Varied Bunting at Progreso Lakes, 4/8/19

I slept in a little after getting home late from my Lubbock trip.  But decided I needed to accomplish something so I cleaned out my bird bath and pulled it out of the vegetation some.  It was getting hard to see the birds.

Then a little lunch and a nap.  After a while I got got up and looked out the window to check my  newly configured bird bath.  There was this little plum colored sparrow sized bird feeding in the flowers.  Holy smokes!  A plum colored bunting with a red yamaka........Varied Bunting!!!!!

I ran out of the bedroom, grabbed my camera, stealthily crossed the porch despite still being in my underwear and managed a few shots of this unexpected rarity.

I then got word out of the Group Me app Rare Bird Alert and about a dozen birders got to see this little guy.  It was a lifer for some.  Varied Buntings are pretty common at Big Bend and easy to see in SE Arizona, but we normally get very few in the mid and lower Valley.  They are a low density nester in extreme western Hidalgo County and also in Starr and Zapata Counties.  Yard bird #204 was not one I was expecting.  Now I'm ready for a Lazuli!