The little park that could

By Bob Becker

Golden-crowned Warbler by Bob Becker

I had been trudging about the park looking for the elusive bird for close to two hours, with nothing to show for it but a stiff neck and a rising level of frustration. Then, from a wooded area by the creek, excited voices cried out, and I walked quickly to the spot where a dozen birders had trained their binoculars. A small passerine bounced and flitted from branch to branch at tree-top level. After a few moments fighting for the right light, I raised my camera and captured some ID shots of the Golden-crowned Warbler (Basileuterus culicivorus).

This little bird – rare for Texas - had drawn a crowd to Lions/Shelley Park, a small woodlot in Refugio that, despite its being on the Great Texas Wildlife Trail maps, I had passed by without stopping for years as I traveled north and south on I-77.

The small city park is watered by the Mission River and a small creek which flow through several acres of woodlands. Migrant land birds gravitate to the bottom land forest habitat in spring and fall. The riparian woodlands draw in the migrants, as the surrounding habitat of farms and ranches is generally inhospitable to forest species. The park has a gazebo overlooking the river and several tree-shaded nature trails with benches along the way to offer birders and walkers a place to rest.

The Golden-crowned Warbler was seen consecutively over the winters of 2015-2016 and 2016-2017. It was most often spotted in the mid-story of hardwood trees, in ligustrum and other shrubs, and on the ground. The brightly-colored bird, whose breeding range extends from northeastern Mexico south  to Argentina, was one among three rare neotropical species that have thrust this lightly-birded park into the spotlight. The warbler was first reported in Refugio by Willie Sekula in December, 2015. In prior years, it was occasionally reported in deep south Texas.  After a half dozen unsuccessful attempts from the day of the initial sighting I finally caught up to it, on Jan.26 of this year. The same day, I also found a Tropical Parula, a rare bird I had seen previously a few times in the Rio Grande Valley.

Greater Pewee by Bob Becker

The warbler was one of a string of rare bird sightings from 2015 to 2017 that put an exclamation point for me after Lions/Shelley Park. The first of these was Greg Cook’s report of a Greater Pewee (Contopus pertinex) on Nov. 27, 2015. This neotropical species, which ranges from Arizona, New Mexico and parts of Northern Mexico south to Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, was also being seen in a sort of mini-irruption in Houston and at Anzalduas County Park in Hidalgo County.




The pewee sighting was followed the next month by Sekula’s Golden-crowned Warbler. Then, there was a Flame-colored Tanager (Piranga bidentata), reported on eBird on Jan. 11, 2016 by Sam Fason.  The tanager, also a neotropical species, ranges from northern Mexico south to western Panama. It is a rare visitor to the mountains of the southwestern United States, and is described in the handbook of the Texas Ornithological Society as a casual spring and summer visitor and accidental in fall and winter in the state.

Flame-colored Tanager by Bob Becker

I caught up with the pewee in January of 2016 and with the tanager in March of that year. Interestingly, when I found the tanager at the small bridge near the park entrance, there also was an Audubon’s Oriole in the same tree. Two cool birds at once!

The pewee, warbler and tanager are on the list of TOS review species, defined as birds that have occurred four or few times per year over a 10-year average. But plenty of other sought-after non-review species have been reported at the park since 1997, including the Barred Owl, Great Horned Owl, Green Kingfisher, Tropical Kingbird, Winter Wren, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Brown Creeper, Pine Siskin, Eastern Towhee,  Green Jay, American Woodcock, Clay-colored Thrush, Least Bittern, Western Tanager and Black-headed Grosbeak. In all, 242 species have been found at this site, according to eBird records. That includes 32 warbler species,  including Cerulean and Golden-winged warblers, seven vireo species, including Bell’s, and 14 raptor species.

It appears that I wasn’t the only one overlooking this park as a fertile birding spot. Until the discovery of the rare neotropical species, Lions/Shelley Park was birded sporadically at best, according to eBird records,  Some 1,190 checklists have been filed from this site since 1999 while other woodland lots, some on the coast and some inland, were birded with greater frequency over the same period.. For example, there were 4,208 eBird checklists from Lafitte’s Cove dating to 2000; 1,994 checklists from Quintana Neotropical Bird Sanctuary from 1999;  at High Island, there were 5,692 checklists from Boy Scout Woods (1979); and from Warbler Woods near San Antonio, 6,710 checklists from 1999..

But this may be changing. A quick perusal of the eBird traffic from the site shows an increase in reports dating from the discovery of the rarities. The little park in Refugio has arrived, and it will be on my list of must-visit spots when I’m cruising by on I-77.