I haven't posted much lately. I had a good day at Delta Lake a week ago with an American Herring Gull and fifty Dunlins and lots of shorebirds, but a couple of days later I found a native bee at Yturria Brush which experts think may be an undescribed species. In the excitement of editing the bee photos, I forgot the Delta Lake blog post and deleted the photos. And then I've had an annoying health issue and then my insane neighbor took up drum playing so I thought it would be a good time to move. So I've been busy.
But today I ran over to the National Butterfly Center to see old friends and see what might be on the wing after the cool rainy weather. Lots more butterflies than I've seen in a while but nothing exciting. The Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival has started and lots of people were at the park hoping for the Roadside Hawk and the Rose-throated Becards. I was also.
One visiting birder told me he had just seen the male Rose-throated Becard. While he was talking I pointed out an Audubon's Oriole on a nearby butterfly feeding log. He was pretty excited about it.
I wandered around hoping for a becard or a good butterfly but not much was going on. Terry Mortier and I then headed to the north through the ditch and saw little. We were talking about the Starred Skipper he found last year when we ran into Chris Balboni. At this point they decided to drive to the south 70 acres but I was beat. So I walked back south toward the Jeep. As I approached the bird feeding station, I could see some commotion just to the west. Several visiting birders were looking up in a hackberry and I thought I heard someone say Cassin's Finch. What the....?
Sure enough, one of them showed me a great photo of a female Cassin's finch on the back of his camera. I struggled against the back lit sky for some poor photos. Turns out there were two of them
Cassin's Finches have come down from the Rocky Mountains this year and have invaded Texas as have Red Crossbills. A Cassin's Finch was reported from Falfurrias recently and one was even seen yesterday at South Padre Island. So seeing one this fall was not totally unexpected but.... Wow! And it was my 417th species for Hidalgo County.
Then, just a few feet away at the bird feeding station, the male Rose-throated Becard showed off for happy visitig birders.
The Roadside Hawk was not seen today but one lucky Festival Group got to see two Hook-billed Kites at Resaca de la Palma State Park for a very rare Cameron County Record. Sounds like the Birding Festival is off to a great start.
