Monday, August 20, 2012

August Warblers

There's not a month in the year when there's not a few warblers around in the Rio Grande Valley. The summer is a bit thin though. After the last straggler Magnolias and Canadas leave in early June the only warblers about are a few Common Yellowthroats and the odd Tropical Parula. In July there's always a little migration burst that brings a few Black-and-whites and Louisiana Waterthrushes from up north but then there's usually very few around till late August and September. But this August has been different with plenty of southbound migrant warblers across the state. Here in the RVG, between Santa Ana NWR and Frontera, I've seen nine species in just the past week. Here's a few of them. Most numerous are the Yellow Warblers.
Black-and-whites often come in twos or threes.
This Louisiana Waterthrush was at Willow 1 at Santa Ana.
My first Canada of the fall.
To me it seems Yellow Breasted Chat is the second most common early fall migrant warblers. Soon it will be possible to see a couple dozen during a miles walk at Santa Ana. Once you learn their "cluck cluck" call you hear them all over the place. But you do well to get more than an obscured look through the brush.
This Yellow-throated Warbler was a bit of a surprise at Frontera.
But not as big a surprise as this Kentucky Warbler. After seeing my first ever in August at Frontera, I found a second in the pittosporum outside my bathroom window at home.

1 comment:

John said...

Glad you've revived your blog-- it's nice to see this post coupled with the photos to bring the texbird posts come to life!