Frontera Audubon Thicket, 4/25/15

I ran into Mary Gustafson over at Frontera Audubon Thicket in Weslaco and we walked the trails and did pretty good.  Between the feeding stations we heard a "coo-coo-coo" and I suggested Black-billed Cuckoo. Mary spied it in the top on a tree but I missed it.  Luckily I found it again and got a photo by the visitor's center.  I probably average about one Black-billed Cuckoo every three years.

Earlier in the morning we heard a bubbly song which I thought was a House Wren but Mary said was a Mourning Warbler.  Ugh!  My spring warbler songs need a lot of work.  It was my first for the year.

When I visit South Padre Island, I start thinking I'm a pretty good bird photographer because the birds are so easy to approach.  But the brushy confines of Frontera jolt me back into reality.  Here's a Chestnut-sided Warbler.

And a Black-throated Green Warbler.

Any day you get a Black-billed Cuckoo is a very good day!

Black-bellied Whistling-Duck2
Plain Chachalaca  8
Green Heron  2
Turkey Vulture  2
Mississippi Kite 7
Inca Dove  2
White-tipped Dove  6
White-winged Dove  20
Black-billed Cuckoo  1
Chuck-will's-widow  3
Chimney Swift  5
Black-chinned Hummingbird 1
Buff-bellied Hummingbird  1
Green Kingfisher  1
Golden-fronted Woodpecker 6
Green Parakeet  2
Least Flycatcher  3
Great Crested Flycatcher 1
Brown-crested Flycatcher  2
Great Kiskadee  1
Couch's Kingbird 1
White-eyed Vireo  3
Blue-headed Vireo  1
Warbling Vireo  1
Black-crested
Titmouse  2
Carolina Wren  2
Swainson's Thrush  1
Long-billed Thrasher 3
Northern Mockingbird  1
Black-and-white Warbler  3
Tennessee Warbler 2
Nashville Warbler  10
Mourning Warbler  1
Hooded Warbler  1
Northern Parula  1
Chestnut-sided Warbler 1
Black-throated Green Warbler  4
Yellow-breasted Chat  8
Olive Sparrow 3
Clay-colored Sparrow  1
Summer Tanager  1
Northern Cardinal  2
Painted
Bunting  7
Great-tailed Grackle  X
Orchard Oriole  1
Baltimore Oriole 2
Lesser Goldfinch  1
House Sparrow  2

South Padre Island, 4/21/15

Another visit to South Padre Island proved very productive yesterday.  Yes I missed both the Golden-winged and Cerulean Warblers but I saw 19 other warbler species along with tanagers, buntings and orioles so it was a very nice day.  I've been trying to decide what I think about my new Canon 100-400 mm IS II lens and it got me some very good photos this time despite cloudy weather.  This Indigo Bunting came out really good.  There had to be well over fifty of them.

Painted Buntings are hard to get close to during the summer but they can be photogenic out on the Island during migration.

My cameras always seem to struggle with exposure on black birds and red birds.  It really had a hard time with this Scarlet Tanager.  This is as close as I could get to the color but it still doesn't seem right to me.

This male Summer Tanager is trying his best to redden up.

And then there were the warblers.  This was my first Magnolia Warbler for the year.

And my first Chestnut sided.

And my first Bay-breasted.  I just could not get a good photo of this bird.  Either it was backlit and underexposed or good lighting but not sharp or properly exposed and sharp but with a poor pose.

Blackpoll Warblers seem early this year.  

Got this decent Worm-eating Warbler shot through a little hole in the vegetation.

Best bird of the day for me was this stunning White-throated Sparrow.  We get very few of them down here and it's unusual to see one in breeding plumage.

We still have a couple more weeks of busy migration before things slow down.  I guess I'd better get outside and see what's going on.  Here's my list.

Black-bellied Whistling-Duck  2
Mottled Duck  2
Sora  1
Willet  2
Laughing Gull  X
Royal Tern  4
Sandwich Tern  6
Eurasian Collared-Dove  20
Inca Dove 2
Ruby-throated Hummingbird  6
Buff-bellied Hummingbird  1
Acadian Flycatcher 1
Myiarchus sp.  1
Western Kingbird  1
White-eyed Vireo  2
Warbling Vireo  1
Barn Swallow  X
Veery  1
Swainson's Thrush  2
Wood Thrush  1
Gray Catbird 6
Ovenbird  2
Worm-eating Warbler  2
Northern Waterthrush  3
Blue-winged
Warbler  1
Black-and-white Warbler  6
Swainson's Warbler  1
Tennessee Warbler 25
Nashville Warbler  1
Kentucky Warbler  1
Common Yellowthroat  5
Hooded Warbler  5
American Redstart  2
Northern Parula  5
Magnolia Warbler 2
Bay-breasted Warbler  2
Yellow Warbler  3
Chestnut-sided
Warbler  1
Blackpoll Warbler  3
Black-throated Green Warbler  4
Clay-colored Sparrow  1
Lincoln's Sparrow  3
White-throated Sparrow  1
Summer Tanager  4
Scarlet Tanager  1
Rose-breasted Grosbeak  6
Blue Grosbeak  3
Indigo Bunting  50
Painted Bunting  6
Dickcissel  2
Red-winged
Blackbird  X
Great-tailed Grackle  X
Orchard Oriole  20
Baltimore Oriole 25
House Sparrow  X