Delta Lake, 12/16/07

Yesterday Honey and I participated in the La Sal Vieja Christmas Bird Count in northeastern Hidalgo County. We covered our usual area around Delta Lake and despite a near freezing start of about 35 degrees we still managed to find 102 species. The count total will probably be near last year's total of 166. Best for us were a Northern Beardless Tyrannulet and a Northern Waterthrush. As usual we found plenty of warblers including three Yellow Warblers in their usual area where the highway crossed the lake and an amazing ten Yellow-throated Warblers. You couldn't swing a dead cat without hitting a Northern Cardinal...we had 122 of "em.





This Least Flycatcher was a nice find.



Mr. Photogenic.



Black-bellied Whistling-Duck 266
Greater White-fronted Goose 42
Snow Goose 90
Ross's Goose 7
Gadwall 27
Mottled Duck 10
Blue-winged Teal 15
Northern Shoveler 1
Northern Pintail 8
Lesser Scaup 16
Ruddy Duck 92
Northern Bobwhite 8
Least Grebe 1
Pied-billed Grebe 4
American White Pelican 7
Neotropic Cormorant 50
Double-crested Cormorant 350
Anhinga 1
Great Blue Heron 14
Great Egret 8
Snowy Egret 1
Black-crowned Night-Heron 2
Black Vulture 2
Turkey Vulture 15
Osprey 2
White-tailed Kite 1
Northern Harrier 9
Sharp-shinned Hawk 1
Harris's Hawk 3
White-tailed Hawk 1
Red-tailed Hawk 1
Crested Caracara 11
American Kestrel 7
Merlin 1
Common Moorhen 2
American Coot 10
Sandhill Crane 157
Killdeer 18
Spotted Sandpiper 6
Greater Yellowlegs 1
Long-billed Curlew 1
Least Sandpiper 1
Laughing Gull 800
Ring-billed Gull 20
Eurasian Collared-Dove 2
Mourning Dove 73
Inca Dove 29
Common Ground-Dove 6
White-tipped Dove 1
Buff-bellied Hummingbird 1
Belted Kingfisher 2
Green Kingfisher 1
Golden-fronted Woodpecker 31
Ladder-backed Woodpecker 9
Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet 1
Least Flycatcher 1
Eastern Phoebe 8
Vermilion Flycatcher 2
Great Kiskadee 22
Couch's Kingbird 2
Loggerhead Shrike 1
White-eyed Vireo 9
Blue-headed Vireo 3
Green Jay 19
Horned Lark 6
Tree Swallow 25
Black-crested Titmouse 5
Verdin 5
Carolina Wren 4
Bewick's Wren 3
House Wren 25
Marsh Wren 4
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 36
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 23
Northern Mockingbird 31
Long-billed Thrasher 9
Curve-billed Thrasher 4
European Starling 10
Orange-crowned Warbler 66
Yellow Warbler 3
Yellow-rumped Warbler 49
Yellow-throated Warbler 10
Black-and-white Warbler 3
Northern Waterthrush 1
Common Yellowthroat 42
Wilson's Warbler 1
Cassin's Sparrow 6
Chipping Sparrow 1
Clay-colored Sparrow 1
Vesper Sparrow 8
Lark Sparrow 13
Savannah Sparrow 187
Lincoln's Sparrow 9
Swamp Sparrow 5
Northern Cardinal 122
Pyrrhuloxia 11
Red-winged Blackbird 291
Western Meadowlark 21
Great-tailed Grackle 169
Brown-headed Cowbird 1
Lesser Goldfinch 2
House Sparrow 245