Black-headed Gull at Amarillo, 9/29/25

Sunday evening a week ago I checked my email and saw on my eBird alerts that a Black-headed Gull had been found at McGee Lake near Amarillo by Ari Rice.  I was familiar with his name from tiger beetle sightings on iNaturalist.  He had found it the day before so I was a little late on the alert.  But the locals apparently got the message and were out Sunday and saw the bird.  What to do?  According the the weather forecast a cold front was due up there so I thought I would wait and see what happens before making the 800 mile trip.  Well the front blew through and no one reported the Black-headed Gull for a couple of days so it was assumed the bird had left.  Glad I had not chased that one.

But on Friday there it was with the Ring-bills in the same field where it had been originally found.  I checked the weather and things looked good for a few days.  I decided to stay home and do a few chores and wait for another sighting.  Sure enough it was found on Saturday, a week after the oringial sighting, so I took off Sunday morning.

After overnighting in Lubock, I got an early start and was at McGee Lake by 8:45am.  I was hoping birders would be there on the bird to make it easy.  But I was the only one.  What a massive area with hundreds of birds.  The lake is well off the road and I saw no gulls through the binocs so I drove on down the road and soon came to an irrigated field.  And there was a flock of Ring-billed Gulls.  I quickly put up the scope and there was the Black-headed Gull!

The Black-headed Gull was smaller than the nearby Ring-billed Gulls and about the same size as a nearby late migrant Frankin's Gull.  A Lesser Black-backed Gull had also been reported but I saw no sign of it.  These photos are eavily cropped as the bird was two hundrd yards distant.

I enjoyed watching the Black-headed Gull through the scope.  I had previously seen the species in China and the Philippines but this was a first for me in the USA and Texas.  The TOS Handbook says there are 27 previous Texas records, mostly from NE Texas but few in recent years.

After a half hour or so the flock took off.  I got distant shots showing the white upper forewing with black tip, similar to Bonaparte's Gull.  But the underwing has a black patch int the flight feathers.  Black-headed Gull (left) is slightly larger than Bonaparte's Gull.  Notice how much darker the mantle is ont the Franlin's Gull on the right.

Unfortunately the flock flew off towards the lake and disappeared.  Well that was nice.  I would have preferred a closer view but I'll take it.  Another good bird in the field was this late migrant American Golden-Plover on its way to Argentina.

Most of the visiting birders spend some time in the area scoping the distant lake to add birds to their Randall County list.  I like county listing but prefer to work on my local counties and I had better things to do.  Ari Rice, the finder of this rare gull, also found some great tiger beetles in nearby Donley and Hale Counties.  I finished the afternoon with ten species of tiger beetles.  Here's Cicendela formosa, Cicindela tranquebarica and Cicindela scutellaris.

The Black-headed Gull was my 608th species for Texas.  Wish I could have gotten that thick-knee.

Nice walk at La Puerta, 9/9/25

I was going to go to the Falcon area today, but as I approached the Lower Rio Grande Valley NWR's La Puerta tract on the east side of Rio Grande City, I decided to just stop and take a walk.  Despite the Valley rains, it was still pretty dry.  Some of the grass had greened up a bit but nothing was blooming so I concetrated on birds more than insects.  I walked along the sand and gravel tract, pishing and whistling pygmy owl calls, but not much was going on untill I reached the lantana patch about a half mile from the parking area.  I glimpsed a cardinal and a few Long-billed Thrashers.  A few weeks ago the area was infested with young cardinals and thrashers feeding on the lantana berries.

 And then there was this guy.  This is now the third time I have seen this Great Howned Owl in the area.

There were a few Empidonax flycatchers and Great Crested Flycatchers.  And then an uncooperative flock of Orchard and Baltimore Orioles.  I wasn't trying too hard for photos.  But then I heard the fall "cluck" call of a Yellow-breasted Chat.  Per usual it was calling but invisible.  So I whistled my crude but effective chat song and it popped right up.

I had gone over a mile and still had not seen a warbler.  I expected at least Yellow Warblers.  But I continued to walk and pish.  And then I caught a flash of yellow in a nearby bush.  I "toot toot"ed a pymy owl call and this good looking female Mourning Warbler exposed herself.  My 240th species for Starr County which is not great but I'm working on it.

When eBird said I had reached 1.5 miles I turned around and walked back.  Not much to see except this stink beetle.  I think it's the genus Eliodes.

So I got in a good three mile walk and a new county bird.  Can't beat that!

Willacy County Stuff, 8/12/25

A couple of days ago I was playing with iNaturalist and discovered I was not first in the butterfly species rankings for Willacy County.  That combined with it being fall bird migration inspired me to run out there and do some poking around.  I was driving down FM 1018 when I saw this Swaison's Hawk in a recently plowed field.  I glassed the field and found a total of eight.  Seems a little early for migrant Swainson's Hawks so my guess are these are local birds responding to a new food source in the plowed corn field.  But I guess they could be migrants.

I should have studied the raptors more to look for White-tailed Hawks but I got distracted by distant shorebirds.  My guess was they were Buff-breasted Sandpipers.  So I drove a dirt track along the edge of the field and managed to get quite close to some of them.  Yup there were young migrant Buff-breasted Sandpipers based on the scaly backs and spotted breasts.

I heard a familiar call overhead but could't remember if it was American Golden Plover or Upland Sandpiper.  Turns out there were a few Upland Sandpipers in the field.  The long neck and big eyes are reminicent of the Bustards I saw in South Africa.

I crossed the canal on FM 1420 and noticed a good sandbar so I stopped and scrambled down the bank and found three species of tiger beetles; Coastal, S-banded and Ocellated.

And a few Least Sandpipers.

I drove on out to the coast passing wet spots with egrets, ibises and spoonbills but I was too jaded for photos.  At the Laguna Point Recreation Area I found this misplaced Greater Roadrunner on a fishing pier hanging out with the regulars.

I think this is a summering female Redhead with a serious mite infestation.

There were a few shorebirds but nothing exciting.  I didn't even go to to Fred Stone County Park.  My objective had been to find a few butterflies but there was little blooming in the dry conditions.  The summer monsoon has been going on but the clouds usually pop up a few miles inland so the coast doesn't get as much rain.  I did find a few flowers by the boat dock and got my target for the day, Obscure Skipper.

So I got a few Willacy County year birds and four Willacy County iNat lifer butterflies though I know I had seen three of them before.  It's been raining up in the Teniente Tract the past few afternoons so I need to make another Willacy County run soon.

Brown Noddy at Boca Chica Jetty, 8/2/25

Not much has been going on lately birdwise.  I've been spending most of my time with insects. But yesterday afternoon the WhatsApp dinged.  Young up and coming birder Hector Duran had just sighted a Brown Noddy on a buoy from the South Padre Island jetty.  Last week he had a rare Sooty Shearwater from the SPI beach so Hector is on a role.  Anyway I've only seen Brown Noddy once and that was from the tip of the Port Aransas jetty years ago.

I hate walking the long rough South Padre Island jetty and figured I would be just as close from the end of the much more user friendly Boca Chica jetty.  So I drove out to Boca Chica, passing through congestion of the bizarre Elon Muskland.  The beach was quiet for a hot Saturday morning.  Early fall migrants included Willets and Sanderlings.

First Red Knots of the fall.

Just a few fisherman on the jetty.  I made the third of a mile walk out passing by a few Ruddy Turnstones.

At the end of the jetty I saw the buoy.  According to Google Earth it was 400 yards distant.  I set up the scope and there was the Brown Noddy!

Not much of a look.  I don't know why I didn't bring the 1.4x extender though I don't think it would have helped much.  I tried digiscoping but that was worse.  Here's a few more poor shots.

Well I'll take it.  Brown Noddy is my 440th species for Cameron County.  There was been several reports of this tropical tern species along the Texas coast this year including a very coopertive individual at the Bob Hall Pier on Padre Island by Corpus Christi.

This fisherman was cleaning up on Redfish.  He left burdened with five big ones.  I'm not sure if that is legal or not.

Not much exciting on the return drive down the beach.  A flock of four Yellow-crowned Night-Heron flew south.  Not sure what's up with that.

Back at Elon Muskland things were busy.  They had a rocket on the pad but I would wager it was there for tourist purposes.  They have been blowing up the huge Super Heavies lately.

Don't think you would want to reenter the atmosphere with a bunch of heat shield tiles missing.

This huge building was new.

Looks like someone had defaced the Overlord.  Bet this is a frequent problem.  There was bright paint on the other side.  Here's a link to more info.

Well Boca Chica beach was nice as usual but the long drive out there is becoming a real pain.  But I guess I would do it again for a Red-footed Booby.