Edinburg Scenic Wetlands WBC, 1/20/08

Woke up this clear, frosty morning in Weslaco and decided to head up to Edinburg Scenic Wetlands to get the Wood Ducks for my year list. Though this branch of the World Birding Center has been open quite a while this was my first time up there. I am impressed! What a marvelous birding park! There's a couple of lakes that collect effluent from the nearby Edinburg sewerage treatment plant and a very large butterfly garden with a water feature along with a nice interpretive center.



First bird in the parking lot was this Yellow Warbler, one of eight warbler species for the morning. Yellow Warbler is supposed to rarely winter in the Valley but they have been here the past two winters along with several at Delta Lake for the past four winters.



Back behind the interpretive center, at the water feature, a warbler popped up wagging his tail. My second ever Hidalgo Co. Palm Warbler.



Then I spent time scoping the lake getting some interesting stuff like Fulvous Whistling Duck, Cinnamon Teal, Green Heron, Sora, Green Kingfisher, but no Wood Ducks. Back out in the butterfly garden I see a yellow flash and after a little searching see my first Hidalgo County Audubon's Oriole (#332). It had been reported a few weeks earlier.



Then another yellow flash and here's another of several Orchard Orioles wintering in the Valley this year.



Black-bellied Whistling-Duck 1500
Fulvous Whistling-Duck 2
Gadwall 12
Blue-winged Teal 75
Cinnamon Teal 1
Northern Shoveler 30
Green-winged Teal 25
Ruddy Duck 166
Plain Chachalaca 1
Least Grebe 40
Pied-billed Grebe 10
Eared Grebe 3
Neotropic Cormorant 40
Double-crested Cormorant 25
Anhinga 5
Great Blue Heron 10
Great Egret 15
Snowy Egret 15
Little Blue Heron 3
Tricolored Heron 3
Green Heron 5
Black-crowned Night-Heron 50
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron 1
Turkey Vulture 1
Sora 1
Common Moorhen 30
American Coot 20
Killdeer 15
Black-necked Stilt 5
Spotted Sandpiper 3
Greater Yellowlegs 1
Lesser Yellowlegs 3
Long-billed Curlew 2
Least Sandpiper 50
Long-billed Dowitcher 6
Wilson's Snipe 1
Ring-billed Gull 8
Caspian Tern 1
Common Ground-Dove 5
Buff-bellied Hummingbird 1
Ringed Kingfisher 2
Green Kingfisher 2
Ladder-backed Woodpecker 1
Eastern Phoebe 1
Great Kiskadee 10
White-eyed Vireo 3
Blue-headed Vireo 1
Cave Swallow 12
House Wren 2
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 6
Northern Mockingbird 8
Long-billed Thrasher 6
Curve-billed Thrasher 2
American Pipit 50
Orange-crowned Warbler 20
Nashville Warbler 1
Yellow Warbler 2
Yellow-rumped Warbler 20
Palm Warbler 1
Black-and-white Warbler 1
Common Yellowthroat 1
Wilson's Warbler 1
Lincoln's Sparrow 2
Northern Cardinal 10
Pyrrhuloxia 5
Red-winged Blackbird 40
Great-tailed Grackle 7
Orchard Oriole 1
Audubon's Oriole 1
Lesser Goldfinch 3
House Sparrow 1