Varied Thrush at National Butterfly Center, 11/7/18

Yesterday, after working the Texas Butterfly Festival for a couple of days, I decided to take it easy and get some stuff done at home.  But the WhatsApp dinged and it turned out a couple of local birders had found a Varied Thrush at the National Butterfly Center south of Mission.  There are only three previous Varied Thrush records for the Valley and none that I can remember while I've been down here.  So I grabbed the camera and binocs and raced over.  I put in three hours at the feeding station where the bird had been observed and missed it the only time it came in.  So I ran over again today and after missing the bird a couple more times (I need to work on my attention span) I finally got some shots of this northwestern thrush.  Though Varied Thrush breeds in the Pacific Northwest and winters along the coast to California, they have a tendency to wander all over the country.  Texas has more than forty records.  It was my 396th species for Hidalgo County.

While waiting for the Varied Thrush a couple of their Mexican cousins, the Clay-colored Thrush, came in for a drink.

After getting some satisfactory photos I headed for home, and just as I arrived, the WhatsApp dinged again.  Ron Weeks had just found a Plumbeous Vireo at Rose Lawn Cemetery in McAlllen.  Being that was another species I have never seen in the RGV, I forsook the nap I was looking forward to, and got back in the car and headed back down the freeway.  I spent two hours but could not relocate the Plumbeous Vireo in the cemetery.  But I did find this surprise Wood Thrush.

So that makes three different thrushes from three different corners of North America.  Gotta love living in the Valley.

Western Gull at Port Aransas Jetty, 10/26/18

Wow, the good birds are coming fast and furious.  Yesterday Andre Orgill found a second year Western Gull on the beach at the Port Aransas Jetty.  This is only the fourth Texas record of this Pacific coast gull species.  I missed the last one during November of 2004 at Sal del Rey.  So I made sure to run up early and grab this one.  It was pretty cooperative.  The mantle is much darker than that of the Common Herring Gulls and the species is larger than the slightly darker Lesser Black-backed Gull.  Slaty-backed Gull is similar in color but has a much smaller bill.

Just down the beach was a Lesser Black-backed Gull.

After viewing my 577th Texas species, I ran over to Paradise Pond.  It's just a shell of its former self.  The city has been removing Brazilian Pepper and then it got clobbered by storm surge during last year's hurricane.  But things are coming back and I found a couple of good birds.  This Yellow-bellied Flycatcher is a little late.

This female Scarlet Tanager was a surprise.

And then there was both a Philadelphia and a Red-eyed Vireo.

The Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center is also recovering from the hurricane.  The storm surge flooded the marsh with salt water and killed all the vegetation not to mention destroying the board walk.  But the the little line of trees along the entrance was still attracting migrant warblers including some good ones like this Blue-winged Warbler.

Normally uncommon in fall, Bay-breasted and Chestnut-sided Warblers are showing up all along the coast the past couple of weeks.  

The same Chestnut-sided Warbler along with a Tennessee was finding something to eat on the rusty chain link fence.

This Northern Parula was pretty fearless as it foraged on the ground.

I don't get to see this immature Yellow-bellied Sapsucker plumage very often.

Hopefully I can get a couple days work done in the yard before the next chase.