Happy New Year!

I got a late start this morning after enduring last night's rocket barrage as the neighborhood celebrated the new year. I am thankful no bullets came through the roof! I went over to Estero Llano Grande to start the new county year list. Good warblers included Tropical Parula and Black-throated Gray among the eight species I saw. Then it was the sit and wait game for the White-throated Trush. After two hours it flew in for a brief drink and a poor photo. This is the fifth one I have seen in the Valley.



After going home for lunch and a nap, I ran back over to the flood channel south of the park to look for a couple of things I had seen on the CBC earlier this week. The Yellow-headed Blackbirds were still around.



And after a bit of tromping around at the Short-eared Owl field, a couple popped up for good views and a year tick.



Then in a pond by the Llano Grande golf course I saw a Double-cresed Cormornat struggling to swallow a very spiny plecostomous. The common aquarium suckermouth catfish from South America seems to be common here in the waterways of the RGV.