Black Skimmer at Falcon Lake, 10/18/24

Well after the major faux pas on my last post, I quit birding and switched to bugs.  Just kidding.  But lately I have been entering a lot of stuff into iNaturalist and trying to extend my expertise into the insect world.  I have found native bees and tiger beetles to be a fun challege.  So I've let my birding lapse a bit.  

But a few days a go I ran up to Salineno and Falcon Reservoir to check the bugs up there and while looking for tiger beetles along the lake shore my attention was drawn to a flock of Forster's Terns.  I was hoping to find a Common Tern but they were all Forster's.  There were also a few Laughing Gulls and what seemed to be a pale gull.  I figured it was probably a Ring-billed and fired a few shots with the camera.  What's up with the big beak?  Was it carrying a fish?  I looked through the binocs and realized it was an immature Black Skimmer.  That's a really good bird up there away from the coast.  I was on the Zapata County side past the boat launch and so it was a new bird for the county list.  It looped around a bit a may have crossed into Starr County but I'm not sure.  Anyway it landed a ways up the shoreling so I walked up and god photos.

Here are some of the Forster's Terns.

Wow, that was pretty cool.  I went back to looking at tigerbeetles and found several of the less common S-banded Tiger Beetles.  Though only a little more than a half inch long, these little predators are always running around and raising hell.

As I was leaving I saw a bird sitting on a stump that I though might be a phoebe but binoc views proved it to be an immature White-crowned Sparrow.  After I got poor shots through the windshield, it flew to a small huisache about a hundred feet away.  I slowly walked towards it and was surprised to see it not fly out.  I was pishing lightly and got within about twenty feet of the sparrow.  White-crowned Sparrows are always a good bird in the Valley and this one was another Zapata County lifer for me.

Well I was on a roll so Idecided to check out the big purple marsh fleabane patch just below me for butterflies.  It was cloudy so not a lot of butterflies were out but there were plenty of pollinating bees, wasps and beetles.  I got lucky and picked up two lifer bees.  I think this is a male Megachile sidalceae.  

I've become enamored with cuckoo bees.  Like the old world cuckoos that lay they eggs in the nests of other bird species, there are also kleptoparasitic bees.  This one, another lifer, is Coelioxys texanus, The Texas Cucko Leafcutter Bee.  This is a male.  The female would lay its egg in the underground nest of one of the Leafcutter Bee species, possible the one above.

You never know what you're going to find.

Western Flycatcher at South Padre Island, 8/8/24 (NOT!!!!!!!!)

(Edited 10/23/24.  Woops.  Not long after this post and my posts on eBird and Facebook, it was brought to my attention by young talented birders that this was not a Western Flycatcher but was just a Yellow-bellied.  The color of the under parts, orange mandible and tear shaped eye ring made me certain it was a Western Flycatcher.  But it was pointed out to me that that the strong contrast between the color of the upper parts and under parts were inconsistent with Western Flycatcher.  I was ready to argue but I went back and looked at photos on eBird and they were right.  Western Flycatchers are almost a uniform yellowish green.  So this is just a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher with a sloppy eye ring.😖)

 I ran out to South Padre Island this morning to see what early migrant passerines might be about.  A stop at the Sheepshead lot turned up a Least Flycatcher but not much else.  A couple of volunteers were cleaning up the guinea grass that had gone crazy afther the recent rain so anything else may have gotten flushed.

Then I ran up to the Convention Center and walked over to the water feature and an Empidonax immediately perched over the trickle of water.  It was in heavy shade but I saw what appeared to be a sloppy eye ring so I just assumed it was another Least Flycatcher.  But it  sat there and dared me to take photos.  Then I noticed it was greenish with yellowish underparts like a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher.  But It didn't have a bold even eye ring.  Instead the eye ring pointed toward the rear like a tear drop.  And the bill was too big.  Then it hit me.  Western Flycatcher!  I had seen several just a few weeks ago in SE Arizona.

According to eBird, this is the first Western Flycatcher for South Padre Island and I am guessing a first August record for the Rio Grande Valley.  Previously Western Flycatcher had been split into the West Coast's Pacific-slope Flycatcher and the Rocky Mountains' Cordilleran Flycatcher.  The only difference being a slight variation between their calls and songs.  Most winters one is found somewhere in the RGV.  All that have been identified were assigned to Pacific-Slope Flycatcher.  They normally winter at low elevations along the west coast of Mexico.  There was a major invasion into the Valley during the winter of 2020-21.  Fortunately the two species were relumped after it was decided there was little evidence for the initial split.

So which one is this?  On my recent trip to SE Arizona I spoke with a number of Cordillearan Flycatchers.  I imitate their call with a whistled "hoo-heet".  They often answer back when they are on territory.  I learned this while living nine years in SE Arizona.  So I whistled to this lost Western Flycatcher and it answered with a couple of single syllable "heet's.  Not sure what that means.  But if I had to bet money I am guessing this is a Cordilleran Flycathcer displaced by the one of the many fires raging across the Rocky Mountains.

My only other migrants for the morning were the expected Black-and-white Warbler and a surprise immature Dickcissel.

It may be hot 'n nasty out there but there are plenty of insects for brave migrant birds.  Yellow and Mourning Warblers and Yellow-breassted Chats should be showing up soon.