Santa Ana NWR, 1/12/25

After a week of cold, by our standards, weather I decided to take advantage of a sunny warm day to check out Santa Ana NWR and put some birds on the new year list.  The Pintail Lakes Trail left the brush and ran along the west end of the Pintail Lakes complex.  Not a lot on this portion of the lake but a flooded woodland turned up some interesting stuff.  Best was this Hermit Thrush.  They are present most winters but not easy to find and usually hard to photograph.

My first Black-and-white Warbler for 2025.

Least Flycatchers winter in small numbers in the RGV.  The "fwit" call helps with the ID.

Plenty of ducks on the lake.  Despite the different colors of drake Cinnamon and Blue-winged teals, they are closely related.  Females are very similar and the two species often hybridize.

The Buffleheads are still present on the far east end.  Only three today.

Drake Northern Pintails.

The Eared Grebe continues along with Least and Pied-bills.

Greater Yellowlegs with a diminutive Least Sandpiper.

Something flushed a flock of Long-billed Dowitchers.

After later "post mortem" inspection of the photos I was abler to pull out a couple of Stilt Sandpipers.

Raptors included Gray and Red-shouldered Hawks.

First of the year swallows included Tree and Cave.

I'll do Willow Lakes next time.

Santa Ana NWR (LTC 059), Hidalgo, Texas, US

Jan 12, 2025 9:49 AM - 1:15 PM

Protocol: Traveling

1.5 mile(s)

71 species (+1 other taxa)

Blue-winged Teal  60

Cinnamon Teal  8

Northern Shoveler  60

Gadwall  150

American Wigeon  8

Northern Pintail  40

Green-winged Teal  10

Ring-necked Duck  3

Lesser Scaup  12

Bufflehead  3

Ruddy Duck  65

Plain Chachalaca  7

Northern Bobwhite  12

Inca Dove  12

White-tipped Dove  6

Mourning Dove  1

American Coot  200

Killdeer  1

Long-billed Dowitcher  50

Wilson's Snipe  1

Spotted Sandpiper  2

Greater Yellowlegs  6

Stilt Sandpiper  2

Least Sandpiper  4

Least Grebe  8

Pied-billed Grebe  3

Eared Grebe  1

White-faced Ibis  2

Snowy Egret  1

Great Blue Heron  1

Turkey Vulture  2

Osprey  1

Northern Harrier  1

Harris's Hawk  1

Gray Hawk  1

Red-shouldered Hawk  1

Belted Kingfisher  2

Golden-fronted Woodpecker  2

Ladder-backed Woodpecker  2

Crested Caracara  3

Least Flycatcher  1

Eastern Phoebe  6

Vermilion Flycatcher  3

Great Kiskadee  6

Tropical Kingbird  1

Tropical/Couch's Kingbird  1

White-eyed Vireo  1

Loggerhead Shrike  1

Green Jay  6

Black-crested Titmouse  3

Verdin  2

Tree Swallow  2

Barn Swallow  1

Cave Swallow  5

Ruby-crowned Kinglet  2

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  3

Northern House Wren  2

Carolina Wren  2

Long-billed Thrasher  2

Northern Mockingbird  3

Hermit Thrush  1

Clay-colored Thrush  1

House Sparrow  10

Olive Sparrow  5

Altamira Oriole  1

Red-winged Blackbird  1

Great-tailed Grackle  5

Black-and-white Warbler  1

Orange-crowned Warbler  5

Common Yellowthroat  1

Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)  6

Northern Cardinal  3

Gray Gull at Brownsville Landfill, 1/4/25

As I was on my way back from the Yellow-headed Caracara, I think it was while I was eating gorditas de barbacoa at the Taqueria Guadaljara in Refugio, the WhatsApp dinged.  Hokey smokes Bullwinkle!  Justin LeClaire had found an immature Gray Gull at the Brownsville Landfill while working on the Christmas Bird Count.  He got fantastic photos.  Not everyone is on board this ID as we have been fooled by melanistic Laughing Gulls in the past.  But North American gull guru and author of the latest gull field guide, Amar Ayyash thinks it is perfectly fine for an immature Gray Gull.  Here is a link to Justin's eBird list.  

I got my lifer Gray Gulls along with Gray-hooded and Kelp Gulls at the Ecuasal lagoons on the Salinas Peninsula of Ecuador back in the 90s.  They occcur mostly along the Pacific coast from northern Chile to Ecuador with scattered records north to southern Mexico.  One has been present along the Gulf coast of Florida and Alabama for well over a year and seen by hundreds.  This would be a first record for Texas if accepted by the TBRC.

It was a foggy morning so I was not too worried about being super early.  I got to the landfill about 9:30 only to find it was clear there and the dozen or so birders assembled on the mountain of garbage had already seen the Gray Gull.  It had been seen on the ponds below and had even flown up to where the trucks were dumping refuse.  Grizzled guller Martin Reid and young savant Ryan Rodriguez were discussing the ID minutia that would separate an immature Gray Gull from a melanistic winter Laughing Gull.  Brad McKinney had already seen it but wanted more views so we and with a few more headed down the track to the bottom of the mountain to get better views of the ponds below with thousands of loafing Laughing and Herring gulls.  With several scopes trained on the massive flocks it did not take long to find the bird.  My poor photos show a dark brown/gray gull with light worn wing coverts and a slightly contrasting hood, all consistent with the fine photos taken by Justin.  My camera was still stupidly set on aperature mode (as with the Yellow-headed Caracara) so I don't know how much that may have contributed to the poor image quality.

Good enough for a tick but that's about it.  Here's a few photos of the general ambience and gull madness.

The Gray Gull was seen again yesterday but the weather has turned cold with rain in the forescast so I will wait a few days before giving it another try for better photos.  You never know what you might find, so though not very pleasant, the Brownsville Landfill is always worth a visit.  Gray Gull is the eleventh gull species I've seen at the Landfill.  It was Texas bird #606 and Cameron County bird #438.