A neotropic cormorant and its reflection in Alligator Lake at Estero Llano Grande State Park in Weslaco, Texas ... Photo by Pat Bean
While I didn’t get the green kingfisher I was hoping for during my walk to Alligator Lake at Estereo Llano Grande State Park in Weslaco, Texas, I saw 136 birds this past weekend. Seven of these were lifers, birds I was seeing for the very first time.
One of these new birds was the rose-throated becard, which is rare in the valley. The Texas Ornithological Society group I birded with the first day of the organized field trips looked in vain for this becard. I found it the next day when I birded alone with my son and grandson.
On the third day of the field trips, I met up with a woman who had birded with me the first day, so of course I told her about seeing the becard. She said that was OK, because not seeing it meant she had an excuse to return again to the Rio Grande Valley.
Her attitude is a familiar one with the birders I know. One doesn’t even have to see a bird to have a good time. Just walking with Mother Nature is its own reward. One of these days I’m going to finally see the green kingfisher, which is not rare at all here in the valley.
Thankfully there will still be over 400 North American birds not yet on my life list, and thousands of others around the world still waiting to be seen.
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