Hook-billed Kite at Anzalduas County Park, 1/18/09

I ran into JD Cortez this morning At Anzaldulas County Park south of Mission in Hidalgo County. We did a couple of laps around the park finally picking up the wintering Prairie Warbler, a female Black-throated Gray Warbler, a couple of Northern Beardless Tyrannulets and a couple of Pine Siskins. So we were doing pretty good when a floppy-winged raptor approached us. We enjoyed great looks a this Hook-billed Kite. Notice how the bases of the winges are "pinched in" contrasting with the broad winges and tail.







Anzalduas is a great place for Pine Warbler in The Winter. Here's a bright one.





We added a Black Phoebe to round out a nice morning.

Greater White-fronted Goose 7
Gadwall 10
American Wigeon 2
Mallard (Mexican) 4
Blue-winged Teal 2
Pied-billed Grebe 2
Double-crested Cormorant 20
Anhinga 2
Great Egret 2
Snowy Egret 1
Little Blue Heron 1
White-faced Ibis 1
Turkey Vulture 30
Hook-billed Kite 1
Cooper's Hawk 1
American Kestrel 4
Common Moorhen 6
American Coot 40
Spotted Sandpiper 2
Ring-billed Gull 1
Rock Pigeon 15
Mourning Dove 2
Inca Dove 3
White-tipped Dove 4
Golden-fronted Woodpecker 8
Ladder-backed Woodpecker 2
Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet 2
Black Phoebe 1
Eastern Phoebe 1
Vermilion Flycatcher 1
Great Kiskadee 3
White-eyed Vireo 1
Blue-headed Vireo 2
Green Jay 6
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 1
Black-crested Titmouse 4
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 8
Eastern Bluebird 6
Clay-colored Thrush 1
Northern Mockingbird 5
European Starling 6
Orange-crowned Warbler 10
Yellow-rumped Warbler 15
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Audubon's) 1
Black-throated Gray Warbler 1
Black-throated Green Warbler 3
Pine Warbler 8
Prairie Warbler 1
Black-and-white Warbler 1
Common Yellowthroat 5
Chipping Sparrow 12
Lincoln's Sparrow 2
Northern Cardinal 2
Eastern Meadowlark 35
Pine Siskin 2
American Goldfinch 1

Butterflies at Gomez Farias, Tamaulipas, Mexico

While we were scouting for the Gomez Farias CBC we encountered some cool butterflies. I'm not on of these birders that gets all nutsy about butterflies and I won't waste time to look at a grass-skipper or hairstreak. But I do enjoy a good colorful butterfly. These were mostly along the Rio Sabinas.

Honey got this great pic of a Montezuma Cattleheart. It was a new one for me.



Here's an Isabella Heliconia.



Erato Heliconia was also common along the river.



At one point we have twelve Malachites together drinking sap under a large Ficus.



Common Banner



Orange Banner



This Purple-washed Eyemark was a new one for me.



Honey got apic of this clearwing. Don't know which one it is.



She also photographed the Whitened Bluewing.

Gomez Farias CBC, Jan. 1, 2009

On New Year's Day Honey and I did the Gomez Farias Christmas Bird Count in southern Tamaulipas, Mexico. This CBC includes the famous El Cielo Biosphere Preserve. Unfortunately various circumstances caused people to not be able to come down so we did the count all by ourselves. Having birded in Mexico many times this was no big deal. It's just hard to cover a fifteen mile diameter circle with one group. We tried our best anyway and got 109 species on the day and a few more for the count period. We didn't find anything really unusual but had a good time anyway.

The beautiful Rio Sabinas yielded a cool Bare-throated Tiger-Heron in the afternoon.





We started the day on the mountain below the vilage of Alta Cima.



Here's a jewel---Canivet's Emerald.



White-winged Tanager likes the higher elevations.



We saw quite a few Blue Buntings.



As we worked our way down the mountain towards the river we saw lots of common Mexican birds. They're a bid deal when they wander up to south Texas. Here's a couple of Social Flycatchers.



Masked Tityra.



Juvenile Roadside Hawk.



I attracted lots of birds by imitating the call of the Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl. Sometimes it would bring in an owl.

Pine Flycather at Choke Canyon Lake

Back on Dec. 13 Willie Sekula found an interesting "western" type Empidonx at Choke Canyon Lake's Calliham Unit. Martin Reid refound the same bird on Jan 1 and realized the "whit" call it was making was all wrong for a "western" flycatcher and seriously considered the possibility that it was a Pine Flycatcher. Pine Flycatcher is an Empidonax native to mountains of Mexico and has never been recorded in the United States. Consultation with experienced birders has so far upheld the identification. I got to see this tentative Pine Flycatcher on Jan 3. Here are some poor pics.