Padre Island National Seashore, 6/22/26

On Sunday Willie Sekula and Caley Thomas found an adult breeding plumaged Arctic Tern while plying the beach at the Padre Island National Seashore.  I'm sure this wasn't just an accidental find but an intentional attemp to locate this and other rare species that can show up on Gulf beaches during the summer.  Willie knows his stuff!

Arctic Tern is my Texas nemesis species by a long shot.  I have driven many beaches hoping to find one and I've chased several, all to no avail.  So I got up early Monday morning and made the nearly 200 mile drive to the Padre Island National Seashore where it is possible to drive sixty miles of beach.  There were plenty of terns to sort through.  These are mostly Royal Terns.  Breeding is over and white foreheads are coming back.

Sandwich Terns were also around.

But I was after the smaller Arctic Tern which means fishing through the Common Terns.  These are all in basic plumage.  I don't know if they are young of this year or non breeders.

There were also breeding plumaged Common Terns known as alternate plumage.

I don't know if this is a Common Tern or a Forster's Tern.  iNat say's Forster's but the bill doen't seem orange enough to me though it is pretty big.  I didn't see any basic plumaged Forster's which is easy to ID.

I ran into long time Texas lister John Berner and his wife from Houston.  Arctic Tern is his nemesis bird too.  Turns out neither of us were able to find it.  Willie's list on eBird had a lot more birds.  I'm sure many were driven off by the Sunday afternoon beach goers.  So maybe it wasn't our fault.

Best bird for me was this young Aplomado Falcon.  I'm sure it hatched nearby.  Tag says B 04.  I remember seeing my first along the coast of Veracruz many years ago.  Aplomado Falcos were once extirpated from the US but are now realitvely easy to find due to captive breeding programs and providing nesting birds with preditor proof nest boxes.

And at the same spot I was also rewarded with three Magnificent Frigatebirds.  I picked up six new birds for my Kenedy County list.

So I didn't get what I wanted but it was still a beautiful day at the beach.

My Best Ever Bay-breasted Warbler, 5/7/26

A late "cold" front was trying to enter the Lower Rio Grande Valley of south Texas yesterday and I thought it might cause something interesting to land at South Padre Island.  I headed east and after passing San Benito the WhatsApp dinged.  Tammy Bulow had just found a Sulphur Bellied Flycatcher at the Convention Center.  It's probably the same one that was seen at the Birding and Nature Center five days ago.  A second chance!

Well have half dozen birders or more searched thoughout the day but to no avail.  I checked my records and found I saw a Sulphur-bellied back in 2006 at the Convention Center back before I had a camera.  I saw another at Quinta Mazatlan in 2008 and got photos of that one.  So it's not the end of the world.  Meanwhile there were other migrants to see.

I really got spoiled with warbler photography last weekend and despite quite a few warblers around, I found few I cared to shoot at.  After a while at the Birding and Nature Center where I found this cool Epimelissodes petulcus, I returned to the Convention Center.

Long time Valley bird photographer Larry Ditto and another photographer whose name I can never remember had chairs pulled up to the water feature waiting for action.  I may be a snob but I find most "photographers" have terrible nature observation skills.  They can only get photos if the bird is in their face.  But this afternoon they had warblers in their face and I joined in.

Most of the photo opps were OK but still not as good as I had last weekend.  The one exception was the Bay-breasted Warbler.  I was closer to them last week but the lighting and angles were always off.  This bird coming in to the Convention Center drip was really putting on a show.

 

Bay-breasted Warblers are just uncommon enough to always be a treat in the valley.  Their unique coloring is unlike any other bird species I know.  So no Sulphur-bellied Flycathcer but still a good day.