Black Skimmer at Progreso Lakes, 1/21/21

It was a cool, cloudy, drippy day so I decided to stay in our Progreso Lakes yard and see what I could find for the new year list.  At one point a couple of Caspian Terns approached.  I got a bad shot of the first and wasn't even going to try for the second.  But I did and was shocked to see it was actually a Black Skimmer.  In Hidalgo County, Black Skimmer shows up annually, usually one or two in the heat of summer on some distant drying wetland.  They are abundant on the coast.  And I was expecting to maybe see on from the yard some summer but I wasn't expecting one in January.  Yard bird #233.

Our wintering White-throated Sparrow popped out a few time but is always skittish.

The local Olive Sparrow is much more tame.

The Long-billed Thrasher has recently moved into the brush patch and now acts like it's the boss.

This Hooded Oriole was flagged on eBird for being a little early.

As soon as I left my post on the lake shore, the Black-bellies reclaimed their loafing spot.

Today's birds pushed the new yard year list to 85.

Jones yard, Progreso Lakes, Hidalgo, Texas, US

Jan 21, 2021 7:30 AM - 2:15 PM

Protocol: Stationary

54 species (+1 other taxa)

Black-bellied Whistling-Duck (fulgens)  2000

Fulvous Whistling-Duck  1

Muscovy Duck (Domestic type)  6

Northern Shoveler  1

American Wigeon  2

Ring-necked Duck  4

Lesser Scaup  120

Plain Chachalaca  6

Eurasian Collared-Dove  2

Inca Dove  6

White-tipped Dove  1

Mourning Dove  30

Rufous Hummingbird  1

Buff-bellied Hummingbird (Northern)  1

Common Gallinule (American)  1

American Coot (Red-shielded)  2

Spotted Sandpiper  1

Caspian Tern  2

Forster's Tern  1

Black Skimmer  1    

Neotropic Cormorant  4

Double-crested Cormorant  1

Great Egret (American)  1

Snowy Egret  1

Green Heron  2

Black-crowned Night-Heron  10

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron  6

Turkey Vulture  1

Red-tailed Hawk  1

Ringed Kingfisher  1

Golden-fronted Woodpecker (Northern)  1

Ladder-backed Woodpecker  1

Black Phoebe  2

Eastern Phoebe  1

Vermilion Flycatcher  1

Great Kiskadee  1

Green Jay (Green)  2

Northern Rough-winged Swallow  1

Tree Swallow  5

European Starling  6

Long-billed Thrasher  1

Northern Mockingbird  2

House Sparrow  15

Olive Sparrow  1

White-throated Sparrow  1    

Lincoln's Sparrow  4

Hooded Oriole (cucullatus/sennetti)  1 

Altamira Oriole  1

Red-winged Blackbird  100

Great-tailed Grackle  1

Orange-crowned Warbler  2

Common Yellowthroat  2

Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)  6

Wilson's Warbler  2

Northern Cardinal  6

Good local birds, 1/18/21

I still haven't decided to be serious a about state or county year list but the good birds are out there so I just keep ticking them off.  However people who are serious are getting way ahead of me so it may be the usual decision by default.  Yesterday I ran over to nearby Esperanza Street in Progreso.  This is in a new subdivision being built in the old Progreso turf farm.  Very few houses have been built and the old turf grass has attracted a lot of grassland birds.  Best are a trio of female Mountain Bluebirds.

In the same lot with the bluebirds are several Sprague's Pipits.  Since Anzalduas County Park, the usual pipit spot, is closed, we have to find these guys where we can.  I saw four of them through the scope at about 80 yards and a few loud "pishes" brought them in.

Present in the same area was a Say's Phoebe which was hanging out with the Mountain Bluebirds just like the ones at Falcon.

At the entrance to the subdivision was a surprise Lark Bunting.

After a nice morning I went home to watch some NFL playoff games.  That was interruped by a text saying that a Burrowing Owl had just been found atop an irrigation standpipe just down the road from Esperanza Street.  And since the border wall has fenced off our usual location for this species I figured I had better go get it.  I was back home in less than twenty minutes.

While I was watching football I got my first Hooded Oriole of the year on the hummungbird feeder in our back yard.  This shot was through the window.

The day befor I dropped Honey off at the gym and I ran over to Bentsen State Park to tick the long staying Ruddy Ground Dove.

While at Bentsen I got word that a Black-throated Blue Warbler had been found in McAllen.  So I raced over to get this hard to find Hidalgo County bird.

The day before that we got our first Long-billed Thrasher of the year for our yard list.

So my Texas 2021 list is at 201 and my Hidalgo County year list is at 162.  This is more than I've ever had so early in the year and the leaders are way out in front of me.  But I'm not giving up yet.