Migration at South Padre Island, 9/20/20

 I made my first birding trip out to South Padre Island since before the pandemic hit the Valley.  That was way back in early March I think.  But with Tropical Storm Beta in the Gulf, there was some good north wind blowing and I thought it might be good for bringing down some fall migrants.  I was not disappointed.  One of the first birds I found at the Sheepshead lot was this female Cerulean Warbler.  It might be the first I've ever seen in fall.  Forgive the soft focus.  My old Canon 7D Mark II is about worn out so I got a new one and some of my settings are off.

Fall Chestnut-sided Warblers are always a treat.

Seems like we've been getting more fall Blackburnian Warblers in recent years.  The pale stripes on the back are a good field mark for drab fall youngsters.

I see very few Prothonotary Warblers in fall so this was a good one.

Here's a funky Tennessee Warbler.  I'm not sure what's going on with the wing coverts.  I think some of the precovert body feathers are missing making the coverts look extra long.

Black-and-white Warblers are dirt birds during migration but I can't resist them.

There was not a lot of birds around compared to the spring but diversity was good.  Here's my first Swainson's Thrush of the fall.

This young male Vermillion Flycatcher hung out at the Sheepshead lot all day long.

It was great to see some of my old birding friends enjoying the cool north wind.  Brad McKinney spotted four Magnificent Frigatebirds overhead.  I mangaged to get three in one shot.

I don't know what to make of this Reddish Egret.  Is it a leucistic dark morph?  Or is it a cross between white and dark morphs?  This was up at the Convention Center.

I almost forgot the bird of the day.  This Red-breasted Nuthatch has been around for about a week.  We get very few of them down here and this one is really early.

Wound up with fifteen species of warblers on the day which is pretty good for fall!

Hurricane Hanna drops Coastal Birds at Delta Lake, 7/27/20

Hurricane Hanna crossed from the Gulf into South Texas just north of Port Mansfield at about noon on 7/25/20.  For the next sixteen hours she ground across the brush country with winds up to 90 MPH at an agonizingly slow 8 mph dropping from eight to twenty inches of rain across the Rio Grande Valley.  The upshot was much flooding and displaced coastal seabirds.  So yesterday afternoon Justin LeClaire battled his way through flooded roadways up to Delta Lake and reported one Common Tern, six Royal Terns, three Sandwich Terns and a Brown Pelican.

Our internet was down so I didn't get the message till late and had to make the trip up this morning.  Three of those species I've seen before in Hidalgo County but Sandwich Tern was a species I was not sure I would ever get to see.  After finding that FM 88 north of Weslaco was flooded I detoured to US 281 up through Edinburg to TX 186 and then east to FM 88 and south to Delta Lake.  Upon arrival I was disappointed to find the water high on the west side where the mudflats can hold rare birds.  But not to worry, there was a small group of terns on a small mudflat on the east side.  Scoping soon turned up two Sandwich Terns, Hidalgo County bird #408.

With them was a juvenile Common Tern, a species I have seen only once before in Hidalgo County.

Six Caspian Terns were not a surprise.

It took a while but a Royal Tern finally dropped in.  I've seen them maybe three times in the County.  This one is next to a juvenile Caspian Tern.

I was about to give up on the Brown Pelican when it flew over my head.  This is a pretty ratty juvenile.

The day started well with a Magnificent Frigatebird on FM 88 over the flood channel just south of Weslaco.  Only my second ever in the County.

A lot of people are suffering because of Hurricane Hanna but she sure made for fascinating birding.