8 TA EAU DU BROWN? BU ae ile 
tailed hawk, which we had looked for in vain coming through the King 
ranch. 
The next day, Saturday, we went to Santa Ana, but found the gate 
locked and the caretaker, George, not there. We wandered around the edge 
and walked as far in as the building which had been a private club be- 
fore Davis’ efforts had finally resulted in the 2,000 acre area being made a 
federal sanctuary. Everyone but me saw the green jay. We all got the 
Sharpe’s seedeater, the verdin, and the derby flycatcher, a magnificent 
creature. We then decided to try the desert trip, which should have been 
made early in the morning instead of midday as we did it. We saw a pyr- 
rhuloxia, desert sparrows, and white-necked ravens (which we mistakenly 
identified as crows and were quite surprised to see after not having seen 
any for some days). We saw three skinks, but no rattlesnakes among the 
cactus. And no scaled quail. 
Sunday morning we picked up Davis and headed for the coast, east and 
a bit north from Harlingen. We stopped at the edge of a woods, walked 
about 300 yards from the road, and approached a large yucca, about 12 
feet tall. A great horned owl flew out of a hole some three feet below the 
top. We moved closer and could see a young owl eyeing us solemnly from 
the hole. The parent had perched not far off and also watched us. We saw 
numerous Harris’s hawks and added the curve-billed (Brownsville) 
thrasher and the Cassin’s sparrow to our life lists. Many Cassin’s were 
singing in the flat country near the coast. We found no large concentra- 
tions of shore birds, but finally saw two Sennett’s white-tailed hawks, soar- 
ing fairly close above us. 
Monday at Santa Ana refuge we ran into a vast migration of blue-gray 
gnatcatchers; thousands of them flitting around, and on every bush or 
tree. Life lists birds added there included the Sennett’s thrasher, Audubon’s 
oriole, Audubon’s warbler, red-billed pigeon, Couch’s kingbird, Sennett’s 
warbler, Texas sparrow, Swainson’s hawk, the immature jacana, and final- 
ly an Arkansas kingbird, which we had been searching for all the way 
down from the north. Again, all except me saw the green jay! Next day, 
shortly after crossing the Mexican border, we found some _ black-bellied 
tree ducks, but did not get to see the fulvous tree duck. 
Returning north we saw two avocets beside a small lake in King ranch 
and a yellow-crowned night heron near Corpus Christi. The morning of 
Wednesday, March 29, just three weeks after leaving Chicago in a snow- 
storm, we awakened in Washington, Ind. with snow falling gently. Spring 
was still far away at home. 
Our trip list totaled 193 species. New for our life list were 49 birds. 
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