Sugar House Pond, 8/25/14

I checked out the Sugar House Pond this morning hoping to find some good Hidalgo County stuff.  The pond is a 40 acre impoundment for the effluent from the sugar refinery located on FM 1425 north of FM 107, and is just north of the railroad tracts.  It is located on the left but is not visible from the highway.  You have to climb the grassy berm and then this lies before you.

I estimated 4000 Wilson's Phalaropes but there may have been twice that many.

Nothing too exciting among the fifteen species of shorebirds present.  With the recent Collared Plover, I've been a bit plover-sensitive lately.  I tried to turn a distant one into a Lesser Sand-Plover but the closer it got, the more it looked a like a Wilson's Plover.  This is the first I've seen at this site.

Sugar House Pond (FM1425), Hidalgo, US-TX
Aug 25, 2014 8:10 AM - 10:30 AM
Protocol: Stationary
38 species

Black-bellied Whistling-Duck  200
Fulvous Whistling-Duck  20
Mottled Duck  1
Blue-winged Teal  50
Northern Pintail  1
Ruddy Duck  6
Great Blue Heron  4
Great Egret  1
Snowy Egret  2
Little Blue Heron  2
Cattle Egret  2
White Ibis  12
Roseate Spoonbill  4
American Coot  4
Black-necked Stilt  490
American Avocet  140
Snowy Plover  2
Wilson's Plover  1
Semipalmated Plover  2
Killdeer  6
Willet  5
Lesser Yellowlegs  80
Stilt Sandpiper  500
Baird's Sandpiper  5
Least Sandpiper  800
Buff-breasted Sandpiper  1
Semipalmated Sandpiper  5
Western Sandpiper  80
Long-billed Dowitcher  160
Wilson's Phalarope  4000
Laughing Gull  1
Black Tern  20
Mourning Dove  6
Bank Swallow  2
Barn Swallow  6
Cave Swallow  4
Dickcissel  2
Great-tailed Grackle  X