Thursday 11 Jan - Arrival: Make sure you arrive by 4 pm so that you can socialize over dinner with fellow attendees! You may want to arrive a day early to ensure that you don’t miss the beginning of the meeting. You may want to coordinate with fellow meeting participants to get an Uber, Lyft, or taxi to the hotel. Once there, you’ll be given a welcome bag with information and other goodies.

Friday 12 Jan - Intro to the Valley’s Birds: Today will be your first taste of the birds of south Texas. We’ll split up into smaller groups and reunite over the course of the day when timing and birding conditions allow. Our visit to the Sabal Palm Grove will provide a glimpse into what the lower Rio Grande Valley looked like before European colonists cut down almost all of the palm forest in the floodplain. This should give context and contrast to the rest of the sites we’ll visit throughout our time here. If water levels are favorable, this is a good place to see Green Kingfisher and dragonflies. The campus of University of Texas–Rio Grande Valley in Brownsville is a great place for up-close view of species such as Black-bellied Whistling-Duck, Green Parakeet, Red-crowned Parrot, Ringed Kingfisher, Great Kiskadee, and Tropical Kingbird. A Social Flycatcher has lived here for the past two winters...will this be the third? A trip to South Padre Island, a barrier island separating the Gulf of Mexico from the hypersaline Laguna Madre, will give us opportunities to see shorebirds, gulls, terns, skimmers, ducks, and herons on its beaches and mudflats. In particular, Piping Plover is often easy to see here. If weather conditions have been favorable, small patches of habitat may host migratory passerines and/or winter vagrants from Mexico. Mangroves here are now home to “Mangrove” Yellow Warblers. Nearby coastal prairie is home to Gull-billed Tern, White-tailed Kite, White-tailed Hawk, Harris’s Hawk, Cassin’s Sparrow, Crested Caracara, and Aplomado Falcon; southerly winds could put Sandhill Cranes and geese on the move north.

Saturday 13 Jan - Upper Rio Grande: Today, everyone will bird the upper reaches of the Lower Rio Grande Valley. The drier habitats will offer opportunities to see species we’re very unlikely to find on other days, plus we’ll all be together, which should allow everyone opportunities to get to know each other. These include Black-tailed Gnatcatcher, Pyrrhuloxia, Cactus Wren, and Greater Roadrunner. Along the Rio Grande, riparian groves are home to Audubon’s and Altamira orioles, White-tipped Dove, Long-billed Thrasher, Olive Sparrow, Gray Hawk, Red-billed Pigeon (hard to find in winter), and Morelet’s Seedeater (very hard to find in winter). On the river itself, we’ll be on the lookout for Ringed and Green kingfishers, and Muscovy and Mexican ducks. In early 2023, a small family of Brown Jays turned up in the area, so keep your fingers crossed that we run into this rowdy species—and one that’s been absent from the USA for nearly a decade!

By mid-afternoon, we’ll arrive at Estero Llano Grande State Park for a leisurely evening of socializing over refreshments and snacks while we bird from the main observation deck.

Sunday and Monday, 14–15 Jan - Various Trips: On these days, we’ll break into smaller groups again and explore a variety of habitats in the lower Rio Grande Valley. If there is a super-rare Mexican vagrant somewhere, we may make a detour! We’ll return to Harlingen by 4 pm every day to ensure that anyone needing to make an evening flight may do so. Below are the trips for these days.

Weslaco Area: Depending on where birds have been seen in the preceding days, we may visit Santa Ana NWR, Estero Llano Grande State Park, the Frontera Audubon thicket in Weslaco, and/or other nearby locations. Possibilities include Buff-bellied Hummingbird, Least Grebe (Santa Ana, Estero), Black-crested Titmouse, White-tipped Dove, Olive Sparrow, Long-billed Thrasher, Green Jay, Altamira Oriole, Clay-colored Thrush/Robin, Plain Chachalaca, Golden-fronted Woodpecker, Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet (Estero), and Hook-billed Kite (Santa Ana). Most winters there is at least one Crimson-collared Grosbeak in this area. If it’s not been super cold, there may be interesting butterflies to see.

McAllen Area: Depending on where birds have been seen in the preceding days, we may visit Bentsen–Rio Grande Valley State Park, Quinta Mazatlán, Anzalduas County Park, Edinburg Scenic Wetlands, and/or other nearby locations. Possibilities include Buff-bellied Hummingbird, White-tipped Dove, Harris’s Hawk, Crested Caracara, Olive Sparrow, Long-billed Thrasher, Green Jay,  Black-crested Titmouse, Altamira Oriole, Clay-colored Thrush/Robin, Plain Chachalaca, Golden-fronted Woodpecker, Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet (Anzalduas, Bentsen), Gray Hawk, and Hook-billed Kite (Bentsen). If it’s not been super cold, there may be interesting butterflies to see.

Sunday 14 Jan - Evening Program by Christina Baal:

Young, Broke, and Birding: Why Fledging as a Birder is the Best

We've all done crazy things for the sake of watching birds. Whether it's dropping more than a mortgage payment on optics, skipping work to go chase a rare bird, or filling a pantry with more birdseed than human food, birders go all-out. And sometimes, when you are young, broke, and figuring things out, you have to come up with creative ways to follow your birding dreams. Join artist Christina Baal as she recounts the outrageous lengths she has gone to for the sake of finding birds. When you are a twenty-something wandering bird artist, low budgets but relentless optimism make for some questionable decisions and hilarious adventures while finding your way in the world. Spoiler alert: there will be raccoons. And alligators.

BONUS tutorial: Flirting for Birders 101…the unedited LGBTQIA+ version!

16 Jan - Departure: If you have a flight leaving from Harlingen (HRL) by noon, we’ll shuttle you to the airport.