[texbirds] Bentsen State Park
- From: "" <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> (Redacted sender "MiriamEagl@xxxxxxx" for DMARC)
- To: texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 13 Jul 2014 19:08:40 -0400 (EDT)
Hi, all!
John Brush, MJ Syvertsen, and Pat Heirs joined me on the death march at
Bentsen today (although they claimed it wasn't as bad as I advertised it to
be), and while we didn't have anything really unusual, we had some nice birds
and I personally picked up some species for July for the Bentsen page.
For the first time in my experience we had calling Great Horned and Eastern
Screech Owls right in the parking lot pre dawn, as well as our only
Clay-colored Thrush. Once in the park proper our only Chachalacas went
crashing
into a tree and then back across the street! The resaca was pretty dead
except for hordes of grackles across the way, but we witnessed a pair of
Beardless Tyrannulets continuing the species, and then the male came into a
tree
right overhead and sang for us!
The Acacia Loop had our only Altamira Oriole of the day, as well as a
couple of Orchards. We thought we lost John, but it turns out he was shooting
a
Green Jay feeding a Bronzed Cowbird! Down at the Hawk Tower we were
amazed at how the resaca was now a forest of tamarisks and some other tree
John
ID'd, but we were also entertained by a family of Anis (one was an Anhinga
wannabe according to Pat :-)) and a gorgeous Blue Grosbeak showed off, along
with a distant Gray Hawk. John got a great shot of a dragonfly that I
THINK was a female Checkered Setwing, but I'm not sure; on the other hand, a
posing butterfly I thought was a Tawny Emperor at first turned out to be an
Empress Leilia after looking at the pictures.
Along the back side several Roadrunners shot back and forth ahead of us,
and at the resting spot someone noticed a huge Blue Spiny Lizard also resting
on the mesquite just across from us! We were just about ready to turn
down Roadrunner Crossing when Ranger Roy showed up with Richard Moore and his
family! So we had an impromptu photo shoot (and John got interviewed :-)),
and while that was going on Roy told us about a leucistic Lesser Nighthawk
in the parking lot!
Once on Kiskadee Trail John found these cute little baby frogs that were
black above and white below, and a sit at Kiskadee Blind didn't bring in
anything except a couple of Green Jays. So we dragged ourselves back to
headquarters (John spotted a Swainson's Hawk on the way), where at the canal we
logged both Cliff and Cave Swallows, along with a single Bank. In the
gardens we added Buff-bellied Hummingbirds, a Black Phoebe that John spotted,
and Hooded Oriole, then we promptly raided the ice cream freezer before
calling it quits (and enjoying Roy's nighthawk)! Thanks, guys, for coming
along--I would have missed a lot without your eyes! :-)
Pictures (including some taken by John) and recordings are here, along with
a link to a You-Tube video John took of the tyrannulet:
http://miriameaglemon.com/photo_gallery/2014%20Field%20Trips/July/Bentsen%20
State%20Park.html
Bird List:
Bentsen-Rio Grande Val. SP WBC (Mission) (LTC 069), Hidalgo, US-TX
Jul 13, 2014 6:04 AM - 10:55 AM
Protocol: Traveling
5.0 mile(s)
Comments: 78 to 95 degrees; mostly sunny, slight breeze
49 species
Mottled Duck 1
Plain Chachalaca 3
Great Egret 5
Turkey Vulture 2
Gray Hawk 5
Swainson's Hawk 1
Forster's Tern 1
White-winged Dove 15
Mourning Dove 12
Inca Dove 2
Common Ground-Dove 3
White-tipped Dove 8
Yellow-billed Cuckoo 4
Greater Roadrunner 2
Groove-billed Ani 5
Eastern Screech-Owl 2
Great Horned Owl 1
Lesser Nighthawk 1
Buff-bellied Hummingbird 1
Golden-fronted Woodpecker 15
Ladder-backed Woodpecker 4
Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet 4
Black Phoebe 1
Brown-crested Flycatcher 5
Great Kiskadee 7
Couch's Kingbird 7
White-eyed Vireo 3
Green Jay 12
Bank Swallow 1
Barn Swallow 3
Cliff Swallow 2
Cave Swallow 10
Black-crested Titmouse 5
Verdin 5
Clay-colored Thrush 1
Long-billed Thrasher 1
Northern Mockingbird 7
European Starling 1
Olive Sparrow 9
Northern Cardinal 15
Blue Grosbeak 1
Dickcissel 2
Red-winged Blackbird 10
Great-tailed Grackle 100
Bronzed Cowbird 5
Brown-headed Cowbird 4
Orchard Oriole 2
Hooded Oriole 1
Altamira Oriole 1
Mary Beth Stowe
McAllen, TX
_www.miriameaglemon.com_ (http://www.miriameaglemon.com/)
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