New totals

My new California list total is 329. Not a bad number. Eventually I'd like to see 400 species in the state. That's a bit of a pipe dream for now, as we're living in the deep south, specifically Mississippi. One perk of living in this part of the world is that Jill and I were able to drive to West Texas in December and see some great birds including three awesome ABA ticks (two of which were lifers). The first was Whooping Crane at Aransas NWR on the Gulf Coast. It's pretty spectacular considering only about 260 individuals exist in the wild. The spot where we saw these birds is the most reliable spot anywhere to find them. Nonetheless it was very cool. The main target of our trip was a Tufted Flycatcher in Big Bend National Park (I love Big Bend!) that someone found some weeks before and had been hanging around in Rio Grande Village. It was only the 5th or 6th record for the US I think. We found the bird, and Jill got killer pictures. The last new bird was a Crissal Thrasher. This species has been a nemesis bird of mine for a while. This was my fifth or sixth trip to Big Bend, and I'd missed this species every time I'd been there before despite it being a fairly common (although secretive) resident. We finally found one this time though at a really spectacular oasis called Sam Nail Ranch. Actually Jill spotted it first and got me on the bird.

Another perk of the trip was lots of Texas state ticks. I managed to get my Texas list ahead of my California list again were it belongs, by adding 23 Texas state birds (including the 3 new ABA area birds). About 10 of these species came from Aransas, and were mostly waterbirds. Twelve species were from West Texas and one was from San Antonio. Most unexpected was a Red Fox Sparrow in a desert oasis deep in the Chihuahuan desert. Flycatchers were well represented with 3 new species for Texas: Dusky, Gray and Tufted. I also added two new woodpeckers for the state: Yellow-bellied and Red-naped Sapsuckers, and three new sparrows: Black-chinned Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco and Fox Sparrow.

My Texas list (334) is 5 species ahead of California for now (329). It's about to pull away a little further in a little over a week. Jill is leaving tomorrow to go to Leakey for another season of field work with Golden-cheeked Warblers, and I'll be going out to visit her the week after.

There have been several chasable rare birds hanging around that I plan to twitch while I'm out that way. Hopefully they'll stick around for another 9 days at the least. The top dogs are a Yellow-faced Grassquit at Goose Island State Park and a Black-vented Oriole at Bentsen-RGV State Park. The grassquit is a trash bird in parts of central america, but is very rare in the US. It's not a lifer for me, but would be a great ABA tick. BV oriole is a mega for the US with only single digits of other records and would be a lifer. I intend to chase, and hopefully find Blue Bunting and White-throated Thrush. Neither are lifers, but both are solid ABA area finds. The last two birds I hope to find are both regular in the US, but still quite rare: Rufous-backed Robin and Crimson-collared Grosbeak. Both would be lifers for me. I'm sure I'll find some and miss some of these guys.

If I find all of these and don't see anything else I'll already be at 340 for the state, which would be great. There are still a bunch of really common birds in East Texas that I need for the state. If I'm feeling ambitious on the way back I may stop and try to find a few to try and get close to 350. We'll see about that when the time comes. Like California I'd like to see 400 in Texas, but I'll start with 350 as my immediate, somewhat more attainable goal. Unlike California, Texas is a lot closer so I should be able to visit a little more often to chase rarities and work on some of the common and uncommon species I still need to find.