[texbirds] Birder Patrol Trip to Yturrias

  • From: "" <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> (Redacted sender "MiriamEagl@xxxxxxx" for DMARC)
  • To: texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sat, 28 Jun 2014 16:12:36 -0400 (EDT)

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/) 



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