Five miles of hiking netted a few good birds this morning at Yturria Brush unit of the Lower Rio Grande Valley NWR west of La Joya on US 83 in Hidalgo County. Best were two Green-tailed Towhees, two White-crowned Sparrows and ten Black-throated Sparrows. It's still really dry but recent rains have a few grass plants and forbs greening up. Yturria Brush, Lower Rio Grande Valley NWR, Hidalgo, US-TX Jan 31, 2013 9:50 AM - 1:20 PM Protocol: Traveling 5.0 mile(s) 25 species Black Vulture 1 Red-tailed Hawk 1 Mourning Dove 1 Common Ground-Dove 1 Ladder-backed Woodpecker 3 Crested Caracara 1 Eastern Phoebe 1 White-eyed Vireo 1 Verdin 5 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet 4 Northern Mockingbird 12 Long-billed Thrasher 2 Curve-billed Thrasher 1 Orange-crowned Warbler 10 Yellow-rumped Warbler 4 Olive Sparrow 2 Green-tailed Towhee 2 Vesper Sparrow 1 Black-throated Sparrow 10 Savannah Sparrow 1 Lincoln's Sparrow 1 White-crowned Sparrow 2 Northern Cardinal 7 Pyrrhuloxia 6 Dan Jones, Weslaco Edit your Freelists account settings for TEXBIRDS at //www.freelists.org/list/texbirds Reposting of traffic from TEXBIRDS is prohibited without seeking permission from the List Owner