Yturria Brush, 6/12/11

This morning I headed over to Yturria Brush tract of the Lower Rio Grande Valley NWR to look for desert stuff for my Hidalgo County year list, specifically Blue Grosbeak and Ash-throated Flycatcher. Despite the hot, dry leafless conditions birds were quite active. I missed my targets but scored big with my first Varied Buntings for the county (bird #362). This adult male was right under my nose when I found it but only gave me a poor pic.



I think this singing basic plumaged bunting was also a Varied. At least that's what I'm calling it till someone tells me otherwise.



I was not surprised by this Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet as I have had the species here before, though this one was a bit more friendly than most.





Black-throated Sparrows are always a treat.



Despite a complete absence of water, dragonflies were numerous. A year ago I found my first Halloween Pennant here at Yturria Brush. Today I saw maybe fifteen of them.



Northern Bobwhite 2
Great Egret 2
Cattle Egret 5
Turkey Vulture 2
Swainson's Hawk 1
Crested Caracara 1
Laughing Gull 1
White-winged Dove 10
Mourning Dove 10
Common Ground-Dove 8
Yellow-billed Cuckoo 1
Golden-fronted Woodpecker 2
Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet 1
Brown-crested Flycatcher 2
Western Kingbird 1
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher 2
White-eyed Vireo 8
Green Jay 2
Bank Swallow 1
Cave Swallow 2
Verdin 16
Bewick's Wren 1
Northern Mockingbird 8
Long-billed Thrasher 2
European Starling 2
Olive Sparrow 8
Lark Sparrow 3
Black-throated Sparrow 8
Northern Cardinal 10
Pyrrhuloxia 24
Varied Bunting 2
Great-tailed Grackle 3
Bronzed Cowbird 10
House Sparrow 2

Masked Duck at Sabal Palm Sanctuary, 5/4/11

This past week a female Masked Duck has been hanging out at the resaca at Sabal Palm Sanctuary in Brownsville so I made a run down there to see it. I was definitely not disappointed.



I am so fine!



Although I've seen lots of super rare birds in the RGV, I've seen very few of the Valley's herp specialties. After 18 years, today I finally saw my first Speckled Racer. Actually there were two of them. Apparently they are fairly common at Sabal Palm but they've avoided me before today.