Santa Ana NWR, 8/30/11

The hoard of storks and egrets at Pintail Lakes have departed but Santa Ana NWR still has plenty of good birds. Best for me today was this young Black Skimmer, my 278th Hidalgo county bird for the year.



Among the six species of warblers were seven Mourning Warblers, all in juvenile plumage. The broken eyering fool some birders into thinking they are MacGillivray's.





Northern Waterthushes are starting to go through.



Saw three Canada Warblers today. This one was at Frontera two days ago.



This scruffy male Indigo Bunting seems a bit early.



I tried again to get some better pictures of Neotropical Bluets but they were always just out of range and much more active than the Blue-ringed Dancers who always pose for photos.





Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, Hidalgo, US-TX
Aug 30, 2011 8:20 AM - 12:10 PM
Protocol: Traveling
2.0 mile(s)
73 species

Blue-winged Teal 60
Plain Chachalaca 4
Neotropic Cormorant 5
Great Egret 3
Snowy Egret 25
Cattle Egret 2
Green Heron 2
Black-crowned Night-Heron 2
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron 1
White-faced Ibis 2
Roseate Spoonbill 7
Turkey Vulture 1
Broad-winged Hawk 1
Gray Hawk 1
American Coot 20
Killdeer 3
Black-necked Stilt 70
American Avocet 3
Upland Sandpiper 2
Least Sandpiper 30
Stilt Sandpiper 40
Long-billed Dowitcher 120
Laughing Gull 7
Gull-billed Tern 3
Black Tern 4
Forster's Tern 3
Black Skimmer 1
White-winged Dove 70
Mourning Dove 5
Common Ground-Dove 5
White-tipped Dove 2
Groove-billed Ani 25
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 1
Buff-bellied Hummingbird 1
Ringed Kingfisher 1
Green Kingfisher 1
Golden-fronted Woodpecker 6
Ladder-backed Woodpecker 6
Eastern Wood-Pewee 1
Alder Flycatcher 4
Least Flycatcher 2
Brown-crested Flycatcher 2
Great Kiskadee 10
Tropical Kingbird 1
Couch's Kingbird 5
Eastern Kingbird 3
White-eyed Vireo 3
Green Jay 4
Purple Martin 2
Bank Swallow 1
Barn Swallow 5
Cave Swallow 35
Black-crested Titmouse 3
Carolina Wren 4
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 2
Clay-colored Thrush 1
Northern Mockingbird 2
Long-billed Thrasher 1
Northern Waterthrush 1
Black-and-white Warbler 3
Mourning Warbler 7
Yellow Warbler 40
Canada Warbler 3
Yellow-breasted Chat 8
Olive Sparrow 8
Northern Cardinal 1
Blue Grosbeak 2
Indigo Bunting 1 Male, photographed at Willow 1
Painted Bunting 3
Dickcissel 12
Red-winged Blackbird 25
Great-tailed Grackle 5
Lesser Goldfinch 1