Yturria Brush, Lower RGV NWR, 11/3/09

Checked out the Yturrias Brush tract of the Lower Rio Grande Valley NWR for the first time this morning. This area of Tamaulipan thorn-scrub is located west of La Joya on Hwy 83 just east of the Hidalgo County line. I was hoping to get some good desert stuff for Hidalgo County as it looks like a good place for Black-tailed Gnatcatchers and maybe (in summer) Varied Bunting. It also looks like a good place for wintering things like Green-tailed Towhee and Sage Thrasher. But this morning the best thing I could find was four Hermit Thrushes.



Of course the usual desert suff was there like Black-throated Sparrow and Pyrrhuloxia (and bushels of mockingbirds).





My first White-fronted Geese of the season flew over.



And there were some interesting invertebrates lik this Empress Laelia.



And this big orb-weaver spider. I gues that's what it is.



When I got home I saw my first Theona Checkerspot out in my butterfly garden.



So maybe no great birds but still a fun morning at a place that I'll check out again in a few weeks.

Greater White-fronted Goose 36
Double-crested Cormorant 2
Black Vulture 2
Turkey Vulture 2
Northern Harrier 1
Cooper's Hawk 1
White-tailed Hawk 1
Red-tailed Hawk 2
Mourning Dove 8
Greater Roadrunner 2
Ladder-backed Woodpecker 1
Eastern Phoebe 2
White-eyed Vireo 3
Barn Swallow 10
Verdin 7
House Wren 18
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 8
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 9
Hermit Thrush 4
Northern Mockingbird 18
Curve-billed Thrasher 1
Orange-crowned Warbler 18
Cassin's Sparrow 1
Black-throated Sparrow 2
Northern Cardinal 3
Pyrrhuloxia 3