Monday, September 20, 2010

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.

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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.

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

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

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No mistaking this Kentucky Warbler by the water feature.

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Yellow Warbler is always abundant during the early fall.

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American Redstart.

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

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Brown Anole is an introduced species from the American tropics.

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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

Sunday, September 12, 2010

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.

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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,

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

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Thirteen species of warblers included Prothonotay,

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perky Ovenbirds,

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and Northern Waterthrush.

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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

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

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.

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And you can imagine this is a Blackburnian.

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

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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.

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Tuesday, September 7, 2010

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.

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

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

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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.

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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.

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