Sunday, June 7, 2015

Yturria Brush, 6/7/15

This morning I made my annual early summer trip to Yturria Brush unit of the Lower Rio Grande Valley NWR to get my Hidalgo County Varied Bunting for the year.  I found one about a mile up the trail just before the thick brushy damp spot.



As usual, Painted Buntings were much easier to find.




This Crested Caracara was more interested in preening than he was worried about me and allowed me to circle around through the brush and get a decent shot.



A real surprise was this Yellow-breasted Chat.  I guess we can count this as a summering bird?  I had a point blank shot but was slow on the draw so this was all I could get.


Otherwise it was just a bunch of scruffy tired parents and babies.  Here's a young Black-throated Sparrow.


All of the Brown-crested Flycatchers looked a little worn.


I think this may be a young Long-billed Thrasher as it has a pale gape.


There were plenty of other things to look at like this baby Texas Tortoise.


And dragonflies like Four-striped Leaftail, Halloween Pennant and Checkered Setwing.




Here's my list for the day.

Snowy Egret 1
Turkey Vulture  1
Swainson's Hawk  1
Common Ground-Dove  2
White-winged
Dove  20
Mourning Dove  8
Golden-fronted Woodpecker  1
Crested Caracara 1
Brown-crested Flycatcher  8
Western Kingbird  1
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher 1
White-eyed Vireo  5
Verdin  8
Bewick's Wren  2
Long-billed Thrasher 6
Northern Mockingbird  15
Yellow-breasted Chat  
Olive Sparrow  4
Lark Sparrow  1
Black-throated Sparrow  5
Northern
Cardinal  2
Pyrrhuloxia  6
Blue Grosbeak  1
Varied Bunting  1
Painted
Bunting  3
Great-tailed Grackle  10