Getting to day six, we are finally ready to go real south, to the Rio Grande Valley. But before we head down, we still have two important birds to find in Corpus Christi: The long-continuing Red-footed Booby, and a pair of Aplomado Falcons nesting at Mustang SP.
Early in the morning, we headed towards the Aplomado viewing area. As soon as we arrived, we saw the pair resting in their nest box. After a while, they finally gracefully flew off to a hunt. As I found the habitat suitable for Sedge Wren, a species that we need, I played a little bit of a Sedge Wren call and two actually showed up!
Then, we headed to the Red-footed Booby spot where it is said that the Booby always rests on the breakwater opposing the Milliard Center. But when we arrived, dense fog covered the entire area and we couldn’t even see the breakwaters!
The fog had not cleared for a while and we had to head south at least at twelve. Then, at 11:40 the fog suddenly decided that we had waited for long enough and opened a window for us to look at the breakwater! After a scan, I spotted the Red-footed Booby and got great views!
After a two hour drive we took a turn off the highway and started to drive around the farms for south texan raptors. On the highway, we have already got the harder White-tailed Hawk and our target now is only Harris’s. After a while of driving, a brown hawk with white undertail appeared to our right. It is a Harris’s Hawk! After a while it took off and we drove to Hanka Sod in search of Sprague’s Pipit. But unfortunately, despite that huge number of american pipit, we saw no Sprague’s. But with five lifers, it is a great start to Rio Grande Valley!
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