Social Flycatcher continues at UTRGV Brownsville, 6/12/22

A couple of weeks ago I saw that the Social Flycatcher at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley in Brownsville had been seen again by local birder Michelle Cano.  The fourth US record of this Mexican species was was first found during the RGV Birding Festival last November and was seen by hundreds of birders though late March.  But local birders got caught up in chasing pretty spring warblers and quit looking for it so it was assumed the Social Flycatcher had just wandered off.

Today I took my wife Honey to her favorite gym in Brownsville and I took the opportunity to search the resaca habitat at the UTRGV campus for the Social Flycatcher.  It took about an hour before I finally heard it call in the oaks on the north side of the resaca near El Comedor.  I whistled a few Ferruginous Pygmy Owl toots and the Social Flycatcher zoomed in and continued to call.  It's molting and looking a little ratty these days.

So why has this bird spent the past seven months at this location?  There have been rumors of a second bird but no one has documented more than one.  It would be pretty cool if they were breeding on the campus.  Maybe the large number of other flycatchers like Great Kiskadee, Couch's and Tropical Kingbirds and Brown-crested Flycatchers keep it in the area though my intuition would guess that they would drive the bird away.  Well I guess I need to drop by once in a while to monitor the situation.

World Migratory Bird Day, 5/14/22

Well this May has pretty much sucked for migrants at our Progreso Lakes yard.  In the past May has been our best month for warblers but not so much this year.  Anyway last Saturday was World Migratory Bird Day and being that I got a few warblers the day befor I had my hopes up that I could run up a good yard list.  I did get Tennessee and Magnolia Warblers.

But I could not find the Chestnut-sided Warbler that popped in the day before.

I've had Eastern Wood-Pewee almost daily.

But I couldn't get Friday's Alder Flycatcher to show.

Every year I have a few Groove-billed Anis pass through the yard.  But this spring we have pair working on a nest in our bottlebrush tree.  Great to have this prehistoric looking cuckoo as a member of our yard's avifauna.

An Eastern Screech-Owl has been calling every day but I had not been able to find it.  But while chasing the Magnolia Warbler around the yard I came face to face with it.

So here at Progreso Lakes, World Migratory Bird Day was a bit of a dud.  A little earlier in the spring would help but the annual day is the second Saturday in May which is great for those eBirders up north at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY.

Jones yard, Progreso Lakes, Hidalgo, Texas, US

May 14, 2022 7:15 AM - 12:00 PM

Protocol: Traveling

0.037 mile(s)

Checklist Comments:    All birds seen or heard from our one acre yard.

43 species (+1 other taxa)

Black-bellied Whistling-Duck  45

Muscovy Duck x Mallard (hybrid)  2

Plain Chachalaca  4

Eurasian Collared-Dove  1

Inca Dove  2

White-tipped Dove  1

White-winged Dove  105

Mourning Dove  6

Groove-billed Ani  1

Yellow-billed Cuckoo  2

Chimney Swift  3

Buff-bellied Hummingbird  2

Laughing Gull  1

Neotropic Cormorant  4

Least Bittern  1

Snowy Egret  2

Green Heron  2

Black-crowned Night-Heron  3

Turkey Vulture  3

Swainson's Hawk  1

Eastern Screech-Owl  1

Golden-fronted Woodpecker  4

Ladder-backed Woodpecker  1

Crested Caracara  1

Eastern Wood-Pewee  1

Black Phoebe  1

Brown-crested Flycatcher  1

Great Kiskadee  2

Couch's Kingbird  1

Red-eyed Vireo  1

Purple Martin  1

Bank Swallow  1

Carolina Wren  1

European Starling  4

Northern Mockingbird  2

Swainson's Thrush  1

House Sparrow  6

Lesser Goldfinch  1

Altamira Oriole  2

Bronzed Cowbird  2

Great-tailed Grackle  6

Tennessee Warbler  1

Magnolia Warbler  1

Northern Cardinal  2