know you want to know which birds we saw, so here is the list:
| Black-bellied Whistling-Duck |
| Fulvous Whistling-Duck |
| American Wigeon |
| Mallard |
| Mottled Duck |
| Blue-winged Teal |
| Northern Shoveler |
| Northern Pintail |
| Green-winged Teal |
| Redhead |
| Lesser Scaup |
| Ruddy Duck |
| Wild Turkey |
| Common Loon |
| Least Grebe |
| Pied-billed Grebe |
| Eared Grebe |
| Neotropic Cormorant |
| Double-crested Cormorant |
| Anhinga |
| American White Pelican |
| Brown Pelican |
| Least Bittern |
| Great Blue Heron |
| Great Egret |
| Snowy Egret |
| Little Blue Heron |
| Tricolored Heron |
| Reddish Egret |
| Cattle Egret |
| Green Heron |
| Black-crowned Night-Heron |
| Yellow-crowned Night-Heron |
| White Ibis |
| Glossy Ibis |
| White-faced Ibis |
| Roseate Spoonbill |
| Black Vulture |
| Turkey Vulture |
| Osprey |
| Mississippi Kite |
| Northern Harrier |
| Cooper’s Hawk |
| Harris’s Hawk |
| Red-shouldered Hawk |
| Swainson’s Hawk |
| White-tailed Hawk |
| Red-tailed Hawk |
| Crested Caracara |
| Clapper Rail |
| King Rail |
| Virginia Rail |
| Sora |
| Common Gallinule |
| American Coot |
| Black-bellied Plover |
| American Golden-Plover |
| Snowy Plover |
| Wilson’s Plover |
| Semipalmated Plover |
| Piping Plover |
| Killdeer |
| American Oystercatcher |
| Black-necked Stilt |
| American Avocet |
| Spotted Sandpiper |
| Greater Yellowlegs |
| Willet |
| Lesser Yellowlegs |
| Upland Sandpiper |
| Whimbrel |
| Long-billed Curlew |
| Marbled Godwit |
| Ruddy Turnstone |
| Sanderling |
| Semipalmated Sandpiper |
| Western Sandpiper |
| Least Sandpiper |
| Pectoral Sandpiper |
| Dunlin |
| Buff-breasted Sandpiper |
| Short-billed Dowitcher |
| Long-billed Dowitcher |
| Laughing Gull |
| Franklin’s Gull |
| Ring-billed Gull |
| Herring Gull |
| Least Tern |
| Gull-billed Tern |
| Caspian Tern |
| Black Tern |
| Common Tern |
| Forster’s Tern |
| Royal Tern |
| Sandwich Tern |
| Black Skimmer |
| Rock Pigeon |
| Eurasian Collared-Dove |
| White-winged Dove |
| Mourning Dove |
| Inca Dove |
| Common Ground-Dove |
| White-tipped Dove |
| Monk Parakeet |
| Yellow-billed Cuckoo |
| Greater Roadrunner |
| Barn Owl |
| Eastern Screech-Owl |
| Great Horned Owl |
| Lesser Nighthawk |
| Common Pauraque |
| Chuck-will’s-widow |
| Chimney Swift |
| Ruby-throated Hummingbird |
| Belted Kingfisher |
| Golden-fronted Woodpecker |
| Red-bellied Woodpecker |
| Ladder-backed Woodpecker |
| Eastern Wood-Pewee |
| Ash-throated Flycatcher |
| Great Crested Flycatcher |
| Brown-crested Flycatcher |
| Great Kiskadee |
| Couch’s Kingbird |
| Western Kingbird |
| Eastern Kingbird |
| Scissor-tailed Flycatcher |
| Loggerhead Shrike |
| White-eyed Vireo |
| Yellow-throated Vireo |
| Blue-headed Vireo |
| Warbling Vireo |
| Philadelphia Vireo |
| Red-eyed Vireo |
| Green Jay |
| Northern Rough-winged Swallow |
| Purple Martin |
| Bank Swallow |
| Barn Swallow |
| Cliff Swallow |
| Cave Swallow |
| Black-crested Titmouse |
| Verdin |
| Cactus Wren |
| Carolina Wren |
| Bewick’s Wren |
| Marsh Wren |
| Blue-gray Gnatcatcher |
| Swainson’s Thrush |
| Gray Catbird |
| Northern Mockingbird |
| Long-billed Thrasher |
| Curve-billed Thrasher |
| European Starling |
| Ovenbird |
| Worm-eating Warbler |
| Louisiana Waterthrush |
| Northern Waterthrush |
| Blue-winged Warbler |
| Black-and-white Warbler |
| Prothonotary Warbler |
| Tennessee Warbler |
| Orange-crowned Warbler |
| Kentucky Warbler |
| Common Yellowthroat |
| Hooded Warbler |
| Northern Parula |
| Yellow Warbler |
| Chestnut-sided Warbler |
| Black-throated Green Warbler |
| Yellow-breasted Chat |
| Olive Sparrow |
| Cassin’s Sparrow |
| Lark Sparrow |
| Black-throated Sparrow |
| Savannah Sparrow |
| Grasshopper Sparrow |
| Lincoln’s Sparrow |
| White-crowned Sparrow |
| Summer Tanager |
| Scarlet Tanager |
| Northern Cardinal |
| Pyrrhuloxia |
| Rose-breasted Grosbeak |
| Black-headed Grosbeak |
| Blue Grosbeak |
| Indigo Bunting |
| Painted Bunting |
| Dickcissel |
| Red-winged Blackbird |
| Eastern Meadowlark |
| Yellow-headed Blackbird |
| Common Grackle |
| Boat-tailed Grackle |
| Great-tailed Grackle |
| Bronzed Cowbird |
| Brown-headed Cowbird |
| Orchard Oriole |
| Bullock’s Oriole |
| Audubon’s Oriole |
| Baltimore Oriole |
| House Sparrow |