Roadside Hawk at Resaca de la Palma, 11/24/23

I woke up at 5am this morning and thought about getting up to give an early try for the Roadside Hawk at Resaca de la Palma State Park in Cameron County.  But I went back to sleep and didn't wake up till 7:30.  As I got up I thought people were probably looking at the Roadside Hawk right now.  At that moment the WhatsApp dinged and Mary Beth Stowe posted crippling photos of said hawk.  Well, good for her.  I took my time and didn't get over till 11 when I learned that the Roadside Hawk had posed for an hour and then disappeared.

I looked around the parking lot for a while and eventually ran into some butterfly watcher friends who had just found a nice passerine flock near the road to the maintenance area.  We looked for a possible Cassin's Vireo but could not find it.  They wandered off to look for the reported Blue Bunting and I continued working the parking area when a couple of young birders galloped out of the maintenance area with binocs and cameras focused on something I couldn't see.  They ran some more and shouted they were after the Roadside Hawk.  It landed a couple of times before I could get these poor photos.

Well that was underwhelming.  I guess I should get up early and try for better photos but for now this is the 430th bird species I've seen in Cameron County.  Later I rejoined my butterfly friends.  They had just seen a very late Brown-crested Flycatcher.  I was hoping for a Dusky-capped but the bill is too large not to mention this one has rufous in the primaries.

This is shaping up to be an interesting winter.