[texbirds] Bentsen SP & NABA Garden
- From: MiriamEagl@xxxxxxx
- To: texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 17 Aug 2013 17:30:13 -0400 (EDT)
Hi, all!
Pat Heirs and Marie Stewart wanted to see if perchance the Short-tailed
Hawk from last week might still be around at Bentsen, so I joined them down
there along with Joyce Davidson (I was hoping for a lingering Swallow-tailed
Kite...). First we wandered onto the levee, where we had numerous
Dickcissels making their rude noises, and eagle-eye Marie spotted a male
Painted
Bunting across the way along with a Black Phoebe! A low-flying helicopter
and several "mounties" galloping by prompted inquiry while I was also trying
to secure a stray dog that had followed us in, and I was told they were
trying to flush out illegals before starting a prescribed burn! A bit of
drama ensued as we waited at the little nature center for the tram, and sure
enough, a panic-stricken illegal came running through, asked us something
unintelligible, then went crashing through the brush, followed about five
minutes later by a border patrol guy on foot! The helicopter and horses soon
followed, and as we rode the tram to the hawk tower we saw where they had
rounded up about 30 illegals! (The tram driver had to stop in order to get
an over-eager tourist, who wanted a picture, to sit down...)
It was actually pretty quiet; we made a fruitless search for the Varied
Bunting, then headed up to the tower, but not before spotting an adult and
immature Gray Hawk! They flew off to a distant tree and started calling, and
before long what we thought was just another Turkey Vulture morphed into a
Zone-tailed Hawk! It was very nice and crossed paths with a real Turkey
Vulture for good comparative shots! Groove-billed Anis were calling there,
and we mercilessly gave Pat a hard time about her "stump hawk", which she
refused to believe WAS a stump until she saw Marie's close-up photo... ;-)
On the way down we scared up several Black Witches; I had heard the "death
in the house" superstition, but not the one Pat told us about it being a
precursor to a hurricane; that actually makes more sense seeing as it's a
summertime bug... We also saw said prescribed burn and made our getaway
before
it got any closer...
From there we headed over to NABA hoping to see some of the rare
butterflies that had been showing up, and we weren't disappointed; most of the
mega-rarities were gone, but a few Dingy Purplewings were still hanging around,
which was a life bug for me, and the host lady (whose name I didn't get :-()
pointed us towards that and a whole host of other good bugs, including
both Gray and Guatemalan Crackers, a Malachite, and several Florida Whites!
Several Valley specialties were around, such as the Mexican Bluewings and
Crimson Patch, along with tons of Tropical Leafwings and Tawny Emperors.
We didn't scour every bush seeing as it was getting pretty warm, so I left
the girls enjoying a Giant Toad at the bird feeding area and headed home
with just 39 species for the morning. Photos can be seen here:
http://miriameaglemon.com/photo_gallery/2013%20Field%20Trips/August/Bentsen%
20SP.html
Bird List:
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck Dendrocygna autumnalis
Plain Chachalaca Ortalis vetula
Northern Bobwhite Colinus virginianus
Turkey Vulture Cathartes aura
Gray Hawk Buteo plagiatus
Zone-tailed Hawk Buteo albonotatus
Upland Sandpiper Bartramia longicauda
White-winged Dove Zenaida asiatica
Mourning Dove Zenaida macroura
Inca Dove Columbina inca
White-tipped Dove Leptotila verreauxi
Yellow-billed Cuckoo Coccyzus americanus
Groove-billed Ani Crotophaga sulcirostris
Buff-bellied Hummingbird Amazilia yucatanensis
Golden-fronted Woodpecker Melanerpes aurifrons
Ladder-backed Woodpecker Picoides scalaris
Black Phoebe Sayornis nigricans
Brown-crested Flycatcher Myiarchus tyrannulus
Great Kiskadee Pitangus sulphuratus
Couch's Kingbird Tyrannus couchii
White-eyed Vireo Vireo griseus
Green Jay Cyanocorax yncas
Cave Swallow Petrochelidon fulva
Black-crested Titmouse Baeolophus atricristatus
Verdin Auriparus flaviceps
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Polioptila caerulea
Northern Mockingbird Mimus polyglottos
Long-billed Thrasher Toxostoma longirostre
Curve-billed Thrasher Toxostoma curvirostre
Yellow Warbler Setophaga petechia
Olive Sparrow Arremonops rufivirgatus
Northern Cardinal Cardinalis cardinalis
Painted Bunting Passerina ciris
Dickcissel Spiza americana
Red-winged Blackbird Agelaius phoeniceus
Great-tailed Grackle Quiscalus mexicanus
Orchard Oriole Icterus spurius
Altamira Oriole Icterus gularis
House Sparrow Passer domesticus
39 SPECIES
Mary Beth Stowe
McAllen, TX
_www.miriameaglemon.com_ (http://www.miriameaglemon.com/)
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