The last of our Valley target birds – White-collared Seedeater, seen at San Ygnacio

The WiFi signal is pretty non-existent here so I’ll keep this blog short. We’ve arrived at Neal’s Lodge, Concan, on the edge of the Texas High Country, having said farewell to the Rio Grande valley in style this morning. We set-off from our motel in Zapata in search of the last of the Valley specialities – White-collared Seedeater. Most of the recent reports have been from a site we visited yesterday, without success, and even then they’ve mostly been of fleeting views or ‘heard only’s. We decided to try our luck at one of the traditional locations for this species, San Ygnacio – a tiny parcel of land right by the Rio Grande. We hadn’t been there more than a quarter of an hour when Jake located a singing male atop a distant tree. Tickable views but nothing special. There were birds everywhere and we started to amass quite a list, including four species of bunting – Lazuli, Varied, Painted & Indigo, Yellow-breasted Chat, Blue Grosbeak, House Finch, Green Kingfisher, Caspian Tern – and eventually much better views of our target species. A great bird, in a great location, and a good way to finish off ten days of birding southern Texas.

Also seen at San Ygnacio – the usually skulking Yellow-breasted Chat

Once at our overnight stop of Neal’s Lodge (we’re here for three days actually), we began to see plenty of birds. Some, like this Yellow-throated Warbler were new for the trip 

Others, like this Black-chinned Hummingbird, although not new were, nevertheless, nice to see around the feeders, outside our lodge