Birding the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas (Lifer Quest)

The Rio Grande Valley in South Texas is one of the top birding destinations in the United States. Join Ryan and Derek from Badgerland Birding on their first full day in the valley trying to find as many life birds as they can. This is a vlog style video includes clips from other videos and shows an entire day rather than focusing on one particular location or bird.
Video filmed in February, 2023
Gear Links (As Amazon Associates we do earn from qualifying purchases)
Panasonic LUMIX FZ80 4K Digital Camera
Used for most bird videos) - check credits as we do source some photos/videos elsewhere which is noted in the description
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Cayer FP2450 Fluid Head Tripod, 75 inches Aluminium Tripod
Derek's lighter tripod
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Andoer Video Tripod Aluminum Alloy 67 Inch
Derek's heavier tripod
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Nikon D5300
Derek's vlogging and macro camera
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Rode VideoMicPro Compact Directional On-Camera Microphone
Derek's external microphone for Nikon D5300
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Connect with us!
badgerlandbirding.wordpress.com
/ badgerlandbirding
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Thanks to Terry Sohl for allowing us to use his range maps
www.sdakotabirds.com/index.ht...
Photo at 9:13, 10:38, and 10:51 by Alan Schmeirer
Birds in cover image are all public domain and edited by Alan Schmierer
All other photos and videos by Derek and Ryan Sallmann
#Birding #BirdWatching #BadgerlandBirding

[@thetakitoes]

It's so fun and interesting to hear birds described as lifers that are everyday backyard birds for me. I guess we're just blessed down here. I'm glad you enjoyed your trip!

[@whobble]

I live here and have seen some of these birds out of my apartment window. I've always known that this area is special for birding but haven't gotten into the hobby. This video is some motivation for me. Thank you.

[@BadgerlandBirding]

You live in a great spot! You should definitely start getting into it!

[@rayettajones6441]

NEVER disappointed in the videos you share. (Thank you again for showing us birds that some of us will never be able to see.)

[@BadgerlandBirding]

Thanks for watching!

[@Chris.Bentley.Wildlife]

The rio grande valley is incredible! Great video!

[@Jar0fMay0]

When it’s not hot and humid as hell, it’s great

[@kevinreichenbach5326]

I finally get to get down to RGV for the birding festival this year. Thanks for the video boys. This is the best plce to be for the fall migration 👍👍

[@TheRioGrandePodcast]

Thanks for coming to our hometowns! The birding is amazing!

[@thecornells7430]

Great work guys. Easily the best birding videos on you tube. Really helpful. Awesome birds. Thanks. 🇬🇧

[@BadgerlandBirding]

Thanks so much!

[@BeastOfTraal]

I just spent last week in South Texas had 71 species 23 lifers. I had 1 day with 13 lifers.

[@HiDefHDMusic]

I see great kiskadees in my backyard all the time but I didn’t know we had burrowing owls 😮

[@BadgerlandBirding]

That one in Texas is famous!

[@HiDefHDMusic]

@@BadgerlandBirding I’m not much of a bird watcher but it’s easy to find green jays or cardinals at the local nature parks and take a few photos, maybe I’ll make a list someday and go looking for some of the ones I haven’t seen yet !

[@BOSS-ji5qh]

Love your videos! They're always good. I'm always looking forward to your next videos.

[@carolshannon6449]

What a great video! That is definitely a place at which I'd love to go birding.

[@augthedog55]

Love your videos! I can't wait for the next one.

[@thecornells7430]

Awesome video guys. Much appreciated from UK birders. Absolutely best birding channel on you tube. 👏👏

[@BadgerlandBirding]

Thanks so much!

[@RoseGrace100]

Cool white tail hawk. I’ll finally get down there in February. Thanks you guys for another great video.

[@GreatGray8790]

The LRGV is great! Thanks for the video!

[@user-qw5pm6lr9d]

That was an interesting white-tailed hawk. My favorite hawk is the zone-tailed hawk.

[@heidejg]

New to this.. What's a Life Bird? Love your videos!!

[@BadgerlandBirding]

A life bird is a bird you’re seeing for the first time in your life! So a brand new species for you

[@hollyperry3774]

Inspiring video!

[@nealroberson5718]

Very nice !! Hope to make it there one day !!! Keep the show coming 👊👊

[@user-ku3wc2ob9u]

Great birds. Thank you for your videos. We appreciate the information. On an earlier video, you showed that bird guide in CA that you hired. When we return there for another bird trip we are going to hire her to guide us to pick up some more lifers.

[@BadgerlandBirding]

Rachel is awesome! You’ll have a great time!

[@suzettecalleja3122]

I'm surprised at the weather. Was this your most recent trip? The Green Jay's are stunning ❤😊

[@BadgerlandBirding]

Yes but we’ll be back!

Very interesting place to do birdwatching. I found some species common in South America where I live, as the Great Kiskadee, a very common and widespread bird here. other common are Burrowing owl, Crested caracara, Turkey vulture and Harris's hawk

[@HiDefHDMusic]

Yes I live in the valley and I see kiskadees nearly everyday in my backyard they’re very common but they stick out because of their pretty yellow colors

[@lukeocasio2784]

great vid guys !

[@randybrown1437]

Harris's hawk is banded.

[@naturephotographychallenge]

Great list of new birds to see! That Sanctuary looked really interesting! Lots to see & well organised. I'd love to see a Burrowing Owl (we don't have them in Australia). I know that frustration of getting a one second glimpse of the bird that you want to see. We had that problem just last weekend searching for a Painted Honeyeater. Saw it for 2 seconds & ended up with one blurry photo 🤣

[@fsocs369]

What a great day! I'm looking forward to the next trip. 🐦🐧🦜🦤

[@michaelbradym7893]

Great video!

[@nikimillz]

Just ran across your channel for the first time and I hope you get to see an Aplomado falcon! They’re one of my favorites. Thanks for the awesome video, I’m from the Valley and a bit of a late bloomer to birding. This footage must be older though because we haven’t had sweater/jacket/beanie weather in quite some time lol.

[@Beryllahawk]

Gorgeous area and great birds! I admit I would ALWAYS take the drive over a flight, partly because I despise airports (for many reasons) but also because driving through Texas is just chock full of great stuff. And I say this after having not been in the state for decades, but I have so many fond memories of driving all over western and central Texas to visit family in the summers when I was a kid - that kind of thing really stays with you, you know? Point of fact had been discussing with a friend that lives up in your neck of the woods and telling them that (if we had the resources to do it) I'd be plenty happy to drive up there, and watching this video had me wishing I could jump in my vehicle and go to Texas too, haha! But travel isn't in the cards this year for me. The birds will be there whenever I'm able to go, right! :D

[@alanhitchings5841]

Good, interesting video with some fine footage of the birds. It seems extremely odd to me though that both of you are 'birding' without binoculars! I'm from the UK, have been birding for 40 years and have never seen another birder over here out without a pair of bins.

[@BadgerlandBirding]

Thanks, Alan! I’ve been getting more into binoculars lately but we both started out only using our cameras so it just became a habit! When I do tours I’m more binocular focused though, but when we’re making videos it’s almost just easier to only use the camera. Happy birding! - Derek

[@alanhitchings5841]

Thanks Derek. I did think it a bit strange! I saw one of your brothers videos explaining how to use ebird and he wasn't wearing bins then aswell. However all the very best with your birding adventures. I wish we had this type of quality birding content covering British birding.

[@aeromoe]

If you guys start plane spotting you'll be able to fill that airport 'downtime' with new adventures

[@BadgerlandBirding]

I’m going to stick to identifying one type of flying object at a time lol

[@aeromoe]

Good Idea!! I'm really enjoying you two on your adventures. I'm hoping to do the Lower Rio Grande in April in conjuntion with the Solar Eclipse.@@BadgerlandBirding

[@tylercobb643]

Great video! How do you guys organize your lifelist's/ bird photos?

[@waterbuck]

Are you guys going back to the area for the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival?

[@BadgerlandBirding]

Derek will actually be guiding there this year!

[@TheRioGrandePodcast]

This is awesome! We had actually got to do a birding podcast episode with the park superintendent at Estero Llano Grande State Park in Weslaco about the birding here in south Texas! The audio version is here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mmfbgYRppdqJmpIsi=VzFl9ADR3uVxA9lT

[@jimboc7249]

Could you pull any of the banding numbers off the Harris' Hawk?

[@OrnithologyInsights]

Hey, what happened to all the shorts videos you uploaded recently? Just wondering because I came to your channel to see them.

[@BadgerlandBirding]

They’re on our official “shorts” channel. You can find them here! youtube.com/@BadgerlandBirdingShorts?si=jR-enNLnsNA3JNiL

[@OrnithologyInsights]

@@BadgerlandBirding Thank you so much! I was wondering where they were. I knew there was no way you deleted that many that quickly. Once again thanks!

[@jimf5160]

How did you plan which areas to visit?

[@BadgerlandBirding]

We mostly looked on eBird to see what we wanted to see and where we wanted to go. We have an eBird tutorial video if you’ve never used it before. It’s super helpful!

[@jimf5160]

i am pretty familliar with ebird@@BadgerlandBirding

[@BadgerlandBirding]

@@jimf5160 great! That’s pretty much all we used for planning the trip

[@leeswanson9732]

What cameras do you use?

[@BadgerlandBirding]

Panasonic lumix fz80 and then Derek uses a Nikon too for audio and close ups