This morning my wife and I were trying to decide what to do for the day when the Whatsapp dinged. New birder Danny Salinas reported "Surfbird on the flats north of the Convention Center on South Padre Island." And he had a photo. Wow! As far as I know this will be the first record for the Rio Grande Valley and only the 13th for Texas. Surfbirds winter regularly on the rocky Pacific coast of the United States and Mexico. It is though that the birds we get in spring on the Gulf Coast are wintering birds from Mexico that have crossed the relatively narrow Ithmus of Tehuantepec to the Gulf side on their northward migration. So I dropped Honey off at the gym in Harlingen and I raced out to the Island where I found Father Tom and other long time friendly faces looking at the Surfbird.
I had been thinking it was time for a Surfbird and was planning to make a beach drive in seach of one. But now I 've got this one as my 426th species on my Cameron County list. Maybe I can get one for Willacy County! Anyway South Padre Island never ceases to amaze.
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