Our first day in Texas birding today was about half traveling and half birding.  Our goal was to find the Northern Jacana that had been seen almost daily for over a week at Estero Llano Grande State Park. We got there a bit after 1 PM and looked until about 4:30 PM but neither we nor the multiple others there trying found the bird today.  Still for we Washingtonians an afternoon in November in the lower Rio Grande Valley birding is pretty exciting.

We easily found several ABA life birds for Kay including Least Grebe, Great Kiskadee, Plain Chachalaca, Common Paraque (incredible views from point-blank range roosting beside the trail, Buff-breasted hummingbird and nice looks at many others not often seen by us.  We met Wayne Sladek near the end of the afternoon and were pleased to hear he is on the same field trip as Kay tomorrow. Helps my guilty conscience for sending her on a 5 AM-4:30 PM Seadeater Sojourn while I don’t start until 6 AM, am expected back at 1 PM and hope to get Ferruginous Pygmy Owl at the King Ranch.

We pried ourselves away from the Estero at about 4:30 and raced for McAllen to be at a known roost for Green Parakeet just before sunset, and were not disappointed.  In the expected place on 10th Street near Trenton cross street we found at least 160 Green Parakeets along with huge numbers of Great-tailed grackles. Further down the street looking for dinner were tens of thousands of grackles and more parakeets.

Olive Garden dinner quickly in McAllen and back to the Residence Inn Marriott which we were pleased to learn is only a 4 minute 1.1 mile drive from the RGVBF headquarters.  Now to hoping for a fast sleep.  One lifer in the books (#680 ABA for me), hope for several more this week.