Painted Redstart at South Padre Island, 4/19/22

Yesterday I dropped Honey off at the gym in Brownsville and then I proceded to South Padre Island and saw some pretty good birds.  After I left the Island and took said wife out to eat, word came on Whatsapp that Javi Gonzalez had just found a Painted Redstart on South Padre Island.  Ugh!  That's one I need for Cameron County and it was too late to do anything about it.

Well this morning my plans had been to get the car inspected and then go grocery shopping.  To hell with the Painted Redstart.  And despite the Whatsapp broadcasting the the Painted Redstart was still present I decided to stick to my plans.  But I did have time to watch the bird bath a bit.  And my responsible nature was rewarded with this striking Rose-breasted Groasbeak, our first for the year.  It was a male just like this that piqued my interest in birds back in 1976.  Every spring we would get several on the pussy willows back behind our rural home near Fair Grove, Missouri where I grew up.

Then there was this lovely female Painted Bunting.

Yesterday there was an Indigo Bunting in our spiny snake eyes bush.

And while I was watching the Painted Bunting, a Gray Catbird popped in, our first of the year.

We have a pair of  Northern Cardinals hanging around.

Our brush patch has grown enough to frequently host White-tipped Doves.

After I got my chores done and had lunch, Whatsapp informed me the Painted Redsart was still on SPI.  So I dropped Honey at the gym in Harlingen (where despite weighing only 110 pounds, she tied here personal best with a 205 pound dead lift!) and I raced out to South Padre Island where I quickly found the Painted Redstart, my 423rd species for Cameron County.

Painted Redstarts nest in west Texas in the higher elevations of Big Bend and the Davis Mountains.  Most birders tick there's in southeastern Arizona.  But they are common in the mountains of Mexico less than a hundred miles southwest of the Rio Grande Valley.  I think that's probably where the few that visit the Valley originate.