King Ranch

By Hunter Yarborough

When the railroad told Henrietta King they were only interested in building lines to existing communities, she said, “Okay, give me a minute.” (I might be paraphrasing)  Two years later the railroad company moved their entire headquarters to the newly established city of Kingsville.

That’s the way things are done in Kleberg County, a land that even today can seem a country of its own.  The 825,000 acre King Ranch is nearly as famous as Texas itself, with its unique brand of cattle, grass, fences, chicken recipes and in recent years, Ford pickups.  (we’ll get back to the chicken in a minute) Deep within the nearly 1,300 square miles of this ranch are churches, schools, communities, miles of roads (paved, unpaved and formerly known as paved), vast forests, hundreds of gates (electric, double-bump, single-bump and get out and hold it for me, Jim), giant exotic deer, and one very tiny owl.  

Okay, there’s probably more than one owl.  But if you want to see the Ferruginous Pygmy Owl, you really only have one place to go.  

Luckily, the ranch has embraced both tourism and conservation for many years, so jumping fences and keeping a lookout for cars isn’t necessary to find the fierce little owl with eyes in the back of his head and a voice like a cheap car alarm.  

Recently, a small group of us had the opportunity to join Jim and Deb Hailey on their big year stopover at the Norias Division of the King Ranch.  In typical Jim Hailey fashion, we didn’t get a standard run of the mill tour. We got THE tour.

Our adventure started Friday morning, where a short walk in Dick Kleberg Park netted a common nighthawk, yellow warbler, orchard and bullocks orioles, a black-throated green warbler, a very busy curve-billed thrasher, and many others.  

Meeting up with the rest of the group at noon, we divided into three cars and headed out for some coastal birding after a quick lunch at Harrel Drug store, in downtown Kingsville.  Many thanks to Randy and Sandra Spurlock for try-to-keep-up-with-Jim-without-running-into-Jim-when-Jim-stops-for-birds, chauffeur duties. The highlight for this afternoon would be hawks, followed by dinner at the Kings Inn.  Jim says the same family has been running this place since he came here as a boy in the late 1800s.

Saturday morning, early, we met our guide: King Ranch biologist Tom Lamgschied at the Santa Gertrudis Division visitor’s center.  Waivers were signed, spotting scopes were loaded, ticks were sprayed for, then sprayed again for good measure and we all climbed aboard a battered Ford van with the famous running W brand on the door.   Potty breaks were a requirement – the next gate was an hour away, and the only bathroom in a barn somewhere beyond that. 

Our first goal this morning was – of course, the owl.  Stopping on a likely stretch of ranch road a mile inside the gate, Tom called and listened for the distinctive sound of the pygmy owl.  No luck here. Down the road for a second try, we met up with another group, also searching. Maybe it was the larger crowd of groupies that drew him in, this time we heard the owl calling almost immediately.  He appeared, posed for 8 or 9 hundred photographs and seemed happy to have an audience. I eventually moved out of the way and allowed the others to take a couple of photos, as well.

From there the day was never-miss, non-stop action.  A short hop down the road netted us a Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet, and a Verdin followed quickly by the first of many Brown-Crested Flycatchers.  Backtracking through division headquarters, we picked up a Botteri’s Sparrow. Turkeys were too numerous to count, or even mention after a while.

  Between bird sightings, we would catch a glimpse of coyotes, deer, and the rare (and bizarre) nilgai – something best described as a 400-pound Indian moose.  These had been imported to the ranch during early conservation efforts. From my spot near the back of the van, it sounded to me like Tom was pointing and yelling “Nude Guy!”, so, unfortunately, I have no photos.  

We broke for a late lunch at an old campground and Tom presented us with homemade fried chicken and potato salad from the King Ranch kitchen, followed by ginger cookies.  Before the meal was over, Randy had spotted action in the trees, and we had a Black-Throated Green, and Nashville warbler, as well as a familiar hill country friend, a very lost Ruby-Crowned Kinglet.  

Driving deep into the vast live-oak forest below the division headquarters, we found our last ‘goal’ bird late in the day, a Tropical Parula.  

Total count for the day from Deb’s official list was 59.  Our only ‘miss’ was not finding a reported Pileated woodpecker.         

 

 

Species Name

Blue-winged Teal

Northern Shoveler

Mottled Duck

Northern Bobwhite

Wild Turkey

Rock Pigeon

Common Ground-Dove

Mourning Dove

Greater Roadrunner

Wilson’s Plover

Upland Sandpiper

Whimbrel

Baird’s Sandpiper

Spotted Sandpiper

Lesser Yellowlegs

Cattle Egret

Black Vulture

Turkey Vulture

Mississippi Kite

Sharp-shinned Hawk

Harris’s Hawk

White-tailed Hawk

Broad-winged Hawk

Swainson’s Hawk

Red-tailed Hawk

Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl

Golden-fronted Woodpecker

Ladder-backed Woodpecker

Crested Caracara

Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet

Vermilion Flycatcher

Brown-crested Flycatcher

Great Kiskadee

Couch’s Kingbird

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

Loggerhead Shrike

White-eyed Vireo

Green Jay

Northern Rough-winged Swallow

Black-crested Titmouse

Verdin

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Northern Mockingbird

Sprague’s Pipit

Botteri’s Sparrow

Cassin’s Sparrow

Olive Sparrow

Lark Sparrow

Eastern Meadowlark

Hooded Oriole

Altamira Oriole

Bronzed Cowbird

Great-tailed Grackle

Nashville Warbler

Tropical Parula

Black-throated Green Warbler

Summer Tanager

Northern Cardinal

Indigo Bunting