South Padre Island, 9/20/10

This morning I headed out to SPI to see what migrants might be downed by the rainy weather. The first bird I found at the base of the causeway in the median plantings was this Chestnut-sided Warbler. I've seen quite a few of them this fall.



Most of the fifteen species of warblers I saw this morning were at the convention center. This is the second Prothonotary Warbler I have seen this fall.



Fall warblers are a bit more drab than they are in the spring. Many birders would not recognize this Magnolia Warbler.



And many would identify this as a MacGillivray's but it's a young Mourning Warbler.



No mistaking this Kentucky Warbler by the water feature.



Yellow Warbler is always abundant during the early fall.



American Redstart.



Mating Common Green Darners were taking advantage of the recent rains.



Brown Anole is an introduced species from the American tropics.



Black-bellied Whistling-Duck 30
Brown Pelican 40
Little Blue Heron 1
Green Heron 5
Common Moorhen 2
Laughing Gull 100
Eurasian Collared-Dove 15
Inca Dove 5
Buff-bellied Hummingbird 2
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 5
Belted Kingfisher 1
Golden-fronted Woodpecker 1
Olive-sided Flycatcher 1
Eastern Wood-Pewee 1
Least Flycatcher 1
Empidonax sp. 1
Great Crested Flycatcher 1
Great Kiskadee 3
Eastern Kingbird 13
White-eyed Vireo 1
Red-eyed Vireo 3
Northern Mockingbird 5
Northern Parula 2
Yellow Warbler 8
Chestnut-sided Warbler 1
Magnolia Warbler 4
Black-and-white Warbler 1
American Redstart 4
Prothonotary Warbler 1
Northern Waterthrush 4
Kentucky Warbler 1
Mourning Warbler 1
Common Yellowthroat 1
Hooded Warbler 2
Wilson's Warbler 3
Canada Warbler 1
Yellow-breasted Chat 1
Summer Tanager 2
Scarlet Tanager 1
Dickcissel 14
Great-tailed Grackle 10
Orchard Oriole 1
Baltimore Oriole 2
House Sparrow 8

Resaca de las Palmas, 9-12-10

My goal this morning was to find some good dragonflies at Resaca de las Palmas State Park. However, I couldn't find much which was OK because there were lots of migrant birds around. This Yellow Throated Vireo was near the parking area.



I also had the previously seen Yellow-green Vireo singing at Hunters Crossing but couldn't find it though it was right over my head. I also had several Red-eyed Vireos including this yellow-vented youngster,



My first fall Swallow-tailed Kite in the RGV was a surprise.



Thirteen species of warblers included Prothonotay,



perky Ovenbirds,



and Northern Waterthrush.



Black-bellied Whistling-Duck 8
Plain Chachalaca 14
Least Grebe 2
Pied-billed Grebe 2
Great Blue Heron 1
Little Blue Heron 1
Green Heron 4
Swallow-tailed Kite 1
Cooper's Hawk 1
Common Moorhen 4
Solitary Sandpiper 1
Laughing Gull 2
White-winged Dove 3
Common Ground-Dove 1
White-tipped Dove 1
Yellow-billed Cuckoo 1
Groove-billed Ani 8
Eastern Screech-Owl 1
Golden-fronted Woodpecker 1
Ladder-backed Woodpecker 1
Eastern Wood-Pewee 5
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher 2
Alder Flycatcher 1
Least Flycatcher 3
Empidonax sp. 1
Great Crested Flycatcher 2
Brown-crested Flycatcher 10
Tropical Kingbird 2
Couch's Kingbird 5
Eastern Kingbird 1
White-eyed Vireo 8
Yellow-throated Vireo 2
Red-eyed Vireo 3
Yellow-green Vireo 1
Green Jay 5
Purple Martin 2
Bank Swallow 1
Barn Swallow 3
Black-crested Titmouse 6
Carolina Wren 8
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 4
Northern Mockingbird 1
Long-billed Thrasher 6
Yellow Warbler 10
Black-and-white Warbler 3
American Redstart 3
Prothonotary Warbler 1
Worm-eating Warbler 1
Ovenbird 3
Northern Waterthrush 6
Kentucky Warbler 2
Mourning Warbler 1
Hooded Warbler 1
Wilson's Warbler 1
Canada Warbler 1
Yellow-breasted Chat 1
Olive Sparrow 8
Northern Cardinal 3
Great-tailed Grackle 1

Frontera Audubon Thicket, 9/8/10

A warm, humid, drippy, rainy morning brought in more migrants than I've seen since spring. Noteworthy were Chestnut-sided, Blackburnian and Tennessee Warblers, all of which are very uncommon in fall. Unfortunately the weather made for crappy photos. Here's the Chestnus-sided Warber.



And you can imagine this is a Blackburnian.



It sure is easier taking ode pics. This is only the second Rainpool Spreadwing I have seen.



After a return visit in the afternoon I finished the day with twelve warbler species.

Black-bellied Whistling-Duck 4
Plain Chachalaca 10
Green Heron 3
Broad-winged Hawk 1
Killdeer 1
Rock Pigeon 2
White-winged Dove 50
White-tipped Dove 3
Red-crowned Parrot 4
Common Nighthawk 50
Chimney Swift 25
Buff-bellied Hummingbird 4
Golden-fronted Woodpecker 5
Alder Flycatcher 1
Empidonax sp. 1
Great Kiskadee 1
White-eyed Vireo 1
Barn Swallow 5
Carolina Wren 2
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 1
Northern Mockingbird 1
Long-billed Thrasher 1
Tennessee Warbler 2
Yellow Warbler 2
Chestnut-sided Warbler 1
Blackburnian Warbler 1
Black-and-white Warbler 4
American Redstart 1
Northern Waterthrush 1
Kentucky Warbler 1
Wilson's Warbler 1
Yellow-breasted Chat 2
Olive Sparrow 1
Summer Tanager 1
Northern Cardinal 1
Baltimore Oriole 3
Lesser Goldfinch 1

Spot-winged Glider.

Some more neat bugs.

Although fall migration is going on I'm not seeing much. So here's some more bug pics. A few days ago I found my first Evening Skimmer on the Green Jay trail at Estero Llano Grande State Park. It's a crepuscular species that spends the day in a dark wooded area. I later found a couple more of them outside the headquarters at Santa Ana NWR. This is one of the rare RGV odes.



Another new one for me was the also crepuscular Bar-sided Darner, another RGV specialty. This one was at Estero Llano Grande.





After finding the darner, a special treat was this superb Two-barred Flasher.

New Damselfly for the USA.

A couple of weeks ago Terry Fuller from San Benito found a colony of Telebasis damselflies near his home that he was pretty sure was not the usual Desert Firetail. He did some heavy duty scientific sleuthing and discovered they are a new species for the United States, Telebasis digiticollis. Here's a link to his pics. He later found a large colony nearby that is easy to access. The previous northernmost site for this species was in the Mexican State of Veracruz. Here's a pic of the new bug.



The specific epithet (species name) "digiticollis" refers to two horns of the prothorax of the female. Here's a female but you can't see her horns.