Santa Ana NWR, 8/28/16

I thought I would get some exercise and do some sweating this warm morning at Santa Ana NWR.  Birding started a little slow but things picked up as the morning progressed and I finished with a pretty good for August 73 species.  Checking out the tall trees just before the canal on the tour road I found my first Red-eyed Vireo of the fall.

And then just across the levee was a Yellow-breasted Chat.  I only found three of them today.  I expected more.

Plenty of Yellow Warblers around.

Empids were a disappointment with only one calling Alder, a Least and a couple that went unidentified.  But there were buckets of Groove-billed Anis as I walked the tour road and the lane into Pintail Lakes.

Water is dropping fast making for good shorebird habitat and concentrating fish for the herons, egrets and ibises.

Walking around the east end of Pintail Lakes I failed the find the warblers and empids I expected.  So I continued along the river back in the direction of the tour road and finally found this sharp Mourning Warbler.

And this not so sharp Black-throated Green-Warbler.

Blue-gray Gnatcatchers are arriving in numbers.  I saw ten today.

Back at the tour road I took the trail that winds to the tree tower and heard a sharp "tink".  I was pretty sure it was a Hooded Warblers and was happy to finally see it.

It was getting too hot for me so I called it quits.

Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, Hidalgo, Texas, US
Aug 28, 2016 8:00 AM - 12:20 PM
Protocol: Traveling
2.5 mile(s)
Comments: Tour road to Pintail Lake and along river back to tour road
73 species (+3 other taxa)

Mottled Duck (Gulf Coast) 2
Plain Chachalaca 10
Least Grebe 5
Pied-billed Grebe 12
Neotropic Cormorant 4
Great Blue Heron (Blue form) 1
Great Egret 12
Snowy Egret 15
Tricolored Heron 4
Cattle Egret (Western) 1
Green Heron 1
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron 4
White Ibis 15
Roseate Spoonbill 4
Turkey Vulture 3
Cooper's Hawk 1
Harris's Hawk 1
Gray Hawk 1
Common Gallinule (American) 2
Black-necked Stilt (Black-necked) 4
Killdeer 5
Stilt Sandpiper 20
Least Sandpiper 12
Western Sandpiper 4
Long-billed Dowitcher 30
Solitary Sandpiper 1
Lesser Yellowlegs 1
Inca Dove 1
Common Ground-Dove 10
White-tipped Dove 2
White-winged Dove 150
Mourning Dove 15
Groove-billed Ani 30
Greater Roadrunner 1
Yellow-billed Cuckoo 2
Golden-fronted Woodpecker (Northern) 5
Ladder-backed Woodpecker 5
Olive-sided Flycatcher 1
Alder Flycatcher 1
Least Flycatcher 1
Empidonax sp. 2
Brown-crested Flycatcher 2
Myiarchus sp. 1
Great Kiskadee 5
Tropical Kingbird 3
Couch's Kingbird 10
Tropical/Couch's Kingbird 5
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher 1
White-eyed Vireo 6
Red-eyed Vireo 1
Green Jay (Green) 3
Purple Martin 6
Barn Swallow 1
Cave Swallow (Texas) 10
Black-crested Titmouse 5
Verdin 1
Carolina Wren 6
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 10
Clay-colored Thrush 1
Long-billed Thrasher 1
Northern Mockingbird 3
Mourning Warbler 1
Common Yellowthroat 1
Hooded Warbler 1
Yellow Warbler (Northern) 16
Black-throated Green Warbler 1
Yellow-breasted Chat 3
Olive Sparrow 5
Northern Cardinal 2
Dickcissel 10
Red-winged Blackbird 5
Great-tailed Grackle 5
Orchard Oriole 5
Altamira Oriole 4
Baltimore Oriole 4
Lesser Goldfinch 3