One of the most spectacular, important, and envy-inducing birding festivals in North America happens to be the one situated along the Mexican border in South Texas. The Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival in Harlingen, TX is the real deal, a birding festival by birders for birders with truly breath-taking birds.
If you’ve ever dreamed of attending the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival, the time is now. Why is this year special? How about a multiple choice question?
(A) This may be the last year the region is ecologically unmarred by a controversial triple chain link border fence.
(B) Many of your favorite birding authors, editors, guides, and “personalities” will be there.
(C) The Second Annual Bird Blogger Conference should be as much fun as the first.
(D) I’ll be there!
(E) ALL OF THE ABOVE
It doesn’t take a test guru to get that choice (E) is the answer. All of those reasons are incredibly compelling. And, if you didn’t follow the bird blogger conference link, you might not have realized that Birdchick will also be there, and she’s a hoot!
But as important as each of the items above are, the true draw of the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival has to be the birds. As you may know, I’ve seen a few North and Central American species in my day. Yet, as I drooled over last year’s bird list, I spotted at least 20 potential life birds and probably an additional 20 ABA birds. If keeping an ABA list matters to you, the Rio Grande Valley is your destiny… don’t fight it. Consider these specialty species, extremely likely to be seen on one or more of the planned excursions:
RAPTORS: Gray Hawk; Harris Hawk; Hook-billed Kite; Crested Caracara; Aplomado Falcon
CORVIDS: Green Jay; Chihuahuan Raven
WATERFOWL: Least Grebe; Black-bellied and Fulvous Whistling Duck; Muscovy Duck
DOVES: White-tipped Dove; Red-billed Pigeon
PARROTS: Red-crowned Parrots; Green Parakeets
KINGFISHERS: Green and Ringed Kingfisher
FLYCATCHERS: Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet; Great Kiskadee; Tropical and Couch’s Kingbird
SONGBIRDS: Tropical Parula; Altamira Oriole; Audubon’s Oriole
SPARROWS: Olive Sparrow; Botteri Sparrow; Cassin’s Sparrow
Add to this incredible list absolute stunners like Plain Chachalaca, Golden-fronted Woodpecker, Clay-colored Robin, Long-billed Thrasher, Buff-bellied Hummingbird, Groove-billed Ani, Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl, White-collared Seedeater, Pyrrhuloxia, Scaled Quail, and Common Pauraque. This is just the list of Rio Grande Valley birds you’re unlikely to see anywhere else in the United States! Add in the general, run-of-the-mill Texas treats and the insane pelagic species off the Gulf of Mexico and you’ve got yourself, if I may be so bold, the trip of a lifetime. And I have it on good authority that the butterflies are off the hook!
So if you were ever going to attend this essential event, make it the 15th Annual Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival scheduled November 5-9, 2008. Join me and many of the most inspired birders in North America as we hit, among other places, hotspots like Anzalduas County Park, Bentsen-Rio Grande State Park, Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, Resaca de las Palmas State Park, Sabal Palms, Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, South Padre Island, King Ranch, and of course San Ygnacio & Zapata and the Upper Rio Grande.
Bird bloggers should be on red alert for this one. Not only do you get to enjoy all of the aforementioned avifaunal attractions, but you might qualify for a discount. The heady mix of South Texas birds, blogs, and beer may ruin us all for other festivals but that’s a chance I’m willing to take. How about you?
My flight is booked, hotel reserved, and now I just need to finish the registration. It’s hard to choose from all the great field trips!
Awesome, Eva! I’m looking forward to birding with you. If you need help selecting an itinerary, I’ll be happy to send you my meticulously planned choices.
I wish I could make it… you’re going to have an awesome time. And I second that the butterflies are indeed off the hook. The RGV is a magical place. Also, the Mexican food is hard to beat.
Sigh…Wait til next year!
If you get Hook-billed kite count me as extremely jealous. I’ve been down there about 5 times and that bird remains as my #1 unfulfilled target.
Since the snail population crashed a few years back they stopped nesting and have been hard to find, but fall is the time to get them apparently. You can find them at hawk watches down there.
Good luck! Green Jays are impossibly gorgeous and dirt common, what a great combination.
Sorry I can’t agree. I did this festival and wish I hadn’t. The birds were great but got tired of being up a 4 AM to line up to be on a bus for 2 hours to go to one field trip. You have to book so far in advance to get on the trip, you don’t have any other options because if you don’t there is absolutely nothing else to do and no where else to go on your own. I missed some birds I wanted to see because I was locked in and couldn’t switch trips.
I’d much rather spend my time and money, even though it’s farther for me, and go to Cape May’s festival in late October. Plenty of trips to choose from whenever you want to go; and if you want to break away and do something else, you’ve got lots of options. It’s nice to have friends come along who aren’t into birds as much as me and they can have a good time doing other things.
Wow. And here I just burned all my time off for the year on Thanksgiving. Of course, the IT is taking me to the Everglades over Thanksgiving to make up for the inlawiferousness of the trip, but damn.
Gee Rodgers, I am sorry that you didn’t have a good experience at a past RGV Birding Festival. As registrar and chairman of the Festival, I can assure participants that it is our policy to allow the swapping of field trips throughout the event, as long as there as seats available. Space permitting, we happily accommodate participants who change their minds and offer a large array of hotspots from which to choose. From your description of the trip you were on, it sounds as if you were heading up to the Zapata area in search of the White-collared Seedeater. While that particular trip is limited as we offer it only once during the Festival, there are plenty of other great trips leaving an hour later, with a shorter drive time and shorter duration.
We try and cover the entire Rio Grande Valley in our selection of guided field trips but there are many other sites we simply cannot fit into the five days. We have always tried to provide information and maps – on our “Information Table” and through vendors at our trade show – to all the birding venues within driving distance. Participants often spend afternoons birding other locations on their own or with fellow registrants met during the Festival.
Again, I am sorry that you did not enjoy your visit to the RGV Birding Festival and hope you give us another shot in the future.