RGVBF - Day three

Day three started dark and early again. We met the bus at the convention center again at about 4:30am for a 5am departure. Today's destinations included Salineno and Chapeno, which are northwest of the valley along the Rio Grande. These areas became popular some years ago as they were about the only place where a birder could get an ABA-countable Brown Jay. Unfortunately, reports have become scarce to non-existent of Brown Jays in Texas. There are plenty of other birds though - not to mention a chance at Muscovey Ducks and Red-billed Pigeons. Our first stop was at Chapeno. We spent some time checking out the river in hopes of seeing either of the above mentioned species, with no luck. We did see Audubon's Oriole and both Green and Ringed Kingfishers:

We next headed to Salineno, also right along the river where we again had nice comparatively looks at Double-crested and Pelagic Cormorants, but no Muscoveys or Red-billed Pigeons. Just a few yards from the river, there is a "birder's park" where the DeWinds used to set-up their RV each winter and feed the birds, and the tradition continues. We got to sit comfortably while watching a rainbow of birds come through: Altamira Orioles, Golden-fronted and Ladder-backed Woodpeckers, and Green Jays.
Also while in the area, somebody called out "Zone-tailed!" and looking up, we did get
some pretty nice looks at a soaring Zone-tailed Hawk. But that look was surpassed by another we got up the road near Falcon State Park. I don't recall the name of the small park we stopped at, but we added some nice birds like Pyrrhuloxia to the trip list.

So no lifers, on that trip - but we wouldn't close out the day without one. That afternoon we joined a trip to try and find Red-crowned Parrots and Green Parakeets. Luckily we managed to find both. The Green Parakeets were lifers for both Pamela and myslef, and we got pretty good looks, but only of birds in flight. We had seen Red-crowned Parrots before when visiting Texas, but they were only birds in flight at dusk. This time we were treated to extended looks at perched birds:

The days fun wasn't about to stop there though. The last few times that I talked with Jeff Gordon, he asked if I would be interested in participating in the "game show" that would be taking place that evening. How could I resist? Turns out that he pulled together a great birder's version of Jeopardy. My co-contestant's were Chip Clouse of the American Birding Association, and Katie Fitzmier of Eagle Optics.
Special thanks to Kenny Salazar from the festival for the pic!

After we completed our round, there were two other rounds, and I've got to give Jeff a lot of credit - he really came up with some great catagories and questions, some complete with photo and video clues. I think it's safe to say that everybody enjoyed the evening - though frankly I'm not sure anybody enjoyed it as much as me!