The Pauraque Game

Well, we have come to the end of August. I’ve stated it before and I’ll state it again, somehow our planet is revolving faster as our days seems to be at least 22.47% shorter than when I was still in the corporate grind. If someone has a scientific explanation for that (and a non-made up percentage) I would love to hear it. Part of that may be perception as I am consumed by the upcoming haunt event…but I’m not letting go of astronomical anomalies. The good news is Brad and Jan have safely returned from their field assignment. Decided to give them a bit more rest and a chance to start going through their loot of images. Brad will be taking a bulk of the September publishing while I dance with the demons. Going with a quick one today to close the month out. It’s the Estero Llano Grande Pauraque Game!

Common Pauraque found at Estero Llano Grande State Park, Weslaco, TX in January 2023

Hit the jump to learn about this fun activity the next time you are frolicking around the Rio Grande Valley.

For those familiar with our subject the Common Pauraque, you are probably already aware of this Where’s Waldo derivative. I personally can think of no other bird that is as perfectly camouflaged to the forest floor as the Pauraque. The interlacing browns, tans, hints of whites on a backdrop of grey can take a stunning amount of time to discern even for the most trained eye – and this even applies if there is someone standing right next to you pointing right at it!

Common Pauraque found at Estero Llano Grande State Park, Weslaco, TX in January 2023

Normally I take a few wider shots to give you the full effect of the deception. For some reason I failed to do that this time. If you want to experience that, feel free to jump back to my previous post which has a few (one here and another here).

Our favorite place to play this mental game is at Estero Llano Grande State Park (hence the name). Yes, that amazing place to bird along the Rio Grande Valley near Weslaco. We have yet to visit that park without having the pleasure of seeing at least one of these feathered phenoms and best of all..they are extremely accessible as they will take their daytime naps in the underbrush just a couple of feet off the walkways. Added to that, the park volunteers keep a watchful eye out for their daily napping places and typically place a layer of sticks/branches at the path’s edge to help insure onlookers keep a safe distance. Those stick piles are a good indication that there are Pauraque hanging out nearby. There are two pretty reliable locations in Estero that provide the best chances to get a daytime glimpse of these birds. The first is along the left side of Alligator Lake (yes, there are Gators in there so refrain from any form of skinny dipping). Take the path to the left of the visitor center out until you cross a small bridge. Once across, make your way to the right and then take the next left once past Grebe’s Marsh (yes, there are usually Least Grebes in that marsh). From there it should be a short walk until you start seeing the sticks. The other location is at the far back of the Tropical area. Proceed all the way back straight out from the parking lot to the area that used to be a mobile home park, now since reclaimed. You will eventually come to a bird blind area that is slightly off to the right (it is short of the fence line). The Pauraques tend to hang out in the underbrush to the left of that bird blind – note, this is definitely the more difficult of the two places to see them as they tend to rest deeper into the underbrush. Once at those spots..the game begins.

Common Pauraque found at Estero Llano Grande State Park, Weslaco, TX in January 2023

See them enough in their habitat and you start to recognize their outlines a little easier. If new to the experience, you are going to get really frustrated. Even with assist of others, your brains are going to dismiss them as just another leaf or twig. No need to look for movement, the best you can hope for during the day is a slight eye opening just to reassure themselves the humans are respecting their personal safe zone. Linda and I always enjoy watching the new birders play the game. You can always tell when their eyes finally offer up the answer as they’ll jump in surprise and immediately proclaim to those in the vicinity about their newfound discovery. Ten seconds later they will look back and be once again at a complete loss where it is …every time…and every time we roll with laughter. The worst part is, once they do find it, they then have to try and pronounce the name correctly and god forbid if someone asks them to spell it.

Common Pauraque found at Estero Llano Grande State Park, Weslaco, TX in January 2023

One aspect I found interesting about this Pauraque concealment technique is that it isn’t without some effort by the bird itself. Contrary to the Harry Potter community, there is not an invisibility cloak stuffed in their pockets. Clearly they know what spots to choose that allows them to blend in better with their markings, but then they take a well-known trick out of the sniper’s manual by breaking up sightlines. One of the volunteers point this out on a visit several years back – they will tend to take their long tails and rest it on top of a branch – you can see examples of that in the images above. Extremely effective technique! Not only are you not looking for a profile of a bird with that long of a tail, the fact your eyes will lose track and go on a tangent to a crossed stick goes a long way in preventing you from homing in on the profile – reminds me of those “magic image” pictures that were popular when I was growing up. Unless you rest your eyes you couldn’t pull the hard subject edges from the chaos added around it.

Short one today. Ron is down this weekend to help put the finishing touches on a number of new props for the upcoming haunted trail. As mentioned, Brad (and Jan) will be doing a lot of the heavy lifting during September. Can’t wait to see what fun adventures they have in store for you.

Take care, haunt on.

30 thoughts on “The Pauraque Game”

  2. ¿Por qué no ve el Common Pauraque? That bird has great camo. I hope your dancing with demons goes well, and you can stretch a few extra hours out of the shorter days while the world turn turn turns a little faster:

    To everything turn, turn, turn ( a little faster)
    There is a haunting season turn, turn, turn (even faster)
    And a time to every purpose over hell and back

    A time to be born, a time to die
    A time to plant, a time to reap
    A time to kill, a time to heal
    A time to laugh, a time to weep

    To everything turn, turn, turn ( a little faster)
    There is a haunting season turn, turn, turn (even faster)
    And a time to every purpose over hell and back

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        1. Ah, thanks Tim – as Brad can attest my post retirement torture is self-imposed so don’t let me hold you back from any post work pleasures. The main difference is I’m spending all my time on things I “want” to do versus someone telling me what to do (beyond Linda of course). Pressure is building through as I keep thinking of what I’m not getting done while out here.

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          1. I manage staff, equipment, and buildings, so I don’t get “told” what to do. If I were supervised by other people, I would be ready to retire. Laurie is always telling me what to do. She comes up with these grand schemes of things she wants to do, which means I have to do all the work. I cook for and serve her book group ladies when they meet here. Other book group husbands are smart and do disappearing acts when the group meets at their houses.

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            1. Sounds like a good work set up. Brad and I had independent (self responsible) deliverables in a lot of our daily work in architecture etc., but you always have a boss and always have to deliver – thankfully I was rarely task-managed my entire career, but you better damn sure get the work done by the set deadline. My favorite years were during my engineering design days where you set your deliverables with your boss (or boss’s boss) and you were basically left alone beyond a quick update from time to time. Worked our asses off with many late nights/mornings, but complete freedom on how you go the work done. As we moved up the ladder, that freedom seemed to disappear with upper management breathing down our necks all the time wanting pointless progress stats and metrics gathering than only took away from time needed to get the real work done… then a new outside boss decided we needed AGILE and then life became miserable and the retirement clock started counting down.

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    1. Thanks B! Takes a bit to get an eye on them, but once you do they pretty much just sit there sleeping allowing you plenty of time to get the settings dialed in. We definitely dismissed with that extraneous ‘U’ where we could ha…but as Ron points out, we kept it in glamour for some unknown reason – probably just to continually screw with our students and their spelling tests – as if they didn’t have enough oddities to deal with already! Appreciate you dropping in B….I am soooo far behind on my blog reading (and responding to comments) thanks to all the work going on the trail, but hopefully I’ll get caught up sometime soon.

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  4. I have never seen this bird but have had similar experiences with Common Poorwills who also blend in extremely well into the background.

    The plumage and feather details showing in your photos are absolutely gorgeous, especially where you captured some rays of sunshine.

    Enjoy the time with your brother and all your preparations.

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    1. Have I mentioned how good the birding is in Texas yet hehehehe. I know, I know, some day you will get down there. When you do, these well hidden creatures will be waiting for you (likely sleeping ha). They are very similar to the Poorwills, that’s for sure…actually better as I have yet to see one of those in the wild. Ron and I put a serious dent in the haunt tasks over the long weekend. Lots more to do, sleep will be in short supply once we get back home.

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    1. Thanks Jerry! Oddly enough, “wow” is the more common response when someone wins the game. I say screw the ghillie suite, our military needs Pauraque suits. Thanks for dropping by Jerry, absolute apologies for being so behind on reading your posts. Fingers crossed I’ll be able to get caught up at some point.

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  6. Excellent camouflage. Your description reminds me of finding morel mushrooms in the late spring. I’ll search and search, but until I can “see” one of them, I can’t find any of them. Once I do spot one, they pop out all over.

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    1. I have only been shroom hunting once in my life and that went exactly as you described. We walked around for a couple of hours, saw nothing, another person took pity on us and showed us one and next thing we know we are tripping over them left and right. We let some friends hunt our property and they usually come back with bag fulls.

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    1. Hint, it is the one in feathers ha. How I miss caffeine – had a bit of an “incident” in my young coding years and was forced to go cold turkey from the 6+ mountain dew bottles I’d down a day while banging out crap loads of heavy machine simulation code. After conquering the shakes and nausea decided I wasn’t going to go back…but man, could I rip through the code.

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  8. Wonderful photos! Even within the tight confines of the image, just glancing aside makes the bird disappear again! Love his sleepy face, and thanks for pointing out the tail, it seems improbably long. Amazing how his feather pattern looks like a coiled snake among the leaf litter.

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    1. Thank you Sam! It is absolutely amazing how you can have a complete bead on the bird and then completely lose it a second later when some line or twig grabs your attention. That tail is extremely long and I think that adds to the difficulty of getting the full outline as your expectations keep cutting it short on the sightlines. I didn’t consider the Snake similarities before, that is a great observation. I wonder if that is part of their strategy as I doubt many creatures would bother to disturb a snake. I’m going to make a note of that and check that out the next time we get to play the game. Appreciate you dropping in Sam. We ware currently in Colorado and already had a couple of successful bird outings. Tomorrow we get to bird Red Rocks area.

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