By Karen Gleason
Birders from many other parts of the Lone Star State have descended on the San Felipe Creek over the past week after one of them spied a rare warbler along its banks.
On Saturday, Nov. 28, just as I was getting ready for bed, I got a text from my friend and fellow Del Rio birder Connie Hoke.
Had I heard about the Rufous-capped Warbler Eric Carpenter, a well-known Texas birder from Dripping Springs, and his companions Kim Garwood and Willie Sekula had found along the creek on Friday, Nov. 27?
Connie went on to say Carpenter had posted about the sighting on his Facebook page, and she sent me his post and a map he had included in it. The little bird had been seen on the city’s FEMA property along Barron Street between the Academy Street Bridge and Jones Street.
The sighting was also posted on the Texas rare bird alert, a web site where Texas birders can post narratives and photos of unusual birds seen in their areas.
In its home country of Mexico, the Rufous-capped Warbler isn’t a particularly rare bird.
In Mexico, these active little birds can be found in “scrub, semiopen areas with hedges, scatted bushes, second growth, woodland edge,” according to Howell and Webb’s “A Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America.”
In the United States, though, this bird has only been reported from south Texas and southern Arizona.
We’ve even had them before in Val Verde County. Years ago, a Rufous-capped Warbler was reported from Pink Cave Cove on the Rio Grande, and several individuals have been documented fr
om the Devils River State Natural Area in north-central Val Verde County.
These warblers are distinctive. Both males and females have bright yellow throats and chests and an obvious cinnamon cap, with a clear white line above the eye.
They are active bir
ds, foraging at eye height and below, often in dense brush. While perching, they will often hold their long tails up, much like a wren.
I set out on Sunday morning to try and find the little bird, an effort not unlike searching for the proverbial needle in the haystack.
As I pulled up and parked near the area described in Connie’s text and Carpenter’s post, I saw two other birders already out in the field. I made my way over to one of them, and he indicated they had seen the warbler in a mixed flock of predominantly Yellow-rumped Warblers, foraging in the dense vegetation along the creek.
After about half an hour of searching, which consisted mostly of me standing and staring at the brush, the little bird hopped up to perch in a stand of bamboo growing along the creek. It stayed long enough for me to shoot a couple of photos before flying back into the bamboo thicket.
I’m really glad I got to see the warbler, and I want to thank Connie and the other Texas birders for letting us all know about it!
