Yesterday Honey and I took part in the Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge's annual Christmas Bird Count. We covered Pintail Lake and the area south of Donna including Donna Lakes and finished with 95 species on the day. Pintail Lake on the refuge was pretty slow. We did alot better in the Donna area. I had never visited Donna Lakes before and was surprised by the number of birds there. We got lots of gulls, terns, shorebirds and our only Roseate Spoonbills of the day. We had eight species of warblers on the day between the two areas including Black-and-white, Yellow, Pine and Black-throated Green, the best being this Palm Warbler south of Donna Lakes.
Last weekend we worked on the La Sal Vieja CBC north of Weslaco where we covered our usual area around Delta Lake. Very strong winds made for a long day and only 87 species. That may sound like a lot, but we usually get close to a hundred. Among our birds were a good number of shorebirds and eight species of Warblers. Untill a few years ago Yellow Warbler was considered a rare winter resident in the Valley. I've had them for five years in a row at Delta Lake and found nine of them this year. Here's a couple of them.
Our best birds were three Groove-billed Anis. This was the only shot I could get of these skulkers.
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