384. Common Eider

Date         May 27, 2025

Location    Race Point Beach, Provincetown, MA

To my left, I saw several ducks at the water's edge. Only one of them was an adult male; the rest were brownish. I strongly suspected this species, but I wanted to get closer to be sure AND get a nice look at this cool duck.

As I slowly made my way over -- taking a few steps, then pausing to look through binoculars, repeat -- a woman was walking to my left with a camera on a tripod. She was walking briskly and not stopping at all, so I was rather annoyed at her because I was afraid she would scare them off. So I quickened my pace somewhat.

She indeed made them head into the bay and swim away, but I got close enough to see it clearly. And at least they didn't fly away.

Cornell: Common Eider

383. White-winged Scoter

Date         May 27, 2025

Location    Race Point Beach, Provincetown, MA

Group of about five flying from my left to my right.

Cornell: White-winged Scoter

382. Crested Carcara

Date         May 3, 2025

Location    US Highway 90, Brackettville, TX

We were just driving from Del Rio to San Antonio and saw one on the side of the highway. It was a brief look, but these are so unmistakable.

Cornell: Crested Caracara

381. Couch's Kingbird

Date         May 2, 2025

Location    Moore Park, Del Rio, TX

We were still trying to make our way out, but the birds weren't done yet! Range and voice were extremely helpful in making this call vs. Cassin's and Western and Tropical. In just a matter of minutes, after deciding to go home, we picked up three flycatchers.

Cornell: Couch's Kingbird

380. Brown-crested Flycatcher

Date         May 2, 2025

Location    Moore Park, Del Rio, TX

Still making our way back, we heard and saw this bird high up in a tree. The more distinct yellow in the belly, the song, and the range helped us determine this species.

Cornell: Brown-crested Flycatcher

379. Great Kiskadee

Date         May 2, 2025

Location    Moore Park, Del Rio, TX

We made our way back to the opposite end of the park, and by this point, we were going to head back to the car and be done for the day. As we started back, we spied him/her high up in a tree. We eventually found a nest as well.

Cornell: Great Kiskadee

378. Cave Swallow

Date         May 2, 2025

Location    Moore Park, Del Rio, TX

Our last stop of the day was to a place called Moore Park, where Green Kingfisher had been reported. This was a city park, next to schools and civic buildings, with a stream running through it. It was a nice green space, but I had my doubts that we'd see anything interesting there beyond the usual suspects. It turned out to be an extremely productive area, despite all the cars and people about.

First we walked down to an overpass. There were dozens of swallows flying around. We soon spotted mud nests attached underneath the overpass. It was clear they were either Cliff or Cave Swallows (due to the nests and lack of forked tail).

However, it was quite difficult to make out details from the flying birds, and the ones on the nest were constantly moving as well, and heavily shaded. There were two things that made us determine that they were Cave, not Cliff: 1) the sounds they were making were distinct from Cliff and matched the sounds for Cave on the app; 2) the nests were not jug-like like Cliff nests; they were, as described in the Sibley's app, "a partially enclosed half-bowl of mud." Bingo!

Cornell: Cave Swallow

377. Common Ground Dove

Date         May 2, 2025

Location    Spur 406, Amistad National Recreation Area, TX

There were a few of these on the opposite side of the road from the bobwhites. They were acting pretty similar -- walking along the ground, foraging.

Cornell: Common Ground Dove

376. Northern Bobwhite

Date         May 2, 2025

Location    Spur 406, Amistad National Recreation Area, TX

As we drove further on, we saw some birds on the ground on the right side of the road. We stopped and were amazed to see several of these birds foraging in a shallow ditch along the side of the road. They proceeded to cross the road, where we saw our next new bird of the day.

Cornell: Northern Bobwhite

375. Bewick's Wren

Date         May 2, 2025

Location    Spur 406, Amistad National Recreation Area, TX

After driving all the way to the boat ramp and seeing a Least Tern, we drove back on the road leading back out to the highway, stopping at places that looked promising. We were pretty confident about this bird's song, and we were sure we were hearing it, but it was being quite stubborn about being seen, almost as bad as it's close cousin, the Marsh Wren. We finally got some decent looks as it moved about quite a bit on various tree branches, singing.

Cornell: Bewick's Wren

374. Common Black Hawk

Date         April 30, 2025

Location    Rio Grand Village, Big Bend National Park, TX

Confession time.

It is well known that Common Black Hawks have a nest at this location, down from the visitor center a ways. Signs near the nest prohibit getting too near. We did respect those signs and stayed on the road nearby. We saw the nest, but no hawks. So I pulled out my bird app and played the call note, hoping to attract their attention.

Before my clip had ended, one swooped up to the tree where the nest was and started responding. I stopped my phone immediately. But he sat there calling for about 10 more minutes.

Basically, it's a bad idea to "tape" birds this way because if it's done enough, it may drive them away from the nest because they think there are too many competitors.  There's a famous example of an owl (can't remember the species, but rare) at Cape May that didn't stay long because hordes of birders came there playing its call hoping to see it. I concluded that a brief use of this technique would not be a problem. But yeah, definitely should be careful about doing it.

Cornell: Common Black Hawk

373. Bell's Vireo

Date         April 30, 2025

Location    Rio Grand Village, Big Bend National Park, TX

We were hearing these *everywhere* in the brushy areas adjacent to the lawn/tree areas. We spent a lot of time trying to find them. Logan recognized the song, but couldn't remember what species it belonged to you for a while, then he finally remembered. We confirmed with our bird app.

We later did eventually get to see a couple, but they were usually content to stay hidden in the bushes, and sing almost continually. They were the most common bird at that site. Pretty nice-looking, actually, for a vireo.

Cornell: Bell's Vireo

372. Golden-fronted Woodpecker

Date         April 30, 2025

Location    Rio Grand Village, Big Bend National Park, TX

Rio Grande Village is in the southeastern portion of the park near the Rio Grand river. There is a small visitor center there and an abundance of city park-like terrain. We heard (they sound very similar to their cousin, the red-bellied) and saw this bird while wandering among the trees. We would see a few more throughout the morning.

The yellow coloration was delightful, being so used to the red of the eastern cousins. I suppose the opposite would be true to someone experiencing the Red-bellied after seeing Golden-fronted for years. That's part of the fun of bird watching. Something boring to you might be novel and exciting to someone else.

Cornell: Golden-fronted Woodpecker

371. Townsend's Warbler

Date         April 29, 2025

Location    Window Trail, Big Bend National Park, TX

We were heading back up the trail and almost back at the campground. We decided to take a long-ish break because it was getting pretty hot. We found a shaded area.

Across the trail from us were some trees, and we soon spotted a Wilson's Warbler, which were very common in the park. Then we found this one in the same tree.

Cornell: Townsend's Warbler

370. Colima Warbler

Date         April 29, 2025

Location    Window Trail, Big Bend National Park, TX

The Chisos Mountain range in Big Bend NP is the only place to see this bird in North America.

There were plenty of great birds that we hoped to get on this trip -- and we did get many of them -- but this was the target bird for me, and this was the one opportunity to get it. Not only would I probably never be back to Big Bend, but I probably would never get back to the Chisos Mountains on this trip.

We got it.

We actually ended up seeing and hearing at least two. The first one gifted us with a very good view on an exposed branch, singing. The white eye ring and yellow-orange undertail were visible, and the song fit perfectly.

Cornell: Colima Warbler

369. Black-crested Titmouse

Date         April 29, 2025

Location    Window Trail, Big Bend National Park, TX

We heard a titmouse song that was reasonably close to what we were used to hearing (Tufted Titmouse). We found one at about eye level in some trees. He was not giving us very good views, but we caught the black crest.

Cornell: Black-crested Titmouse

368. Brewer's Sparrow

Date         April 29, 2025

Location    Window Trail, Big Bend National Park, TX

The Window Trail is in the Chisos Mountain area of the park and is one of the possible places to find a Colima Warbler, so we chose this one to hike, starting out early in the morning.

To reach the trail proper, we had to snake our way through the campground. At the very beginning of the trail, we saw a couple of sparrows on the ground. We had been seeing Rufous-crowned Sparrows frequently so far on the trip, but this one was obviously different. After evaluating the "field marks" (which on this plain bird, is almost an absence of field marks), we determined that they were Brewer's. They were also pretty commonly seen at other times in the park.

Cornell: Brewer's Sparrow

367. Ladder-backed Woodpecker

Date         April 28, 2025

Location    Chisos Mountain Lodge, Big Bend National Park, TX

The final bird was found in the large pine tree that was directly opposite our table. Since it was a pine tree, it was difficult to get a really good look at it, but certainly enough to ID it.

Cornell: Ladder-backed Woodpecker

366. Canyon Towhee

Date         April 28, 2025

Location    Chisos Mountain Lodge, Big Bend National Park, TX

Soon after the Jay we saw a couple of birds hopping along the walkway. At first we were confused, thinking they were something from the cardinal/bunting family. (This was the same thing that happened to me with Abert's Towhee many years before -- I thought it was a strange-looking Cardinal). We eventually saw the rusty vent and messy throat and chest stripeys and figured it out.

Cornell: Canyon Towhee

365. Mexican Jay

Date         April 28, 2025

Location    Chisos Mountain Lodge, Big Bend National Park, TX

This and the following two birds were all seen in quick succession after we sat down to lunch in the Chisos Mountain Lodge restaurant. A propped-open door led outside to a balcony walkway surrounded by trees. We saw all three before we even had a chance to order. The waiter saw what was happening and just decided to wait. Perhaps he had seen such behavior before and knew that it was better to not interrupt!

The first bird was a Mexican Jay, who flew in from the right, probably rummaging in the dumpsters that we saw nearby later as we walked to our rented Jeep.

Cornell: Mexican Jay

364. Pyrrhuloxia

Date         April 27, 2025

Location    Shipman Park, Alpine, TX

Toward the end of the evening, as light was starting to fail and the wind was really starting to pick up, we were walking back to the car through an open area, basically the "backyard" of a little warehouse of sorts. We spotted two on the ground.

In general this hour-long visit to a community park turned out to be very fruitful. We also saw some mule deer -- here in the park and a few more in the hotel parking lot when we drove back.

Cornell: Pyrrhuloxia

363. Vermillion Flycatcher

Date         April 27, 2025

Location    Shipman Park, Alpine, TX

Very soon after examining the thrasher in a tree, we saw an obvious Vermillion Flycatcher on a short perch behind us. It was on something man-made, I can't recall exactly, but only about six feet up or so. This was to be a fairly common site throughout the trip. They would often perch in the open and not very far up.

Cornell: Vermilion Flycatcher

362. Curve-billed Thrasher

Date         April 27, 2025

Location    Shipman Park, Alpine, TX

After spending the day visiting a couple of historical parks, we settled in in Alpine, TX the evening before proceeding to Big Bend. I checked the map of Alpine, and a community park called Shipman Park seemed to be our best bet to find birds. It was sort of a mixed-use park with softball fields, playgrounds, and plenty of large trees. A creek ran through the park as well. There were plenty of "wild" areas. At one point we heard a Great Horned Owl and later saw it flying away from us. There were lots of birds here.

It was very breezy since a storm was (sort of) coming in -- we never got rained on, but the wind became fierce enough toward the end of the walk that we were getting blasted by dust from the ball fields. The high winds made birding a bit more difficult since birds perched on branches were moving with the wind.

The first lifer bird in the park for me was this bird. We found it perched high in a tree on an exposed branch, singing.

Cornell: Curve-billed Thrasher

361. Scaled Quail

Date         April 27, 2025

Location    Fort Davis National Historic Park, TX

Next to the parking lot of the park was a substantial hill. We found a quail perched in a tree a little ways up the hill. I was fortunate to see a couple more walking in the common area of our lodge near Big Bend called Far Flung.

Cornell: Scaled Quail

360. Cassin's Kingbird

Date         April 27, 2025

Location    near Fort Davis National Historic Park, TX

This was on the second day of our big west Texas trip featuring Big Bend National Park and other locations. While driving south on highway 17 near Fort Davis, Logan and I saw something to the right in small open area with a few trees. We pulled over to investigate.

We spotted a kingbird that was one of the western kingbird "complex" and saw it perched and fly across to another tree. Fortunately, it called and matched the Cassin's sound. Everything else checked out (range, habitat, looks).

Cornell: Cassin's Kingbird

359. European Goldfinch

Date         March 22, 2025

Location    Illinois Beach State Park, IL

I had recently learned that this species was a newly accepted ABA species (ABA 2) and that they were commonly seen in Lake county, Illinois, the county just north of Cook county (Chicago). We went to this state park in pursuit of some interesting migrants on the shores of Lake Michigan, but the waves were high and there wasn't much there. We walked inland on one of the trails and Logan asked someone about this bird. He suggested we look by the pine trees by a nearby resort.

We had passed the resort to our right as we walked south along the beach, so we simply went back up that way. We found a few stands of tall pine trees, and upon arriving, saw a bird fly to the left and perch on an open branch of a deciduous tree (no leaves yet, of course). And there it was, easily identified.

It certainly pays to ask the locals.

[not in Cornell guide as of publication of this post]

358. Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay

Date         November 25, 2024

Location    Grand Canyon National Park, AZ

This picture is a screen grab of a video I took with my phone. Yes, with my phone!

After the Rufous-crowned Sparrow, we started the hike back up the Bright Angel Trail. Which, by the way, is probably the most arduous hiking I've ever done, at least that I can remember. Anyway, I heard a bird in a tree down the trail from me and turned back to investigate. This was a pretty easy ID.

The video capture shows him flying past me from left to right as he flew up the trail to another tree just above me on the trail. You can see the beautiful canyon wall in the background.

Cornell: Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay

357. Rufous-crowned Sparrow

Date         November 25, 2024

Location    Grand Canyon National Park, AZ

This was on the Bright Angel trail, down from the South Rim.

Mieka and I had stopped to rest at the 3-mile rest house, preparing for the climb back up. I was sitting on a boulder at the base of the house, eating something. I saw two birds flitting about the bushes nearby, probably about 10 yards away. I managed to pull out my binoculars and was getting a good look when they started flying toward me.

It eventually landed on an adjacent boulder not three feet away, just out of arm's reach. My guess is that they feed off of crumbs from all the hikers eating and resting there, so they've gotten bold. I was able to get a good look without binoculars. He stayed there for a few seconds before flying off. Range and habitat also fit perfectly.

This was the second sparrow of the year (other was Golden-crowned in Alaska) that basically fell in my lap as I was sitting on the ground eating.

Cornell: Rufous-crowned Sparrow

356. Stilt Sandpiper

Date         October 5, 2024

Location    Nygren Wetland Preserve, Rockton, IL

The photo above is the actual bird, as taken by a cell phone camera through my spotting scope lens.

Logan and I agonized over this one for quite some time. I even submitted to the What's this bird? page on Facebook. The consensus was Stilt Sandpiper. After considering range and everything else, we felt like this was a solid ID.

Cornell: Stilt Sandpiper