Our new yard, Progreso Lakes, 11/27/16

Progreso Lakes are a couple of small oxbow lakes cut off from the Rio Grande near Progreso, Texas.  For the last twenty years or so I've been exploring the possibility of buying a house down there and Honey and I finally made the plunge and signed the papers last week.  Honey likes the house but I'm intrigued by the birding possibilities.  The lot is an acre in size with Moon Lake bordering the back yard and a large cultivated field (usually cotton) in the front and neighbors on each side.  The lot has only a few trees but I plan to plant more while the neighbor on one side has a nicely treed lot.  The Rio Grande and Mexico are on the other side of the large field.

During the past week, while we've been cleaning and preparing to move in, I've been working on the yard list.  We're up to 62 species so far though nothing really unexpected.  Here's some photos starting our number one bird, Black-bellied Whistling Duck, which is numbering about 2500 on our end of the resaca.

Other ducks so far include Blue-winged Teal. Northern Shoveller, Mottled Duck, Ring-necked Duck and Lesser Scaup.

Numerous birds take advantage of perches along the opposite shore like this Roseate Spoonbill and Anhinga.

While others are seen cruising by like Neotropic Cormorant, Caspian Tern, Snowy Egret, Osprey and Black-crowned Night-Heron.

There is little in the way of mudflats for shorebirds so I may not get many of them but so far I've seen Killdeer, American Avocet, Spotted Sandpiper and Long-billed Curlew, all in flight.

Another way to add birds to the yard list is to cheat.  As far as I am concerned, any bird visible from our yard counts.  So I set up the scope and start searching.  Here's some long distant sightings: Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, Black Phoebe, Red-shouldered Hawk and Green Kingfisher.

It's hard to get any work done with the constant parade of birds.  Don't know if I can make a hundred by the end of the year but I'll give it a try.