Sunday, August 20, 2023

Swallow-tailed Kite Photobomb! 8/19/23

Today we tied a weather record for Weslaco, Texas.  It was the 62nd day of 2023 with temperatures reaching 100F or above.  So this summer when I get up in the morning it's hard to get motivated to go anywhere or do any yard work.  I usually just start birding from the porch, have some breakfast and then set the scope up in the back yard.  More of the same today.  But what can I say.  It's all right.

As lunch time approached today I had compiled a long list of birds for the morning and was feeling like I was doing pretty good when I spied a small flock of White Ibises in the distance.  As I raised the camera and fired a couple of documentary shots I noticed a dark shape flash across my view.  What was that?  I picked up the binocs and soon found a migrating Swallow-tailed Kite doing lazy loops.  I got a couple of shots and was happy to finally get one for this year's yard list.  It is the eighth I've seen in our seven years at Progreso Lakes.  Later in the evening as I edited photos I discovered I had actually gotten images of the kite as it passed behind the ibis flock.  Pretty cool!




The morning started with hummingbirds.  I had a Black-chinned, three Buff-bellieds and ten migrant Ruby-throated Hummingbirds.


A couple of Painted Buntings failed to cooperate.



But our first Cooper's Hawk of the fall posed for photos.


Back by the water a migrat Black Tern passed by.  It's been a good fall for them.


A couple of times each year I will have a Long-billed Curlew fly over.


A Yellow Warbler posed overhead.  Several have been hanging around this week.


A young Tricolored Heron daily fishes just a few feet from our shoreline.


Here's today's list.

Jones yard, Progreso Lakes, Hidalgo, Texas, US
Aug 19, 2023 7:15 AM - 12:13 PM
Protocol: Stationary
53 species (+1 other taxa)

Black-bellied Whistling-Duck  1
Muscovy Duck (Domestic type)  2
Muscovy Duck x Mallard (hybrid)  5    Including four young
Plain Chachalaca  2
Eurasian Collared-Dove  1
Inca Dove  2
White-tipped Dove  1
White-winged Dove  150
Mourning Dove  50
Groove-billed Ani  1
Ruby-throated Hummingbird  10
Black-chinned Hummingbird  1
Buff-bellied Hummingbird  2
Common Gallinule  2
Black-necked Stilt  1
Killdeer  1
Upland Sandpiper  2
Long-billed Curlew  1
Spotted Sandpiper  1
Black Tern  1
Neotropic Cormorant  3
Great Blue Heron  1
Snowy Egret  2
Tricolored Heron  1
Cattle Egret  3
Green Heron  7
Black-crowned Night-Heron  7
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron  2
White Ibis  6
Turkey Vulture  1
Swallow-tailed Kite  1
Cooper's Hawk  1
Golden-fronted Woodpecker  2
Ladder-backed Woodpecker  1
Alder Flycatcher  1    Calling "pep" repeatedly
Black Phoebe  1
Great Kiskadee  2
Tropical Kingbird  2
Couch's Kingbird  1
Black-crested Titmouse  1
Verdin  1
Purple Martin  1
Bank Swallow  1
Barn Swallow  2
European Starling  15
Northern Mockingbird  2
House Sparrow  10
Lesser Goldfinch  1
Hooded Oriole  2
Red-winged Blackbird  3
Bronzed Cowbird  40
Great-tailed Grackle  8
Yellow Warbler  2
Painted Bunting  2

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