A cold front and a little cut off low pressure system in Mexico gave us a couple of cool days and even a little rain. So my plan was to go somewhere and see some migrants today. But then I saw a Yellow Warbler while I was eating breakfast and then there was this wild looking Muscovy on the irrigation standpipe out in the cotton field. Maybe it's a little bit too pot bellied for a wild bird but otherwise it looks pretty good.
So I decided to spend some time in our yard at Progreso Lakes. It didn't take long to pick out the Purple Gallinule across the water. I assume it's the same one that has been present for the past ten days or so.
There were four Eastern Kingbirds, a Philadelphia Vireo and an American Redstart but otherwise not much in way of migrant passerines.
I was sitting on the back porch watching the bird bath and brush patch when I saw a small flock of what I thought were shorebirds flying high over the opposite shore with shallow wingbeats. I ran back to the water and thought I had missed them but then refound them very distantly heading over to the other lake. I switched to manual focus and luckily got a couple of shots. Hmmm..... why are these shorebirds green? And come to think of it, why were they making a shreeking call? Were they Green Parakeets?
Well I returned to the porch, pondering my green shorebirds, when I head the same shreeking but this time much closer. And I recognized the call as Green Parakeets which I used to hear frequently when we lived in Weslaco. After a little bit I found four of them in the neighbor's anacua across the fence. Not totally unexpected, Green Parakeet is species #239 for our yard.
Well, that was good. I returned to the porch and a trio of small doves landed in the dead frozen Ficus not far away. I was expecting the usual Incas but they turned out to be Common Ground Doves.
A tight flock of about twenty smallish slim birds streaked by before I could get a photo. I couldn't think of anything they could be other than Cedar Waxwings. A bit later one landed for me.
Sitting on the porch was being productive. Then I heard the squeeky call note of a Groove-billed Ani. I was waiting for the call to morph into some other mockingbird mimicry but then a black floppy tailed bird with a fat beak landed in a distant tree. Our first Groove-billed Ani of the year and bird #178 for our 2021 yard list.
Jones yard, Progreso Lakes, Hidalgo, Texas, US
May 1, 2021 7:30 AM - 4:30 PM
Protocol: Stationary
65 species (+2 other taxa)
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck (fulgens) 200
Fulvous Whistling-Duck 13
Muscovy Duck (Domestic type) 7 Six domestic in the resaca and this wild looking one on the standpipe in the cotton field.
Plain Chachalaca 6
Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) 4
Eurasian Collared-Dove 2
Inca Dove 2
Common Ground Dove 3
White-tipped Dove 1
White-winged Dove 50
Mourning Dove 12
Groove-billed Ani 1
Yellow-billed Cuckoo 1
Common Nighthawk 1
Chimney Swift 1
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 5
Buff-bellied Hummingbird (Northern) 2
Common Gallinule (American) 1
American Coot (Red-shielded) 2
Purple Gallinule 1 continuing bird
Black-necked Stilt (Black-necked) 2
Killdeer 1
Spotted Sandpiper 1
Anhinga 1
Neotropic Cormorant 4
Great Egret (American) 1
Snowy Egret 2
Green Heron 4
Black-crowned Night-Heron 6
Black Vulture 1
Turkey Vulture 3
White-tailed Kite 1
Mississippi Kite 20
Ringed Kingfisher 1
Golden-fronted Woodpecker (Northern) 4
Ladder-backed Woodpecker 1
Crested Caracara 2
Green Parakeet (Green) 4
Black Phoebe 1
Brown-crested Flycatcher 1
Great Kiskadee 5
Tropical Kingbird 2
Couch's Kingbird 2
Eastern Kingbird 4
Philadelphia Vireo 1
Black-crested Titmouse 1
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 2
Barn Swallow (American) 10
swallow sp. 30
European Starling 6
Long-billed Thrasher 1
Northern Mockingbird 4
Clay-colored Thrush 1
Cedar Waxwing 20
House Sparrow 2
Hooded Oriole (cucullatus/sennetti) 2
Red-winged Blackbird 3
Bronzed Cowbird (Bronzed) 2
Brown-headed Cowbird 1
Great-tailed Grackle (Great-tailed) 12
Common Yellowthroat 1
American Redstart 1
Yellow Warbler (Northern) 1
Northern Cardinal (Common) 1
Indigo Bunting 3
Painted Bunting 1
Dickcissel 2
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