RGV Texas : Day 4 - Tiffany Kersten, Bentsen Rio, Valley Nature Center and Ester Llano

 

#231 Black-bellied Whistling Duck

I was very lucky to be able to spend the day birding with Tiffany Kersten , the woman who, in 2021, broke the Big Year record for number of species seen in the Lower 48 states in one year - 728 species!  She is also the first woman

to win the Big Year and I believe also the youngest!  She started a bird guide business this year called Nature Ninja and is booked through May, so I was lucky to get to join her.  I am also incredibly lucky to have a SOB (my new favorite term meaning “Spouse of a Birder”) that chauffeured me to each location since Tiffany is not able to provide transportation and twiddle his thumbs while we birdied for 8 hours.

Birding with a Tiffany was amazing.  She knew (what felt like) all the bird calls and could identify raptors by silhouette.  I was able to see so many birds that I would just pass over in her scope, like an uber rare dark morph Hook-billed Kite and the only know Golden-crowned Warbler currently in the U.S.  It was a long, hot day and I fell asleep in the car on the way back to the hotel, but it was sooooooo worth it!  

Side note: many of the birds were far away that we saw, so I didn’t get a lot of photos.

#253 Eastern Screech Owl

#247 Anhinga

#218 Hooded Oriole