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On Saturday we were on our deck by 5:00 a.m. admiring the most spectacular display of stars that either of us had seen in years. A couple of hours later, we were treated to a beautiful dawn view of the Window.
I went for an early morning walk but saw only a Black-crested Titmouse and a solitary Cactus Wren.
At 9:00 we drove down out of the Chisos Mountains and headed for Rio Grande Village.
The desert was glorious in the morning light and we passed several Greater Roadrunners along the road.
The cottonwoods in the RG campground were something to see, although few birds were evident except Yellow-rumped Warblers and House Finches.
We spent an hour exploring the Nature Trail, which winds across pools, through reeds and up onto rocky desert.
The water had only a Pied-billed Grebe and two American Coots but the reeds were busy with Bewick's Wren, Rock Wren and Verdins.
Rock Wren
We walked down to the edge of the Rio Grande, where a score of American Pipits were grazing among the pebbles.
We drove up the road to Daniel's Ranch, another site dotted with cottonwoods and situated on the banks of the Rio Grande.
There we had lunch in the company of Northern Cardinals, Pyrrhuloxias and a very friendly Common Raven.
The cottonwoods had Golden-fronted Woodpeckers and an American Kestrel.
They also had Say's Phoebe and Blue-gray Gnatcatchers.
In mid-afternoon we left the area, stopping to admire a juvenile Prairie Falcon that was hunting by the wayside. After a brief an unproductive visit to Dugout Wells, we headed back past the Chisos and up to the Sam Nail Ranch.
The land at the ranch was extremely dry and there was very little water at the drip, but even this small amount of water was enough to bring in some birds. So before heading back to the Chisos Basin, we sat for half-an-hour watching a succession of thirsty visitors: Hermit Thrushes, Northern Cardinals, Pyrrhuloxias, White-crowned and Black-throated Sparrows, and Northern Mockingbirds.
Overall our first full day in the park had not been as productive of birds as we had had hoped. However, the beauty of the landscape more than made up for the comparative lack of birds and other wildlife.
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We left Del Rio at dawn on Friday to complete the second and longer leg of our drive to Big Bend. For the next 4-5 hours the road was almost empty except for Border Patrol vehicles. People complain that the US border with Mexico is not being controlled well enough but this certainly didn't seem to be the case to us. We passed 6 Border Patrol vehicles on our drive and when we stopped by the roadside for a cigarette break, two of their trucks pulled up within a couple of minutes to check us out.
Our first real break was in the late morning at Marathon. After refueling the car, we drove slowly up the country road to the Post park, stopping along the way to look at birds by the roadside. We spotted Eurasian-collared Dove and Northern Flicker before exiting the town, and soon followed up with Green-tailed Towhees, Lark Buntings, Black Phoebe and Pyrrhuloxia.
Pyrrhuloxia
A Red-tailed Hawk looked majestic as she perched motionless on a treetop.
Nearby there was a group of Black-throated Sparrows.
As we pulled into the park, a flock of ducks made a noisy getaway, too fast for us to ID them. They left behind on the water only a group of domestic ducks and a pair of American Coots.
The grass around the picnic area had Killdeer while the trees had Golden-fronted Woodpeckers, Yellow-rumped Warblers and a pair of Northern Flickers.
Northern Flicker
An Eastern Phoebe and a Say's Phoebe were busy catching bugs.
Say's Phoebe
The hillside by the entrance road was quiet except for Mourning Doves and a solitary Cactus Wren but the BBQ area was hopping with Canyon Towhees and White-crowned Sparrows.
We could have happily stayed all day at the Post but Big Bend was beckoning and so we set off on the final leg of our journey, passing Red-tailed Hawk, American Kestrel and Northern Harrier (and a Border Patrol checkpoint) along the way.
We passed through the Persimmon Gap entry gate and drove up through the park to the Chisos Mountains, marveling at the incredible landscape as we traveled.
We drove up the narrow road into the Chisos Basin.
We had lunch at the lodge, which is overlooked by the huge bulk of the Casa Grande mountain.
We managed to switch our reservation so that we got our three nights' accommodation in one of the Casa Grande rooms instead of in the motel. We were put in a different building from the one we had last time. We were initially disappointed to find that our room didn't overlook the gulley where we had previously seen deer and javelinas. However, our disappointment vanished when we stepped out onto our deck and found we were looking right at the Window, the V-shaped gap in the ring of mountains that surrounds the Chisos Basin. Not a bad view!
There was just enough time before dark to walk the Window View trail and to do the short hike down to the campground and back. Surprisingly, the only birds we saw were a Northern Mockingbird and an Eastern Bluebird. The area around the building, busy on our last visit with Dark-eyed Juncos, Cactus Wrens and Canyon Towhees, this time had only a single Towhee.
Was the lack of birds a sign of what was to come over the next two days?
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We got back from our trip yesterday afternoon - and it was quite a trip! One thing that made it memorable was the amount of driving - over 1500 miles in 6 days - most of it spent on the road between Houston and Big Bend. The weather was great the whole time, except for a damp, foggy start to our final day. The drought that persists in the hill country and west Texas meant that we saw fewer birds and many fewer mammals than on our visit to Big Bend exactly two years ago, but we still found plenty to keep us happy. And, if possible, the landscapes at Big Bend were even more stunningly beautiful than on our previous visit.
DAY 1
We had an easy first day's drive, traveling from Cypress to Del Rio with short stops at Castroville and Uvalde along the way.
I had great hopes for the regional park in Castroville but we saw very little there except for an armadillo and some common birds: Yellow-rumped Warblers, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Eastern Phoebe and Mourning Doves. The sewage plant area was abslutely empty of birds.
We didn't fare much better at Cook's Slough (another wastewater treatment site) in Uvalde, where we spotted Vermilion Flycatcher, Northern Cardinal and Carolina Wren. However, the stop was made worthwhile by the sighting of a Greater Roadrunner in the parking lot.
After booking in to our motel in Del Rio, I made a trip to the local sewage plant. (Three sewage plants in one day is a record for me!) Unfortunately, the lake there had completely dried up and there were no birds where it had been. There were two armadillos, though.
The edge of the sewage plant did have a few birds, mainly Northern Cardinals and Yelow-rumped Warblers. Then I got lucky and spotted a Bewick's Wren, followed by a Brown Thrasher.
A Black Phoebe and a Say's Phoebe - both birds we don't see around Houston - rounded off the day's sightings.
Then it was early to bed so we could could make an early start on our Day 2 drive of 350 miles to Big Bend.
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