Amur Stonechat at Anahuac NWR, 3/25/25

Back on Dec 19, 2024 David Sarkozi and Dave Hanson found an unusual passerine while working the Christmas Bird Count at Jocelyn Nungaray NWR (formerly Anuhuac NWR) south of Winnie and east of Houston.  They didn't know what it was but Dave got some pretty good photos.  I have know David Sarkozi as a friend and fellow birder for close to thirty years and have had a lot of memorable birding experiences with him.  David has been a leader and supporter of Friends of Anahuac for several decades.  He aslo has a book coming out in July, Birds of Texas.  It looks pretty good.

Being on a closed section of the refuge, information about this bird was not divulged though it was shared with trusted locals in the Houston area.  Over the next couple of weeks the bird was seen several times and determined by Saxicola experts be an Amur Stonechat Saxicola stejnegeri.  Ron Weeks got some pretty incredible digiscoped images.  There are very few records of this east Asian species for North America and few of the big time ABA listers have seen it so this is a big event in the birding world.

In the meantime David Sarkozi had been working to come up with a plan to allow birders into this closed portion of the refuge that would be agreeable with refuge administraton.  Finally a plan was agreed upon with the Refuge in mid March and David started leading two groups of thirty to see the stonechat every other day.  He would announce a set sign up time on Facebook and rules for the trip.  The allotment for the day would fill up in a few minutes.  I decided to wait for the dust to clear a bit before trying to sign up for a trip.

Then while watching the Ruff at Laguna Vista a few days ago I received a call from a Houston birder (who will remain nameless for undisclosed reasons) asking me if  I would help with leading a couple of the groups and be responsible for keeping an eye on the Amur Stonechat between groups.  I dont think they really needed my help but I was touched and honored by the gesture.  I jumped at the chance.

So yesterday morning I met David Sarkozi, John Berner and fellow "helper" Brad Lirette at the designatd spot along with the eager group hoping to see the Amur Stonechat.   We made the nealy one mile hike along the levees past cow patties and fire ant mounds to the brushy field where David and Dave made their initial discovery in this portion of the refuge only open to duck hunters and cow punchers (grazing is one of the management techniques used on the refuge).  It didn't take long for the bird be be found and most from our group of thirty got pretty good views and some even got photos.  But not me.

After an hour David led the happy group away but Brad and I along with a few who missed the bird stayed behind to locate it for the next group.  With fewer talking birders around the Amur Stonechat proved to be much more cooperative.  The next group got much better views.  Still it was tought getting photos of a five inch long bird from fifty yards away.  Severe cropping didn't leave many pixels to work with.  Here are some of my feeble images.

For centuries the stonechat across Europe, Asia and Africa was simply known as the Common Stonechat Saxicola torquata.  There were a number of slightly different geographic subspecies.  But the splitters arrived and eager to publish papers, have raised the subpecies to full specific status.  The nominate Saxicola torquata is now the African Stonechat.  The European Stonechat is Saxicola rubicola and the common one across Asia has been split into the western Siberian Stonechat Saxicola maurus and eastern Amur Stonechat Saxicola stejnegeri.  There are others with more restricted ranges.

Amur Stonechat breeds in eastern Siberia and winters in southeast Asia.  The few records from Alaska have been identified as stejnegeri along with some from western Europe.  My vavorite bird book, Rare Birds of North America by Steve Howell calls it Siberian Stonechat, Saxicola maurus stejnegeri. 

Here's Craig Robson's plate from Birds of SE Asia.  I had the chance to meet Craig a few weeks ago at the National Butterfly Center and got this world renowned SE Asian feld ornithologist and tour guide a couple of lifer butterflies.  He also refers to this as the stegnegeri subspecies of Siberian Stonechat.

So Amur Stonechat is my fourth species of Saxicola.  I have also seen African Stonechat, Gray Bushchat and Pied Bushchat.  Migration time for this guy is any day so who knows how long it will be around.  I feel lucky to twitch it as my Texas species number 607.  Many thanks to David Sarkosi and Dave Hanson for finding this incredible bird.

Ruff at Laguna Vista Reservoir, 3/21/25

I woke up a little late this morning.  I was thinking about heading west upriver to Salineno, but I dawdled so long with coffee and breakfast I decided it was to late for the long drive up there.  Then the WhatsApp dinged.  Jesse Huth, birding guide from central Texas, had just found a Ruff at the Laguna Vista Reservoir.  Yikes!  I've only seen two of those.  My lifer was at a Phoenix sewage treatment plant back in the 80's.  And the other was at an Austin sewage treament plant twenty years ago or so.  Both were fall migrants.  Maybe too late to go upriver but not too late to go for a Ruff!

A Ruff is a strange shorebird species from Europe and Asia.  The male is called a Ruff while the female is known as a Reeve. (God bless the British!)  Historically they have been thought to be related to Pectoral Sandpipers but are now in a different genus.  Males sport elaborate colorful plumage around the neck and breast durning the breeding season.  On the breeding grounds in the Eurasian Arctic, males collect on display grounds, known as leks, where they compete for females.  Every spring and fall a few show up across North America where the are much sought after by area birders.

I arrived at 11am to find a half dozen of our local birders lined up with scopes on the overlook next to the sewage treatment plant.  Father Tom, Justin LeClaire, Ryan Rodriguez, Danny Salinas and others were on the Ruff.  I like it when it's easy.  Well the Ruff was easy to see through a scope but getting photos was another story.  An eleven inch long bird at 220 yards (I measured on Google Earth) through a 400mm lens doesn't make much of a picture.  So I left the group and skirted the edge of the playa to the south where I wasn't much closer but the light was better.  Here's a few heavily cropped images.  This is a male coming into breeding plumage.

Ruffs have long scapular feather that fluff up in the breeze giving the bird a ruffed up appearance.  I guess that what the British thought as they hunted the birds for the pot.  As I write this a day later the Ruff is back and providing much better photo opps.  I should go back out there but I've got an Amur Stonechat to worry about.  Hopefully more about this later.