Mokka mit Schlag

FluidMask Not Quite There

2012-01-21T15:36:50Z

For some time, I’ve been trying different techniques for extracting animals from photos and isolating them on white backgrounds. (Note that these are wild animals. These are not studio shots, and backgrounds and lighting are what they are. White boxes and umbrellas are not an option. This is not product photography. Photoshop works, sometimes, but it’s tedious. Topaz Remask also works, and can usually get the job done; but is extremely time-consuming: an hour or more per photo. OnOne PerfectMask is buggy and crashed on me, losing my work. Today I discovered Vertus’s FluidMask, downloaded the demo, and fired it up. Capsule summary:

Promising, but not yet good enough to replace the more complicated tools.

Vertus’s UI is interesting different form the other options in this space. It shows you the edges of the regions it’s divided the photo into, and then lets you keep or exclude individual regions. You can control how many regions the photo is divided into, and how sensitively edges are detected. You can also draw in edges around areas of low contrast it doesn’t auto-detect. This is much simpler than Remask, PerfectMask, or Photoshop; though not quite up to the standard set by PowerPoint 2011. The initial mask is pretty damn good, but like all such products when used with real world photos (i.e. not green screen studio shots or carefully cherry picked trade show demos) you need to do some touching up to the mask; and that’s where FluidMask stops being so fluid.

Most importantly, you can’t edit the mask in the cut-out mode. That makes it very hard to see what is and isn’t included, and where you need to fix things after the initial mask.

Second, I was not able to say, “these pixels must be included” or “these pixels must excluded.” The keep exact and delete exact brushes are supposed to do this, but they don’t actually work. The program insisted on coloring particular parts of the mask blue (marking it as a border) and sometimes green (keep) or red (delete) no matter how many times I went over it with the relevant brush. This is so obviously contrary to what’s supposed to happen that I wonder if I’m doing something wrong, and misunderstanding how the program works? But if so, the best I can say is that the program, manual, and tutorials are confusing and incomplete since they offered no clues as to what might be going wrong.

This is disappointing, because Fluidmask got me to a plausible start much quicker and with less effort than Topaz Remask, or OnOne PerfectMask, but it wasn’t able to finish the job. :-(

#800! and #801! Post CBC

2012-01-02T23:58:09Z

The Northern Suffolk Christmas Bird Count (CBC) found a Mountain Bluebird at Rt 25A and Hulse Landing Road near Wading River over a week ago. However I just hadn’t been able to convince myself that it was worth driving that far to pick up a rare but regular vagrant, especially after very nearly striking out on much closer birds two weeks ago after Brooklyn’s CBC. Then yesterday on the Southern Nassau Count Doug Gochfeld found an incredible Grace’s Warbler much closer at Hempstead Town Park in Point Lookout. This is a first state record, and probably the northernmost and easternmost record ever for this species, which otherwise you’d have to travel to Arizona to find. I still wasn’t convinced though, since the bird disappeared yesterday around 1:30 after being very cooperative for about three and half hours. It felt like a one day wonder, and the weather today wasn’t looking good. But when Steve Walter reported a “warbler sized bird” around 8:30 AM, I started packing my bag; and when David Speiser reported a definite sighting shortly after 10:00 AM, I clicked the “reserve” button at zipcar and headed out the door for Point Lookout.

When I arrived at Hempstead Town Park about 60 minutes later (after narrowly avoiding being sideswiped by a car full of women birders who did not know which way they wanted to turn off the Loop Parkway –check a map before starting out folks) the bird was staked out but not showing itself. A couple of times someone thought they saw movement, but couldn’t say what it was. About 15 minutes later, Lenore Swenson and Starr Saphir showed up in a taxicab after taking a train in from the city. Memo to self: when possible stand behind Starr. She found the bird in less than five minutes. However I was a few meters down the road from her at the time, and by the time I got over to where she was and pointed into the same tree, the bird had dropped down and out of sight again. At least it wasn’t hunkered down completely in all the wind as I had feared.

Five minutes later, as almost everyone including me was scanning and rescanning the same tree where it had recently appeared, hoping to see something move, Lenore spotted it in another tree off to the left; and I got on the bird this time for maybe a full 30 seconds or so as it moved up and down and around the pine, scavenging for what insects it could find. At first I thought I might be looking at a Ruby-crowned Kinglet. The back was sort of blue-gray with wingbars. However eventually it turned its head toward me, and I could clearly see a bright yellow throat, and yellow superciliary, and no kingletish eye ring. Bang! #800 Grace’s Warbler.

Normally I’d stick around and try for a photo and maybe scope views. However it was damned cold and windy out there. More importantly, as long as I had already rented a car and driven all the way out into Nassau County already, I wanted to try for the Mountain Bluebird too. So I said a quick goodbye, and hopped into the Sentra and headed up the Meadowbrook to the Southern State. I was hungry but I decided to skip lunch until I had at least tried for the Mountain Bluebird. If it wasn’t being cooperative, I could grab lunch in Suffolk County, and then try again before dark.

I got to the intersection, right around 2:30 PM. There were several other cars pulled off the road at various spots around the field where the Bluebird was most frequently seen. The driver of the first car kindly told me that the bird was still present in the expected location on the snow fencing paralleling Rt 25A. I walked back along the side of the road, carefully scanning the top of the fence with my binoculars. Well not that carefully, because I walked right past the bird without noticing it. Fortunately a driver in another car, pointed me back at the bird he’d been watching from the comfort of his vehicle. After convincing myself the bird was in fact a powder blue Mountain Bluebird and not an Eastern or Western Bluebird, I walked back to my car and grabbed my scope and camera gear. I tried digiscoping the bird unsuccessfully–I need to improve my digiscoping rig–but I was able to get some good if small photos of the bird with my 400mm f/4:

Two life birds in my home territory. That’s a pretty good way to start a year. I haven’t had more than one on the same day in New York since July 2007. I had tried for three after Brooklyn’s 2010 CBC but I whiffed on two of them.

My New York State list is now at 268 species, and that doesn’t include a few I recorded only before I started entering data into eBird. This is second only to California at 298. I wonder how high I can push that this year? There are several gull species that show up regularly around Niagara that I don’t have yet. Maybe four or five more from the Adirondacks: Boreal Chickadee, Gray Jay, Black-backed Woodpecker, Three-toed Woodpecker, and Bicknell’s Thrush. There are also some pelagics I don’t have yet that might be found especially off Montauk: King Eider and various Skuas and Jaegers. Black Rail and Yellow Rail are still possible on Long Island if you know where to look (or more likely listen.) Last year Richard Fried set a new New York State Big Year record with 352 species, so there should be a couple dozen more somewhere to chase. I do generally take a pass on birds that I’ve seen elsewhere though. For instance, I didn’t bother to chase last year’s Tufted Duck at Cold Spring Harbor or 2010′s Hermit Warbler at Sunken Meadow State Park since I’ve seen both of them on their home territories before now. I did manage to twitch the Rufous Hummingbird at Lenoir Preserve in November though.

#799: Northern Shrike

2012-01-15T17:40:47Z

Saturday’s Kings County Christmas Bird Count was great weather and spectacular birding. 132 species, only three short of our alltime record. Three of those were species never before seen on a Kings County Christmas Count: a Barrow’s Goldeneye at Jamaica Bay, a Red Phalarope of all things in Erie Basin (between the Ikea and the Fairway!), and a Black-and-white Warbler I spotted in Prospect Park (not unusual for Brooklyn but shocking for this time of year). Add in the continuing Northern Shrike at Floyd Bennett Field, and there were three life birds to chase on Sunday. With choices like that, where to start? I guess you have to go for the rarest of the rare: the Red Phalarope. This is an ocean going bird rarely seen from land, and it’s not that easy to find on a pelagic trip. I’m not sure whether it’s ever been spotted in King’s County before. So at 7:00 AM I hopped in a Mini Cooper and headed down into Red Hook to look for the Phalarope.

As I arrived at the tip of Van Brunt Street, Shane Blodgett was just leaving. He hadn’t found it there and was driving over to IKEA to scope from the other side of the basin. I walked up and down the promenade, but didn’t find it. I then drove over to the IKEA myself. Steve Walter also showed up at IKEA, but none of us could locate the bird, so one-by-one everyone gave up and decamped for Floyd Bennett Field to look for the Shrike.

At Floyd Bennett Field, An American Kestrel was incredibly cooperative. I found six Hooded Mergansers and a Common Loon in Dead Horse Bay. There were also some nice House Finches, a couple of Northern Flickers, and lots of Northern Mockingbirds that look vaguely shrike like if you aren’t careful. I also ran into Tom Preston, Rafael Guillermo-Campos, Rob Jett, and Heydi Lopes, all of whom were out looking for the Shrike; but none of us found it after a couple of hours of searching. Strike 2.

Around noon, I gave up on the Shrike and headed down the Belt Parkway to Jamaica Bay for the Barrow’s Goldeneye. There were over a thousand ducks on the far side of the West Pond, mostly Ruddy’s but with a few American Wigeons and Scaup mixed in. However if there were any Goldeneyes there, Common or Barrow’s, I couldn’t pick it out. Strike 3. I’m out. The wind was blowing, and it was cold, so after multiple scans across through the duck raft through my scope, I gave up and headed home around 1:00. Whiffed Again. I thought with three staked out birds I really had a shot, but you just never know.

Then, just as I was getting ready to turn onto Eastern Parkway (almost all the way home in other words) my cell phone goes off in my pocket. I pulled off to the side of the road, and miraculously managed to get the phone answered before it went to voicemail. It was Shane and the Shrike had reappeared right where it had been the previous day on the Christmas Bird Count. They had found it about midway between the two locations we’d previously been looking. Damn bird! I wasn’t sure exactly how to get back to Floyd Bennett form that location, but my GPS knew and soon I was speeding down Kings Highway to try one more time. 25 minutes later I arrived back at the runway from which the Shrike had been seen. Rob, Heydi, and Shane had left but several other birders were there; and they told me that the Shrike had been making regular appearances every few minutes for the last hour. I walked down the runway, and about kept scanning the southeast tree line looking for anything perched. And yes! There it was! No, damn it. That’s a Mockingbird. Back to the scanning the tree line. Hey! Something moved! And it’s grey! And it’s a…damn it another Mockingbird.

Then I turn around and notice the group behind me is looking at something on the Northwest side of the runway. I turn around and look right at a bird that’s so backlit it could be anything. But before it flies away, I get my scope on it for about three seconds and sure enough, it’s a Northern Shrike. And after last year’s miscall with the Loggerhead Shrike at Jones Beach, I’ve made sure I know what I’m looking for in advance. In my head I check off the field marks in about half a second. Narrow dark mask with white markings around eye? Check. Large bill with obvious hook? Check. Paler gray above? I don’t know. The bird was too backlit and without a direct side-by-side comparison, it’s hard to distinguish such subtle shading; but the hooked bill and white around the eye are good enough to make the ID. #799 Northern Shrike!

I’ve got 11 days left to make 800 this year, but there are no obvious candidates. The only places I’ll be for the next two weeks are New York City and New Orleans, but I’ve already seen everything that’s regular in either location at this time of year. I tell you, I’m really missing those last two birds I could have seen if I hadn’t been incapacitated in the truck on my last day in Panama and the Green-tailed Towhee I missed repeatedly in Texas. But all I need is one rarity. The New Orleans CBC is coming up on Boxing Day. It’s had some great rarities in the past including my life Mangrove Cuckoo. There’s still time yet. It could be worse. I could still be trying to find 10 more rarities this year like John Vanderpoel. :-)

Should I Go To Florida?

2011-12-26T00:58:55Z

I’m debating whether to make a trip to Florida next year. There are still a few life birds for me down there, most notably the endemic Florida Scrub-Jay. Near endemics in the ABA area include Limpkin, Bachman’s Sparrow, Swallow-tailed Kite, and Snail Kite. Also possible are Leconte’s Sparrow, Henslow’s Sparrow, Black-whiskered Vireo, Swainson’s Warbler, Shiny Cowbird, Black Rail, and Yellow Rail. Greater Flamingo is arguable but only if I get down to the Everglades. None of these are easy to find, but most should be doable if I plan for them specifically.

There are a couple of festivals I could attend. The Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival in Titusville in January might be my best shot for species that winter in Florida, but January isn’t a good month for me. Florida’s Birding and Photo Fest in April might pick up a few of these, but it’s further north than I’d like. There’s also a good Central Florida Photo Workshop with Jim Neiger and James Shadle I’m thinking about.

To try for all of these might take a week tacked on to any of these events.

I Have To Go Back to Texas

2012-01-15T17:41:09Z

Although I managed 14 life birds and 74 state birds at the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival this past week, I still missed a lot and there’s more in other parts of the state I haven’t visited. Species I still need from Texas include:

White-collared Seedeater (Upper Rio Grande Valley)
Golden-cheeked Warbler
Black-capped Vireo
Hook-billed Kite
Masked Duck (rare)
Swallow-tailed Kite (rare; easier in Florida)
Short-tailed Hawk
Harlan’s Hawk
Ferruginous Hawk
Ferruginous Pygmy Owl (King Ranch)
Prairie Falcon
Lesser Prairie Chicken
Scaled Quail
Yellow Rail
Black Rail
Mountain Plover
Red-billed Pigeon
Elf Owl
Cordilleran Flycacther
Gray Vireo
Black-whiskered Vireo (easier in Florida)
Yellow-green Vireo (rare)
Brown Jay
Tamaulipas Crow
Brown-headed Nuthatch (also in Louisiana and Florida)
Rock Wren
Canyon Wren
Mountain Bluebird
Sprague’s Pipit
Swainson’s Warbler
Golden-cheeked Warbler
Crimson-collared Grosbeak (rare Mexican vagrant)
Varied Bunting
Canyon Towhee
Green-tailed Towhee (missed repeatedly this past trip)
White-collared Seedeater
Lark Bunting
Bachman’s Sparrow (easier in Florida)
Cassin’s Sparrow
Brewer’s Sparrow
Baird’s Sparrow
Pink-sided Junco
Smith’s Longspur
Mccown’s Longspur
Chestnut-collared Longspur

Some of these I could get next year at the RGBVF again if I go to different spots. For others I may need to visit different parts of the state, especially West Texas.

I could grab a few at the Laredo Birding Festival in February which should find White-collared Seedeater, Cassin’s Sparrow, Varied Bunting, Red-billed Pigeon, and a few others.

Another good option is Wings over the Hills in April which offers great chances for two endangered species, Golden-cheeked Warbler and Black-capped Vireo, and possibly other species since I haven’t yet visited the Texas Hill Country. Prairie Falcon and Cordilleran Flycatcher may also be possible here.

#797 and #798 at Estero Llano Grande State Park

2011-11-22T11:12:58Z

Sunday I was signed up for the Chase vans that were going to track down various rarities and hard-to-locate birds that had turned up throughout the week. There were three target birds–Rose-throated Becard, Hook-billed Kite, and Black-vented Oriole; each with a different van. Hook-billed Kite is local but tough to find. The Black-vented Oriole had not been seen since before the Festival started, and I’d already been to Bentsen where it was believed to be hanging out if it was still around at all. However the Rose-throated Becard is a Mexican rarity, and was at Estero Llano Grande State Park. Since I’d only been able to spend about 45 minutes here on the Big Day at the beginning of the festival, and since it also offered a shot at Common Pauraque and Green-tailed Towhee, I picked that van.

The Becard hadn’t been reported for a couple of days, so we were worried. We started in the “Tropical Area” where it had last been seen, following behind a bus group that was also visiting Estero Llano Grande. We found some good butterflies, Altamira Orioles, Golden-fronted Woodpeckers, and then next to a driveway of all places, two Common Pauraques, #797:

You can see how this bird might be a little hard to find. These nocturnal birds sit motionless and noiseless in the leaf litter all day, relying on their incredibly cryptic coloration to camouflage them.

Not long after, the other group found the Rose-throated Becard and I managed to get over to it and get on it for about half a second before it took off. It was not cooperating. more people didn’t see it than did, I think. It kept popping at different points around that area of the the park border for just a few seconds at a time for the next several hours at least, never seen by more than three or four people before it took off again into the foliage. But I saw it long enough to count it, #798!

We also spent some time looking for a Green-tailed Towhee that had been reported in the area, but no luck there. It remains a nemesis bird. So I finished out the festival with a respectable 173 species. Of these seven were life birds, 21 were ABA birds, and 74 were Texas state birds. My Texas list now stands at 186, putting it ahead of New Jersey, but still 100 or so birds behind New York and California. My ABA area total is in the vicinity of 489 according to eBird, though that’s likely missing a few species from before I started entering data into eBird and includes some non-countable species such as Budgerigar and Cockatiel. The two systematic errors should roughly cancel each other out.

I need two more species to hit 800 in 2011. I only have one more trip planned, Louisiana in December, but Scissor-tailed Flycatcher and Groove-billed Ani were the last likely life birds to chase there at this time of year, and I saw both in Texas this past week. A chaseable Northern Shrike could show up somewhere around New York City; and then after that I guess I’m hoping for an extreme southern rarity like last year’s Fork-tailed Flycatcher.

But if I don’t cross 800 this year, I should easily make it next year with just one trip to Florida, Texas, or points south. Heck, I could probably get it just by waiting for rarities to show up in Prospect Park. (Swainson’s Warbler, maybe?) Indeed if I manage one trip to Latin America and one trip to Europe next year, I could hit the 1000 mark in 2012. A concentrated effort in Florida or Texas could well push me over 500 for the ABA area.

#796 Chihuahuan Raven

2011-11-21T12:18:48Z

Saturday, I took another leisurely (only six hours) trip south to the border. The attraction this time was access to the Nature Conservancy’s Southmost Preserve, a site not normally open to the public. This is next door to Sabal Palms and shares a lot of the fauna with that site. However we did get several new species for the trip, mostly as flyovers including Snow Goose, Ross’s Goose, Greater White-fronted Goose (which I initially mistook as a life bird–I don’t know why I never remember that I’ve seen this one before. I’ve tallied it as a lifer multiple times in multiple states. Somehow it’s just really forgettable.) and #796 Chihuahuan Raven.

I wad the 50mm lens on my camera when the flock flew over (I was practicing digiscoping) so no pictures. Basically it looks like a crow, or a raven; but there are no other crows or ravens around here so a flock of 24 large black birds bigger than Grackles pretty much has to be Chihuahuan Raven, though if one were side-by-side with a Common Raven I’d be hard-pressed to tell them apart.

Other species at the site included, in taxonomic order:

Greater White-fronted Goose
Snow Goose
Ross’s Goose
Gadwall
Mottled Duck
Blue-winged Teal
Northern Shoveler
Neotropic Cormorant
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Snowy Egret
Black-crowned Night-Heron
Roseate Spoonbill
Turkey Vulture
White-tailed Kite
Northern Harrier
Red-shouldered Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
American Kestrel
American Coot
Killdeer
Black-necked Stilt
American Avocet
Solitary Sandpiper
Greater Yellowlegs
Western Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
Dunlin
Long-billed Dowitcher
Wilson’s Snipe
Forster’s Tern
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Inca Dove
Common Ground-Dove
White-tipped Dove
Buff-bellied Hummingbird
Belted Kingfisher
Green Kingfisher
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Eastern Phoebe
Great Kiskadee
Couch’s Kingbird
Green Jay
Chihuahuan Raven
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Tree Swallow
Carolina Wren
House Wren
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Eastern Bluebird
Northern Mockingbird
Long-billed Thrasher
Northern Waterthrush
Orange-crowned Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Wilson’s Warbler
Clay-colored Sparrow
Field Sparrow
Vesper Sparrow
Lark Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Lincoln’s Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Summer Tanager
Northern Cardinal
Pyrrhuloxia
Dickcissel
Red-winged Blackbird
Yellow-headed Blackbird
Great-tailed Grackle

Besides the Chihuahuan Ravens, 111 of these were state birds for Texas. White-tipped Dove was also an ABA area bird, although I had seen it previously in Panama.

#793-#795 at Bentsen State Park

2011-11-21T12:20:27Z

Friday I signed up for a relatively leisurely (six hours, one location) trip to the Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park, once again along the border. At the first feeders, we spent about 45 minutes watching Plain Chachalcas, Green Jays, Orange-crowned Warblers, Red-winged Blackbirds, a Long-billed Thrasher or two, and several Altamira Orioles, #793, a bird I had missed a few times on Wednesday:

We made several more stops inside the park, and at one of them we picked out #794, Northern Beardless Tyrannulet. It’s a small flycatcher, and did not pose for photos.

Final stop was the hawkwatch platform. We were hoping for Hook-billed Kite, but that was a real longshot, and we didn’t get it. We did get some shorebirds, a few ducks, and a Loggerhead Shrike. And just before we left a few Cave Swallows, #795, flew over.

My total count for the site was about 60 avian species (plus a butterfly or two), not counting species a few other folks in the group saw that I missed:

American Avocet
White-tailed Hawk
American Kestrel
American Pipit
Black-necked Stilt
Black Vulture
Cave Swallow
Common Ground-Dove
Crested Caracara
Gadwall
Green-winged Teal
Great Egret
Great Kiskadee
Greater Yellowlegs
Least Sandpiper
Loggerhead Shrike
Northern Harrier
Red-shouldered Hawk
Snowy Egret
Spotted Sandpiper
White Ibis
American Coot
Great-tailed Grackle
Marsh Wren
Snowy Egret
Great Kiskadee
Clay-colored Thrush
Red-winged Blackbird
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Plain Chachalaca
Pied-billed Grebe
Black Phoebe
Orange-crowned Warbler
Olive Sparrow
Northern Mockingbird
Northern Cardinal
Altamira Oriole
Crested Caracara
Mourning Dove
Inca Dove
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Long-billed Thrasher
Green Jay
White-crowned Sparrow
Vermilion Flycatcher
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Ringed Kingfisher
Pyrrhuloxia
Osprey
Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet
Neotropic Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Eastern Phoebe
Double-crested Cormorant
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Black Vulture
Belted Kingfisher
Barn Swallow
Anhinga
White-winged Dove
American Coot

In addition to the three lifers, there were four more state birds for Texas; and Clay-colored Thrush and Ringed Kingfisher were ABA area birds. Not too bad. After yesterday’s relatively poor showing of one life bird, I was worrying that I had just about exhausted the possibilities, but apparently there’s more to be had yet. Tomorrow we’re visiting another spot along the border, the Southmost Preserve.

#792 Painted Bunting

2011-11-21T12:05:21Z

Today I signed up for a special trip with Jon Dunn. Jon’s a great birder and a fun guy (and also co-author of the National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds) but we did visit a strict subset of the sites I had visited the day before with Greg Miller on the Big Day so I didn’t find too many new birds; and only one was a life bird, #792 Painted Bunting. It was a female, and I only saw it for about a second and a half, so no photo.

It was extremely windy today, even more so than yesterday. yesterday the wind only tried to steal my hat. Today it succeeded:

I was going to leave the hat there, but a fellow birder was braver than me and climbed off the boardwalk, into the swamp, ignoring the “Beware of Alligator” signs, to retrieve it. It wasn’t just me either. Jon lost his hat once too.

I also managed to miss, once again, Green-tailed Towhee. Jon and some other group members found it, but I did not. It’s turning into this trip’s nemesis bird.

After yesterday’s seven life birds I was hoping I might hit 800 on this trip. However, with only one new species today that doesn’t look likely unless things really perk up.

#785-#791: Big Day in Texas

2011-11-21T12:04:47Z

Today started the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival. I signed up for the Big Day vans to chase as many species as possible. As big days go this wasn’t the largest–we didn’t start till a little after 6:00 AM and finished around 4:15 PM; but we did rack up about 125 species including nine life birds. I squeezed into a van with Greg Miller of Big Year fame and Matt Denton from BirdQuest.

We left Harlingen around 6:05 AM and headed down Highway 100 to South Padre Island, adding a few hawks along the way. However, the real counting didn’t begin until we got to the South Padre Island Convention Center, where we tallied more than 60 species including my first life bird of the day, #785, Franklin’s Gull. This was a good one. I’d missed it by a few hours in Port Aransas earlier in the year, and I don’t think it was seen at all later in the week.

Next stop was a small patch of protected land in the middle of a residential and hotel area on Sheepshead Road. (LTC 036 on eBird). 16 species here including a rare Pine Siskin. However I missed potential life bird Green-tailed Towhee that Greg Miller spotted. This would become a common theme throughout the week as I repeatedly missed the Green-tailed Towhee at multiple sites.

We left the island around 9:30 and drove back up Highway 100 looking for raptors. We found several including #786, Harris’s Hawk. I didn’t bring my camera with me on the trip, since it slows us down, but here’s a Harris’s Hawk I shot on the last day of the festival:

We also found a not-really-countable Aplomado Falcon. (The species has been reintroduced in Texas after being extirpated around 1951.) However I’d seen that in Panama a few weeks before at El Chirru, so it wasn’t as big a deal for me as for some other participants.

We turned around and drove south on Highway 100. Next we stopped at a small industrial area off Highway 48 where we could view a bit of the bay, and added Marbled Godwit (initially miscalled as Hudsonian Godwit) and Mallard (Mexican subspecies). Then it was off to Sabal Palms along the Rio Grande.

Sabal Palms is a great site with a native palm habitat that’s very uncommon now due to the draining of the Rio Grande. We had about 30 species here including 4 personal life birds, #787 Plain Chachalaca, #788 Olive Sparrow, #789 Buff-bellied Hummingbird, and #790, Least Grebe:

We then took a long drive west on the Brownsville Highway (our route wasn’t really planned to minimize driving time) and along the way picked off #791, Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, perched on a wire.

The final stop was Estero Llano Grande State Park in Weslaco, where we tallied about 30 species. However we missed all potential lifers there including the supposedly unmissable Common Parauque. (We got lost looking for it. More scouting would have helped.)

Our total for the day was a respectable but not prize-winning 125 species. At least two teams beat us, one with 147 and the winner with 153. We probably should have chosen a different route that had more birding and less driving. We also missed some species we could have picked up in Harlingen at either end of the day including Bronzed Cowbird, Yellow-throated Warbler, Lesser Nighthawk, Green Parakeet, and Red-crowned Parrot. But seven life birds is still a very good day. That’s the most I’ve had in the United States in a long time. I’m not sure there’s anywhere in the ABA area east of Attu where I could do that again.