Saturday, April 18, 2020

Great Day at Progreso Lakes, 4/18/20

With the pandemic going on I'm not birding anywhere but in our yard at Progreso Lakes.  The past week has seen migration action pick up with several days of 60+ species but nothing great.  I thought today was going to be another hot muggy breezy boring day.  But after finding the first Golden-winged Warbler for our yard, things really picked up.  Yard bird #224!


I caught a glimpse of a Yellow-breasted Chat and played a recording hoping it might come out.  Well it did and it spent the whole day singing and chasing stuff around the yard.


Other warblers included Common Yellowthroat, Black-throated Green, Tennessee and Yellow Warblers and a Northern Parula.


First birds of the morning was this hen Muscovy with her 14 babies.


Small numbers of orioles were a treat.  We had Altamira, Baltimore, Orchard and Hooded.  I'm still waiting for Bullock's.




At lunch I was sitting on about 60 species and thought I would try for a few more after I finished eating.  Then a little cool front came wafting in with a noticeably cooler north breeze.  Could this stop a few migrating birds?  I kept wandering from the front yard to the back and picked up a few more.  I got Blue-headed and Red-eyed Vireos and an Eastern Wood-Pewee.



Meanwhile back along the resaca I got two Spotted Sandpipers and a Silt Sandpiper.



My buddy Mike in Houston called to see how things were going and as we talked I racked up both Indigo and Painted Buntings.



Well, it was dinner time already and as Honey and I ate dinner I saw a Warbling Vireo through the window.  This was bird number 73 for the day smashing our old one day record of 69.  I was still missing some easy birds and there was a good chance of an evening hawk flight so I got back to work.  I got a singing Lesser Goldfinch and a late American Kestrel.


I also saw ten Turkey Vultures, 50 distant Mississippi Kites, a Sharp-shinned Hawk, a few Swainson's Hawks and about 30 Broad-wings.


Gee, now we had a chance to break 80.  So I ran to the the back yard and got the evening flight of Neotropic Cormorants.


And then Snowy and Cattle Egrets.


And with a calling Common Nighthawk, I finished the day with 82 species.  I missed a lot of common stuff so that's a breakable record.

Jones yard, Progreso Lakes, Hidalgo, Texas, US
Apr 18, 2020 8:20 AM - 8:10 PM
Protocol: Stationary
82 species (+4 other taxa)

Black-bellied Whistling-Duck (fulgens)  18
Muscovy Duck (Domestic type)  19
Mottled Duck (Gulf Coast)  2
Plain Chachalaca  6
Eurasian Collared-Dove  1
Inca Dove  1
White-tipped Dove  2
White-winged Dove  150
Mourning Dove  10
Yellow-billed Cuckoo  1
Common Nighthawk  1
Common Pauraque  1
Chimney Swift  5
Ruby-throated Hummingbird  8
Buff-bellied Hummingbird (Northern)  2
Common Gallinule (American)  1
Black-necked Stilt (Black-necked)  2
Stilt Sandpiper  1
Spotted Sandpiper  2
Laughing Gull  3
Franklin's Gull  3
Neotropic Cormorant  23
Double-crested Cormorant  1
Great Blue Heron (Blue form)  3
Snowy Egret  2
Cattle Egret (Western)  3
Green Heron  1
Black-crowned Night-Heron  1
Turkey Vulture  12
Osprey (carolinensis)  1
Mississippi Kite  50
Sharp-shinned Hawk (Northern)  1
Broad-winged Hawk  30
Swainson's Hawk  5
Ringed Kingfisher  1
Golden-fronted Woodpecker (Northern)  4
Ladder-backed Woodpecker  1
Crested Caracara  3
American Kestrel  1
Eastern Wood-Pewee  1
Black Phoebe  1
Brown-crested Flycatcher  2
Great Kiskadee  4
Tropical Kingbird  1
Couch's Kingbird  1
Tropical/Couch's Kingbird  2
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher  1
Blue-headed Vireo  1
Warbling Vireo  1
Red-eyed Vireo  1
Loggerhead Shrike  1
Black-crested Titmouse  1
Northern Rough-winged Swallow  20
Purple Martin  2
Barn Swallow (American)  3
Cliff Swallow (pyrrhonota Group)  2
swallow sp.  40
Carolina Wren (Northeast Mexico/South Texas)  1
European Starling  6
Gray Catbird  1
Northern Mockingbird  4
Clay-colored Thrush  1
House Sparrow  5
Lesser Goldfinch  1
Lark Sparrow  2
Lincoln's Sparrow  1
Yellow-breasted Chat  2
Orchard Oriole  3
Hooded Oriole (cucullatus/sennetti)  2
Altamira Oriole  1
Baltimore Oriole  2
Red-winged Blackbird  1
Bronzed Cowbird (Bronzed)  2
Brown-headed Cowbird  5
Great-tailed Grackle  50
blackbird sp.  100
Golden-winged Warbler  1
Tennessee Warbler  2
Common Yellowthroat  1
Northern Parula  2
Yellow Warbler (Northern)  1
Black-throated Green Warbler  1
Northern Cardinal  3
Indigo Bunting  1
Painted Bunting  1

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