Wingless, Featherless, Clawless Birds

I promise a birding update soon, but we have been busy all week, birding as much as possible and squeezing in barely enough sleep in between! We head out tomorrow for our long trek back home to Ohio. 

After birding most of the day today, we stopped by the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival headquarters and ran into some friends at the Leica booth. We mentioned wanting to find a Green Kingfisher before leaving and they offered several good locations. Then, to seal the deal, they said that one particular park, Sabal Palms Sanctuary was also a decent spot to find Speckled Racers... an incredibly beautiful snake that has a pretty small range in the US. That was all they had to say! We were off to find some snakes... oh yeah, and maybe some birds too. 

We headed to the recommended trails and within minutes I looked to my right and saw possibly the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. It was like a scene from a movie where the lights are shining around a floating object, singling it out from everything else. There it was. A Speckled Racer, glowing blue, right there in the leaves! I tried to alert Ben, who was slightly ahead of me and I couldn't even speak for a few seconds... then I just kept repeating "Here it is! Here it is!" We watched through our binoculars in awe and tried to snap a few cellphone shots as it hunted a lizard. I was shaking and didn't get a decent picture, but here's one Ben took through his binoculars:

I couldn't believe what I was seeing! I had previously seen photos of Speckled Racers from Honduras but I had no idea anything like it existed in the United States until recently. As soon as I found out they were a possibility down here in Texas I wanted to see one. I never thought it would happen though. I was shaking and nearly crying and as soon as it was out of sight, I was jumping and cheering! I couldn't stop smiling, when moments later Ben spots a second Speckled Racer!! This one was a little closer, but as their name indicates, they are FAST and we couldn't catch it. I can't imagine actually holding one of these mystical snakes in my hands. 

Nearly forgetting we were there to see a bird, we continued down the path, watching only the ground. 

We made it to a bird blind and as we watched Least Grebes, Great Kiskadees and Mottled Ducks, in flew the Green Kingfisher! A new ABA bird for both of us! A Western Ribbonsnake swam by as we watched, and then we continued our journey. A bit down the path, Ben spotted another snake! This time it was the third and largest Texas Indigo Snake we've seen this week!! They are impressive shiny black snakes! Here we are after seeing the four snakes: 

We didn't have a lot of time left before the park closed, so we hiked around some more and decided we should check that initial trail we hiked one last time, just to see if we could catch another glimpse or possibly catch a Speckled Racer. We talked and joked about all the other snakes we'd like to see down here like rattlesnakes or bull snakes and decided it would be the coolest if we could see a Coral Snake before we left. Once we arrived at the fork in the trail that started the "good part" we decided that I would look left and Ben would look right so we could quickly and efficiently cover the ground. When we got to nearly the same spot as the first racer, I looked over and there it was. Not the racer... a Coral Snake!! I couldn't believe it! I already knew, but I squealed, "Ben! What is this!?!!!" 

These two snakes are possibly more exciting than any bird I saw here in Texas, and I saw some pretty amazing birds!! The next time you find yourself down in the Rio Grande Valley, and you need something to do, I highly recommend Sabal Palm for the birds, habitat and gorgeous snakes!