January TOS Meeting in LRGV
 

Carpooling to T.O.S. meeting in January 2010
 

Looked on the TOS website and and aside from a brief mention of the winter meeting, I cannot find any type of schedule for field trips. Mary Lee, have you heard anything on this?

Not yet nor have I received the Nov. T.O.S. newsletter that should have the registration and field trip info. I'm sure they want to get all loose ends tied up before they publish anything. I have emailed them to try and get additional info but have not yet received a reply.

The field trip to the Texas Ornithological Society meeting in Weslaco was great! Some of us flew down, others drove but everyone had a good time and saw wonderful birds. The field trips were to the best birding spots in the Lower Rio Grande Valley - Estero Llano Grande, Bentsen-Rio Grande State Park, Santa Ana, Laguna Atascosa, etc., etc., etc. Rare birds were seen - Rose-throated Becard, Ferruginous Pygmy Owl, Greater Black-backed Gull but sadly no Bare-throated Tiger Heron. Take heart though - there was a report on Texbirds yesterday that there was a probable sighting.

Our accommodations (Best Western Palm Aire in Weslaco) were nice with a hot breakfast every morning. The hotel was centrally located which made it easy to get to all the birding sights. The field trips that TOS set up were varied to appeal to all birders and the leaders were very knowledgeable. Weather was an issue on Friday but cleared up for the rest of the weekend. The speakers were interesting and informative and the banquet was very good.

I won't post a list of species seen as it would not include all birds that were seen during the meeting. In my group some of us saw over 140 species and all of us got life birds.

Birding in the Lower Rio Grande Valley is a wonderful experience and I hope we can do a FWAS led field trip there in the near future.

David Sarkowzi told there will be lots of private access fieldtrips for Rockport in April. Can't wait to see what choices we'll have.

The trip to the LRGV was great!! Great company and birds. Great italian food (highly recommend Ron & Nancy's Little Italy) as well!! My totals were 136 species (138 if I count the unsub empid & flycatcher!) and of those I had 17 lifers!! Dipped on the Tiger Heron & the Ferruginous Pigmy Owl:(, but am happy wih the sightings I did get!

Lifers - for me - were as follows: Rufous Hummingbird, Horned Lark, Great Black-backed Gull, N. Gannet, Masked Booby, White-tailed Hawk, Red-crowned Parrot, Green Parakeet, Rose-throated Becard, Black-headed Grosbeak, Altimira Oriole, Clay-colored Thrush, Common Paurauque, White-tipped Dove, Plain Chachalaca (totally cool birds!!!:D), Buff-bellied Hummingbird, Black-throated Gray Warbler. Also got great views of an Altimira x Audubon Oriole ("smudge").

This was my first trip to the valley and I know there will be more trips in the future - many more birds and hotspots to visit!! Mary Lee, you did an amazing job in putting together this trip for us and I can't say thank you enough!! I know we all appreciated the time and effort you put in to make this trip go off without a hitch.

Putting the T.O.S event together was a huge effort on the behalf of Mary Gustafson and Jennifer Owen-White. I emailed them and let them know what an awesome job they did and that we so appreciated their efforts!

Sorry that you didn't catch the Heron and the Owl but great job on those other birds. It sounds like you had quite a great time/experience!

Cameron

Finally found a few shots that are sort of worth posting. They are not Ken nanney or Glenda quality by any means, but at least show some of my favorite birds. I wish the Rose-throated Becard hadn't been so much in the shadows - at least you can see the throat!

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4060/...a34dbb4a14.jpg


http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2555/...419bf545e5.jpg
This was a "smudge" oriole - hybrid between the Altimira & Audubons if I remember correctly

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4050/...64abe5738e.jpg


http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2536/...e379758543.jpg
The Chachalacas were some of the coolest birds we saw!

I would be thrilled to get a shot of any kind of the Becard, Laura. Nice job on all of them.

And congrats on your lifers! RGV is a magical place that I never tire of. Make the trip very often and you'll find yourself starting your butterfly list.