Bentsen Rio Grande State Park, 11/21/09

I went to Bentsen this morning to look for the Rose-throated Becard seen yesterday. No one I ran into saw it today but I finally got the Allen's Hummingbird on my year list. This bird is spending its third consecutive winter at Bentsen.



This male Northern Parula has been seen several times over the last couple of weeks.



Bentsen is one of the best places in the Valley for Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet.



Ten or more years ago there was a smudgy faced yellowish oriole at Bentsen that was assumed to be a hybrid of Altimira and Audubon's Oriole. It was lovingly referred to as "Smudge". Since then there has alway been a smudgy oriole around except now they're oranger than the oringinal. This is "Son of Son of Smudge" (at least).



I need to start myself a butterfly list. I saw two new ones this morning. This is my first (north of Mexico) Pavon Emperor.



I don't really care to look at grass skippers too much as they hardly qualify as butterflies. But some of the spread-wing skippers are pretty cool. This is my first White-patched Skipper.



Mottled Duck 2
Blue-winged Teal 4
Ring-necked Duck 2
Plain Chachalaca 20
Pied-billed Grebe 2
Neotropic Cormorant 2
Anhinga 3
Black Vulture 5
Turkey Vulture 1
Red-shouldered Hawk 1
Common Moorhen 4
American Coot 150
White-winged Dove 1
Inca Dove 4
White-tipped Dove 5
Buff-bellied Hummingbird 1
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 1
Ruby-throated/Black-chinned Hummingbird 1
Allen's Hummingbird 1
Golden-fronted Woodpecker 10
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 1
Ladder-backed Woodpecker 8
Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet 4
Vermilion Flycatcher 1
Great Kiskadee 10
White-eyed Vireo 1
Blue-headed Vireo 2
Green Jay 20
Black-crested Titmouse 1
House Wren 8
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 6
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 25
Northern Mockingbird 1
Long-billed Thrasher 1
Orange-crowned Warbler 12
Northern Parula 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) 2
Black-and-white Warbler 2
Olive Sparrow 2
Northern Cardinal 2
Great-tailed Grackle 15
Altamira Oriole 1

Hagerman NWR, 11/19/09

On the return trip from Missouri after celebrating my dad's 80th birthday, Honey and I decided to check out Hagerman NWR in Grayson County near Dennison. What a wonderful birding area! We spend four hours there enjoying the waterfowl and sparrows. There was a large flock of about a thousand geese which provided an opportunity to take side-by-side photos of Ross' and Snow Geese.





The best bird of the afternoon was this unexpected female Rusty Blackbird in a receding mud puddle on the road to the Crow Hill Trail. State bird #517! Rusty Blackbirds are in big trouble across the country with estimates of more than 80% of the population gone for reasons unknown.





And of course there were the sparrows. I love sparrows and they are not too diverse here in the RGV. But we had ten species yesterday afternoon at Hagerman including beautiful Harris' Sparrows. Unfortunately they always like to have a twig or two in front of them.



And White-crowned Sparrow.



And Field Sparrow.



And Song Sparrow.



And Swamp Sparrow.



Greater White-fronted Goose 50
Snow Goose 1000
Ross's Goose 100
Canada Goose 7
Gadwall 20
Mallard 30
Northern Shoveler 20
Northern Pintail 200
Green-winged Teal 200
Redhead 100
Ring-necked Duck 10
Lesser Scaup 20
Bufflehead 4
Red-breasted Merganser 1
Pied-billed Grebe 2
American White Pelican 15
Double-crested Cormorant 300
Great Blue Heron 15
Great Egret 5
Black Vulture 5
Turkey Vulture 20
Red-tailed Hawk 1
American Coot 50
Black-bellied Plover 1
Killdeer 15
Greater Yellowlegs 10
Least Sandpiper 70
Dunlin 3
Wilson's Snipe 3
Bonaparte's Gull 150
Franklin's Gull 1
Herring Gull 1
Herring Gull (American) 200
Mourning Dove 30
Belted Kingfisher 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 5
Downy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 5
Eastern Phoebe 2
Loggerhead Shrike 1
American Crow 25
Carolina Chickadee 3
Carolina Wren 5
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 3
Northern Mockingbird 1
European Starling 50
American Pipit 50
Yellow-rumped Warbler 3
Field Sparrow 8
Vesper Sparrow 2
Savannah Sparrow 5
Fox Sparrow 3
Song Sparrow 10
Lincoln's Sparrow 2
White-throated Sparrow 10
Harris's Sparrow 15
White-crowned Sparrow 15
Dark-eyed Junco 5
Northern Cardinal 3
Red-winged Blackbird 200
meadowlark sp. 10
Rusty Blackbird 1
Brewer's Blackbird 20
American Goldfinch 3