[texbirds] Boca Chica Beach
- From: MiriamEagl@xxxxxxx
- To: texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 29 Dec 2013 19:15:18 -0500 (EST)
Hi, all!
John Brush, Pat Heirs, and I headed out to Boca Chica this morning mainly
in search of a reported Glaucous Gull. Dipped on that, but we had just a
delightful time on this one gorgeous day we'll have this week, it looks
like! A brief stop past the checkpoint first thing added a mob of Laughing
Gulls and Cattle Egrets at the Dump, plus a pair of White-tailed Kites, but for
the most part we headed straight to the beach first. We drove the full
length both ways and had lots of the common stuff (Herring and Ring-billed
Gulls; Caspian, Royal, and Forster's Terns; Ruddy Turnstones; Sanderlings we
clocked running at 5 m.p.h.; Willets, and Brown Pelicans), plus an
interesting assortment of waders at the mouth including Avocets and Tricolored
Heron. We were hoping for Gannet and Bonaparte's Gulls, but we dipped on both
of those as well. The sentinel Great Blue Herons spaced evenly along the
dunes were Pat's favorites of the morning: some were sporting a "yoga" pose
while one in particular had the wide-eyed look of someone just having
smoked something... Back in a large inland body of water John spotted a mob
of
White Pelicans.
We had lots of White-tailed and Harris' Hawks on the way down that we took
the time to enjoy going back up, along with several Caracaras, Ospreys, and
a single Red-tailed Hawk. The bird of day for both John and myself was a
chirping Sedge Wren (two, actually) that I heard and John spotted! The
road to the river (by the house) had a Cassin's Sparrow that John found
amongst the Lincoln's; the river itself didn't have much except some squealing
Caspian Terns. Everyone thought it was scandalous that there were NO Reddish
Egrets in the flats!!
We stopped for a kettle and logged both vultures and a couple of Chihuahuan
Ravens in with the group, but an odd sound turned out to be a "pitchfork"
(as Pat put it) of Snow Geese! No Aplomado Falcons, either, so we drowned
our sorrows with a half dozen Krispy Kreme donuts... :-) Photos are posted
here:
http://miriameaglemon.com/photo_gallery/2013%20Field%20Trips/December/Boca%2
0Chica%20Beach.html
Bird List:
Snow Goose Chen caerulescens
Double-crested Cormorant Phalacrocorax auritus
American White Pelican Pelecanus erythrorhynchos
Brown Pelican Pelecanus occidentalis
Great Blue Heron Ardea herodias
Great Egret Ardea alba
Snowy Egret Egretta thula
Tricolored Heron Egretta tricolor
Cattle Egret Bubulcus ibis
Black Vulture Coragyps atratus
Turkey Vulture Cathartes aura
Osprey Pandion haliaetus
White-tailed Kite
Northern Harrier Circus cyaneus
Harris's Hawk Parabuteo unicinctus
White-tailed Hawk Geranoaetus albicaudatus
Red-tailed Hawk Buteo jamaicensis
American Avocet Recurvirostra americana
Black-bellied Plover Pluvialis squatarola
Greater Yellowlegs Tringa melanoleuca
Willet Tringa semipalmata
Long-billed Curlew Numenius americanus
Ruddy Turnstone Arenaria interpres
Sanderling Calidris alba
Laughing Gull Leucophaeus atricilla
Ring-billed Gull Larus delawarensis
Herring Gull Larus argentatus
Caspian Tern Hydroprogne caspia
Forster's Tern Sterna forsteri
Royal Tern Thalasseus maximus
Golden-fronted Woodpecker Melanerpes aurifrons
Ladder-backed Woodpecker Picoides scalaris
Crested Caracara Caracara cheriway
American Kestrel Falco sparverius
Eastern Phoebe Sayornis phoebe
Great Kiskadee Pitangus sulphuratus
Couch's Kingbird Tyrannus couchii
Loggerhead Shrike Lanius ludovicianus
White-eyed Vireo Vireo griseus
Chihuahuan Raven Corvus cryptoleucus
Verdin Auriparus flaviceps
House Wren Troglodytes aedon
Sedge Wren Cistothorus platensis
Long-billed Thrasher Toxostoma longirostre
Northern Mockingbird Mimus polyglottos
European Starling Sturnus vulgaris
Orange-crowned Warbler Oreothlypis celata
Common Yellowthroat Geothlypis trichas
Cassin's Sparrow Peucaea cassinii
Savannah Sparrow Passerculus sandwichensis
Lincoln's Sparrow Melospiza lincolnii
Eastern Meadowlark Sturnella magna
Great-tailed Grackle Quiscalus mexicanus
Altamira Oriole Icterus gularis
54 SPECIES
Mary Beth Stowe
McAllen, TX
_www.miriameaglemon.com_ (http://www.miriameaglemon.com/)
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