Friday, March 28, 2008

New Neighbors?

There's been a screeching flock of Green Parakeets in the neighborhood lately. This evening a pair of them was checking out this hole in the neighbor's palm tree. This tree was stuck by lightning and caught fire (quite an experience) a couple of years ago and now has finally died. I don't know who is responsible for the hole as it seems too big for the parakeets. The Red-crowned Parrots may have dug it out. Not a great pic against the gray evening sky. Hope these guys hang around.


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I checked out Frontera Audubon thicket this past Monday and found this migrant Louisiana Waterthrush along the boardwalk. Not many other migrants going through yet.

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Saturday, March 22, 2008

Fork-tailed Flycatcher in Brownsville, 3/22/08

J.D. and I assembled with most of the active Valley birders this morning at The Nature Conservancy's Southmost Preserve in hopes we could see the Fork-tailed Flycatcher found there earlier in the week. Brad McKinney lead the group and the bird appeared right on scehdule. These are not great pics as the bird was rather distant.

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Here's a shot through the scope. I forgot my digiscoping camera.

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This Black Phoebe chased the Fork-tailed Flycatcher from its favorite pearch. Unknown to me it's been there a couple of years. I would have looked for it sooner as it was a new Cameron County bird for me.

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Friday, March 21, 2008

Santa Ana NWR hawk tower, 3/21/08

I spent a really pleasant morning on the hawk tower at Santa Ana NWR with North America's raptor expert, Bill Clark. Watching Bill watch hawks is an experience. He examines each one lovingly and talks about them as though they were old friends. Best bird goes to the distant Hook-billed Kite that we studied at length. Second goes to the FOS Mississppi Kite and then there were about 250 Broadwings, four Gray Hawks up at once, a few Swainson's, Cooper's and the local Harris' and White-tailed Hawks. Northern Beardless Tyrannulet and Clay-colored Robin were singing nearby. Here's one of the Broad-winged Hawks.

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There were more than hawks about.

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Plain Chachalaca 5
Double-crested Cormorant 1
Anhinga 20
Great Blue Heron 2
Great Egret 4
Little Blue Heron 7
White-faced Ibis 1
Black Vulture 2
Turkey Vulture 12
Hook-billed Kite 1
Mississippi Kite 1
Northern Harrier 1
Cooper's Hawk 2
Harris's Hawk 6
Broad-winged Hawk 250
Gray Hawk 4
Swainson's Hawk 3
White-tailed Hawk 2
Red-tailed Hawk 1
Crested Caracara 2
White-winged Dove 2
Mourning Dove 5
White-tipped Dove 2
Golden-fronted Woodpecker 8
Ladder-backed Woodpecker 2
Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet 1
Great Kiskadee 10
Couch's Kingbird 20
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher 5
Green Jay 8
Black-crested Titmouse 2
Clay-colored Robin 1
Northern Mockingbird 3
European Starling 3
Northern Cardinal 1
Red-winged Blackbird 10
Great-tailed Grackle 5
Bronzed Cowbird 2
Altamira Oriole 3
Lesser Goldfinch 1

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

White-throated Robin in Pharr, 3/19/08

Allen Williams found another good bird in his yard yesterday, a White-throated Robin. His yard is famous for past mega-rarities like Crimson-collared Grosbeak, Blue Mockingbird, Slate-throated Redstart and Blue bunting. Wow! What a yard list! I think this is about the 8th or 9th record of White-throated Robin for the USA and I've seen four of them.

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Earlier Honey and I made a trip out to South Padre Island to look for spring migrants. Other than Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, Barn and Tree Swallows and Scissor-tailed Flycatchers there were few migrant passerines. Best bird was two Groove-billed Anis. First I've ever seen on the Island.

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I haven't posted anything on the blog lately as birding has been really boring. This is always the case in March. The winter birds are leaving and the spring migrants haven't arrived. So there's less birds around. The last couple of Saturdays I've checked out Frontera. Not much going on. This Ash-throated Flycatcher was a first for the park.

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Sunday, March 2, 2008

Short-eared Owls at Llano Grande, 3/1/08

After Jim Booker reported a Short-eared Owl at Estero Llano Grande State Park I thought I would try one more time for the one I had found on the Weslaco CBC two months ago in the nearby Llano Grande flood channel. A couple hundred yards of walking through the grassy field paid off with three Short-eared Owls. They were tough to photograph in the overcast conditions.

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Yellow-headed Blackbirds are hard to find in the Valley so I was happy to pick this one out of a flock of Red-wings and Brown-headed Cowbirds. I needed it for the Hidago County year list. I'm up to 173 now which is about the same as last year at this time.

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