New Bird at Progreso Lakes, 9/4/21

There are about a dozen species of birds that are resident or regular migrants in Hidalgo County that I have yet to see in our yard at Progreso Lakes.  The one I thought most likely to drop by was Yellow-throated Vireo.  Well a couple of days ago I looked out the bedroom window at our brush patch that was being sprayed by our irrigation system, when I noticed a passerine ejoying the afternoon shower.  I got got my binoculars on it and saw a bight green back outlined by dark gray wings with white wing bars.  First thing I thought was Blue-winged Warbler.  Then it turned around and I saw big yellow spectacles abound a dark eye and a lemon yellow throat.  Our first Yellow-throated Vireo.  I ran out with the camera but got a terrible shot.  Two days later it appeared again and I got more bad photos.  Finally today I was able to get some OK pictures.  Yellow-throated Vireo is yard bird #241.

Later I was sitting on the back porch watching our bird bath when I heard a repeated "chek" call.  I was hoping it wasn't the Red-winged Blackbird that had just left the feeder.  The call was a little "sweet" for a Redwing.  My guess was Mourning Warbler.  Anyway I pished and did my vireo scold call and the bird kept calling but wouldn't come our.  Finally I went around behind the brush patch and tried to sneak up on the bird.  There was something on the back side of the Tenaza.... a wet bird preening.  It was a young Mourning Warbler.  I got a tough photo.  Had I stayed on the porch I probably could have gotten it in the bird bath.

Eastern Kingbirds have been passing through.

And we've had a couple of Olive-sided Flycatchers.

This afternoon the dove hunters are out and blasting away.  Hopefully they will stir things up and there will be new stuff in the yard tomorrow.

Stuff at Progreso Lakes, 8/26/21

Well it's been a pleasant mostly uneventful summer at Progreso Lakes.  We haven't hit 100 degrees yet and we've had some rain.  The yard is looking good after the terrible freeze last winter and a few migrants are starting to trickle in.  Here's our first Yellow-throated Warbler of the fall.

We've had several Yellow Warblers.

Yesterday I heard a Groove-billed Ani calling from the neighbor's yard.  I whistled an imitation of the three syllable call and counted a total of eighteen as they passed through our yard.

In our four previous summers at Progreso Lakes the farmer who owns the field in front of our house has planted sorghum once and cotton three times.  This year he planted half the field in cotton but did not plant directly in front of our house so we've had a weedy field out there.  But the state's bole weevil control program makes him periodically plow it up.  This event along with the high water in Moon Lake has created a mudflat in the field and suitable shorebird habitat.  And in particular the dry field has been attracting migrant grasspipers.  

What are grasspipers you say?  Grasspipers are sandpipers that are attracted to dry short grass areas.  Birders think of the group typically including American Golden-Plovers and Upland and Buff-breasted Sandpipers.  So  I've been doing a lot of scoping from our yard in an attempt to add some of these hard to come by shorebirds to our yard list.  I discovered I can put the spotting scope in the back of my pickup and get pretty good visibility.  The big news is I was able to see our first Buff-breasted Sandpipers.  They were too far away for photos but I later drove into the field and got some OK images.  Buff-breasted Sandpiper is bird species #240 for our yard.

I also had a flock of American Golden-Plovers which I was unable to photograph and at least a half dozen Upland Sandpipers.  Yard bird #192 for the year.

Otherwise it was just the usual summer stuff.  Our Northern Cardinals raised a baby.  Here's Dad teaching his son about sunflower seeds,

Fall will be bringing us more migrants by the day.  Can't wait to see what shows up next.