Warblers and the Big Bend National Park

" A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song."
- Maya Angelou
Clearly the famed poetess was not a birder...
It has a number of songs, Maya. It's song can sound like this in this area and and like something else over here. It, evidently, also has something called a chip. So, those of us new to this complicated world of birding are kinda grateful that...it doesn't have an answer. Or...maybe they do. Somewhere. Metaphorically.
It was decided on my last trip to Texas six months ago that a return in the spring was a must. Amazingly enough, I had not burnt the snarky bridge with Greg "greglasley" Lasley in Dripping Springs. As the plane's wheels hit the tarmac, I was greeted with a welcome bouquet of Texas wildflowers in bloom everywhere. ( Christ, now I have to do plants as well...) When we pulled up in his driveway, things got off to a good start with a lifer for me - the resplendent Question Mark, jumping around with some other Nymphalids. A hug with his brilliant wife Cheryl and a petting for each of the cats, Joshua and Jericho. Jericho helped me unpack.
Before we took off for the Southwest, a day with Eric "ericisley" Isley at Hornsby Bend. The trip was even more special for me when Greg made another quick airport pick-up for another hardcore iNater Mark "maractwin" Rosenstein from Cambridge, MA. ( He looked so much better out of that Scuba mask and neoprene...) I think I added five new dragons and damsels that day. Such cooler names in the Ode world than butterflies - Spot-winged Glider, Prince Baskettail & Cobra Clubtail. Like violent, gang-member names. No wimpy butterflies allowed.
We had a long drive to Big Bend from Austin but Greg knew all the stops to see stuff along the way. Saw my first Black-bellied Whistling Ducks in some nondescript creek in some nondescript town. My first Eastern Black Swallowtails at a pull-out overlooking the Pecos River High Bridge. Hard to run through cactus with a butterfly net.
Mark was quite the birder as well. To have he and Greg using those things called binoculars was a great bonus for this novice. I helped Mark with his butterflies and suppled pithy, unsolicited witticisms for all: those are what I carry around my neck into the field, to help me survive the hostel wild, while making me more hostel to others.
Greg had been coming to Big Bend since the early 70's. Mark and I scored that this year was an exceptional flower bloom: they'd received in the region a good enough soaking in early April. The anchor composite bush, Damiana, spray-painted the far mountains yellow, visible a good 50 miles away. Claret Cup cacti and flycatchers slamming your brain here and there with vermillion. Mark finally got his Greater Roadrunner, a lifer for me as well. Plus 23 other's darting cross the road. Fantastic, snarky bird with a cavalier agenda - my kinda pet. Does Purina make Lizard Chow?
Met the Webers, Jim and Lynn. Charming naturalists I'd met on the prior trip in November, who were organizing the Colima Warbler Survey. This event only happens every few years. They also had been updating the Butterfly List for the park.
Greg was overwhelmed daily with where to take us. " You really need ten days to see everything." We had four and I can safely say we never had a dull moment. Long hikes, camera's ( mine: a Barbie, theirs: Adult, assing-kicking monsters ) constantly clicking. Camaraderie each night back in the lodge, all iNating madly before we'd lose the signal. Fun to gloat about the Black Bear they all missed after dinner.
Greg's good friend Chuck "gcwarbler" Sexton joined us. OMG, the dude is charismatic, smart sprite in the field! He helped me with my plants. How does someone constantly smile when they speak and teach. A complete honor to...listen...to him. A day hike into Pine Canyon on the first day of the Survey for Colimas was superseded by a rare sighting of a Western Pygmy Owl. Lunch at a great filigree waterfall revealed many lifer's at the mud: Golden-headed Scallopwing, Meridian Duskywing and the endemic Chisos Skipperling - Piruna haferniki - named after a good friend/mentor of mine here in San Francisco John Hafernik, who surveyed the region in the late 1960's and discovered this species.
Met a good friend Chris Tenney there who was 18 weeks into his Butterfly Big Year.
He wrote about the encounter: http://www.butterflybigyear.net/
I couldn't really add anything the next day birdwise to the survey except...trying to be quiet....which Mark reminded me I...wasn't very good at. "Oh, was that the Owl? No, Liam, still a dove." Saw beautiful tanagers and finally a good look at the Colima - a not-too-showy little thing darting about the canopy. One of the most limited ranges for a bird in the U.S. I tried not to be too enthralled with the lichens on the ten-mile hike cuz I'm supposed to be a birder on...a bird survey...looking up. With the other...birders. Lynn was...patient.
The day before I flew home, an event I'd been looking forward to the whole trip. An iNater-palooza at Hornsby Bend. Met sambiology ( who'd driven down from Dallas three hours away) , ncorley & cullen. gcwarbler & ericisley joined me, Greg and Mark.
I'd brought just a few t-shirts from Ken-ichi and luckily Scott had given Cullen some as well. There was not a living organism that did not have a expert on the trail that day.
As I flew home over West Texas, I was reminded of that foreboding vastness I saw from a car window all week. You are supposed to look wherever you place your steps out there because of rattlesnakes. Caution - never one of my strong attributes. Like a gang of Roadrunners, iNaters help each other on a daily basis around the world see things, which are both exciting and scary, beautiful and real, and dream of seeing,all from the safety of their computers. Like those birds, we devour the horizon with our eyes.
Thank you Mark and Greg for occasionally telling me where to put my feet and and for all the times I...didn't listen...to birds.
Lifers: 31 Butterflies, 18 Odonates, 14 Rep/Amphs, 8 Mammals and 45 Birds. And a bazillion Plants...

Posted on May 9, 2015 08:18 PM by robberfly