Great Day at Progreso Lakes, 5/12/19

We had a very late cool front come in over the weekend and the north winds really brought down the migrants.  So after spending yesterday with warblers at South Padre Island, I decided today I would bird our Progreso Lakes yard.  Turned out we had quite a few warblers also.  In fact the eight species seen today was a new one day high total.  During breakfast I spied the first ones through the window in our front yard; Yellow Warbler and American Redstart.

That seemed to be a pretty good omen.  After breakfast I got serious and found Chestnut-sided and Blackburnian Warblers in the neighbor's big hackberry next to our fence.  Could not get any good shots of the Blackburnian.

And then a Tennessee Warbler in our Orchid Tree.

I failed to get shots of the Magnolia Warbler and Common Yellowthroat.  But I did manage a distant shot of a Black-throated Green Warbler.

A couple of days earlier I added bird #205 to our yard list, Bay-breasted Warbler.

We had other birds yesterday besides warblers.  A real surprise was a fly over Amazon parrot.  It had a rather weak call that I was unfamiliar with and I guessed it could be a White-fronted Parrot.  After downloading the photo and looking it up in Steve Howell's "Birds of Mexico", I found I was right.  There is a small population of a few dozen White-fronted Parrots in Brownsville about 35 miles to the east.  This one seemed to be flying over from Mexico.  They are native in Mexico to the central Pacific coast and south of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.  I guess that makes yard bird #207.

Common yard birds included Clay-colored Thrush.

Black Phoebe.

And a young male Hooded Oriole.

Then I was walking along our west fence and I heard a "mew" call.  I thought to myself "That darn stray cat is back."  And then I though "hmmmm...Catbirds can go mew."  And there was our first Gray Catbird sitting in a small tepehuaje.  I later saw it at the bird bath.  #207!

Pretty darn good day!

Jones yard, Progreso Lakes, Hidalgo, Texas, US

May 12, 2019 8:00 AM - 3:30 PM

Protocol: Stationary

Comments:    Unusually late cool front with north wind

64 species (+3 other taxa)

Black-bellied Whistling-Duck (fulgens)  5

Muscovy Duck (Domestic type)  5

Plain Chachalaca  2

Eurasian Collared-Dove  2

Inca Dove  1

White-tipped Dove  1

White-winged Dove  30

Mourning Dove  10

Groove-billed Ani  1

Yellow-billed Cuckoo  1

Chimney Swift  4

Ruby-throated Hummingbird  1

Ruby-throated/Black-chinned Hummingbird  3

Buff-bellied Hummingbird (Northern)  2

Killdeer  2

Laughing Gull  15

Franklin's Gull  1

Neotropic Cormorant  2

Great Egret (American)  1

Snowy Egret  1

Tricolored Heron  1

Green Heron  5

Black-crowned Night-Heron  1

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron  1

Turkey Vulture  2

White-tailed Kite  1

Mississippi Kite  1

Ringed Kingfisher  1

Green Kingfisher  1

Golden-fronted Woodpecker (Northern)  4

Ladder-backed Woodpecker  1

White-fronted Parrot  1

Eastern Wood-Pewee  1

Black Phoebe  2

Brown-crested Flycatcher  1

Great Kiskadee  2

Tropical Kingbird  3

Couch's Kingbird  2

Western Kingbird  1

Red-eyed Vireo  1

Northern Rough-winged Swallow  1

Purple Martin  15

Barn Swallow (American)  20

swallow sp.  20

Black-crested Titmouse  2

Ruby-crowned Kinglet  1

Clay-colored Thrush  1

Gray Catbird  1

Northern Mockingbird  4

European Starling  5

Lesser Goldfinch  1

Orchard Oriole  2

Hooded Oriole (cucullatus/sennetti)  2

Altamira Oriole  1

Bronzed Cowbird (Bronzed)  2

Brown-headed Cowbird  1

Great-tailed Grackle  8

Tennessee Warbler  1

Common Yellowthroat  1

American Redstart  3

Magnolia Warbler  2

Blackburnian Warbler  3

Yellow Warbler (Northern)  6

Chestnut-sided Warbler  3

Black-throated Green Warbler  1

Dickcissel  1

House Sparrow  2