South Padre Island, 2/28/10

With Honey at work today, my old teaching colleague Mike and I headed out to South Padre Island to see what was about. Still a bit early for spring migrants. We spent a few hours walking the boardwalks at the SPI Birding and Nature Center. Nothing unusual was going on but there's always interesting stuff to see. I enjoyed this Black Skimmer cruising by.



Here's a frantically feeding bunch of Roseate Spoonbills.



The Ardeids were looking sharp in their prenuptial finery. Normally I don't look twice at Great Blue Herons but I made an exception for this one.



A very tame Reddish Egret.



This Little Blue Heron dared me to get close.



There was not a lot of shorebird diversity, mostly Dunlin, Willits and both Yellowlegs. This was the only Marbled Godwit.



Yellow-rumped Warblers will be around a few more weeks before the main spring warbler invasion occurs.



After the boardwalk we drove the beach looking for unusual gulls. I think this may be a first cycle Lesser Black-backed Gull but I'm open to suggestions. Looks a lot like 27.11 in Howell and Dunn.



Here's some good looking Brown Pelicans.



We finised the day with some good food and suds at the SPI Brewery and some more at the Wahoo Saloon. A nice day was had by all!

Bentsen State Park, 2/16/10

After returning from taking my dad up to see Sal del Rey I got the call from Mary Gustafson and also from David Dauphin that an Aztec Thrush had just been found at Bentsen State Park south of Mission. So I rushed right over and spent a couple of hours looking for it but was not able to refind it. I guess I'll give it another go tomorrow. But on the way in I was happy to tick my Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl for the year. It was just south of the maintenance building where it has been heard lately.



Son of Smudge, the offspring of a supposed Altimira/Audubon's Oriole hybrid was hanging out at the feeding station.



I tried to make this bunting into a Lazuli but the whitish throat and faint streaking on the sides point to Indigo.



Here's a Snowy Plover from this morning's walk into Sal del Rey. My dad is 80 years old and made the 1.5 mile walk just fine. I hope I can do that when I'm that old.