Thursday, November 4, 2021

Williamson's Sapsucker at Estero Llano Grande, 11/4/21

Yesterday a visiting birder found a Williamson's Sapsucker at Estero Lano Grande State Park.  Word didn't get out till late afternoon and a half dozen of us looked for the bird as darkness fell.  I've seen Williamson's Sapsuckers a few times in pines in west Texas and many times in Arizona pine forests, but I got my lifer along the Rio Cuchujaqui in southern Sonora.  These birds can wander down from the Rockies and occasionally be seen in lowland locals.  But this was the first ever seen in the Lower Rio Gande Valley.  My thought was this bird was passing through and would never be seen again.

Wrong!  This morning Bert Wessling returned to the seen of the crime and there was the Williamson's Sapsucker in an ebony near the palm where it was sighted yeasterday.  I arrived about twenty minutes later only to find birders milling around or sitting at the sighting location waiting for the magical re-apparition.  I was told the bird had flown off to the east and birders were scattered looing for it.  I headed in that direction and in just a few seconds a bird landed not far away from me in a small hackberry.  I was expecting a mocking bird but as it almost immediately flew into a nearby live oak I glimsed a black back, white mustache and yellow underparts.  A few seconds later I was photographing a striking (British would say "stonking") male Williamsons Sapsucker.  Everyone came running and the all got to eventually see it.




Completely unexpected, this was my 410th species for Hidalgo County.  Wow!  Maybe we're in for another good winter.

No comments: