Hi, all! We had a small group this morning (myself, Pat, MJ, Donna, and Brenda), and with the wind we weren't sure WHAT we were gonna see! But the cloud cover kept it from becoming unbearably hot, at least until around 11:00! We started by birding along Vanderpool Road, which runs along the east side of the Yturrias Tract of the Lower Rio Grande NWR. We had Blue Grosbeak and Painted Bunting for sure, but nothing I felt comfortable calling a Varied that wasn't REEELY far away. Had lots of Caracaras and Pyrrhuloxias, and hiking the actual trail after road-birding produced a nice Black-throated Sparrow. We had a ton of butterflies that both Donna and I assumed were Tawny Emperors (and there probably WERE some in there), but the one I photographed I suspect was an Empress Leilia, because it showed a "pupil" in the forewing. We also had a Nysa Roadside Skipper, not too surprising as this is a good place for them. We ducked under several Orb Spider webs, and a Swainson's Hawk circling overhead was nice as well. All of the Verdins we saw were youngsters, reminding us Californians remotely of Bushtits! I had discovered a "new" dirt road in Starr County called Pipeline, so we headed up there next, playing chicken with several big rigs! The habitat looked great for sparrows, and indeed we had lots of Larks and a few Cassin's (one was even skylarking)! We ran into a family of Scissor-tailed Flycatchers, and Donna and Pat spotted a Roadrunner that we missed. We passed an active ranch where a Common Nighthawk was batting around and "beenting", and nearly ran down a big jackrabbit! At one stop someone spotted a sentinel Bobwhite on a dead branch fairly close, so everyone got great looks! We tried to turn most everything into a Varied Bunting, but it just didn't work... :-P Not many pictures today, but what I did get is here: http://miriameaglemon.com/photo_gallery/2014%20Field%20Trips/June/Yturrias.h tml Bird List: Black-bellied Whistling-Duck Dendrocygna autumnalis Northern Bobwhite Colinus virginianus Turkey Vulture Cathartes aura Swainson's Hawk Buteo swainsoni Killdeer Charadrius vociferus White-winged Dove Zenaida asiatica Mourning Dove Zenaida macroura Common Ground-Dove Columbina passerina Common Nighthawk Chordeiles minor Golden-fronted Woodpecker Melanerpes aurifrons Crested Caracara Caracara cheriway Great Kiskadee Pitangus sulphuratus Couch's Kingbird Tyrannus couchii Western Kingbird Tyrannus verticalis Scissor-tailed Flycatcher Tyrannus forficatus Loggerhead Shrike Lanius ludovicianus White-eyed Vireo Vireo griseus Horned Lark Eremophila alpestris Purple Martin Progne subis Verdin Auriparus flaviceps Northern Mockingbird Mimus polyglottos Olive Sparrow Arremonops rufivirgatus Cassin's Sparrow Peucaea cassinii Lark Sparrow Chondestes grammacus Black-throated Sparrow Amphispiza bilineata Northern Cardinal Cardinalis cardinalis Pyrrhuloxia Cardinalis sinuatus Blue Grosbeak Passerina caerulea Painted Bunting Passerina ciris Red-winged Blackbird Agelaius phoeniceus Eastern Meadowlark Sturnella magna Great-tailed Grackle Quiscalus mexicanus Bronzed Cowbird Molothrus aeneus House Sparrow Passer domesticus 34 SPECIES Mary Beth Stowe McAllen, TX _www.miriameaglemon.com_ (http://www.miriameaglemon.com/) 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