Hi, all! John Brush, Pat Heirs, and I headed out to Boca Chica this morning mainly in search of a reported Glaucous Gull. Dipped on that, but we had just a delightful time on this one gorgeous day we'll have this week, it looks like! A brief stop past the checkpoint first thing added a mob of Laughing Gulls and Cattle Egrets at the Dump, plus a pair of White-tailed Kites, but for the most part we headed straight to the beach first. We drove the full length both ways and had lots of the common stuff (Herring and Ring-billed Gulls; Caspian, Royal, and Forster's Terns; Ruddy Turnstones; Sanderlings we clocked running at 5 m.p.h.; Willets, and Brown Pelicans), plus an interesting assortment of waders at the mouth including Avocets and Tricolored Heron. We were hoping for Gannet and Bonaparte's Gulls, but we dipped on both of those as well. The sentinel Great Blue Herons spaced evenly along the dunes were Pat's favorites of the morning: some were sporting a "yoga" pose while one in particular had the wide-eyed look of someone just having smoked something... Back in a large inland body of water John spotted a mob of White Pelicans. We had lots of White-tailed and Harris' Hawks on the way down that we took the time to enjoy going back up, along with several Caracaras, Ospreys, and a single Red-tailed Hawk. The bird of day for both John and myself was a chirping Sedge Wren (two, actually) that I heard and John spotted! The road to the river (by the house) had a Cassin's Sparrow that John found amongst the Lincoln's; the river itself didn't have much except some squealing Caspian Terns. Everyone thought it was scandalous that there were NO Reddish Egrets in the flats!! We stopped for a kettle and logged both vultures and a couple of Chihuahuan Ravens in with the group, but an odd sound turned out to be a "pitchfork" (as Pat put it) of Snow Geese! No Aplomado Falcons, either, so we drowned our sorrows with a half dozen Krispy Kreme donuts... :-) Photos are posted here: http://miriameaglemon.com/photo_gallery/2013%20Field%20Trips/December/Boca%2 0Chica%20Beach.html Bird List: Snow Goose Chen caerulescens Double-crested Cormorant Phalacrocorax auritus American White Pelican Pelecanus erythrorhynchos Brown Pelican Pelecanus occidentalis Great Blue Heron Ardea herodias Great Egret Ardea alba Snowy Egret Egretta thula Tricolored Heron Egretta tricolor Cattle Egret Bubulcus ibis Black Vulture Coragyps atratus Turkey Vulture Cathartes aura Osprey Pandion haliaetus White-tailed Kite Northern Harrier Circus cyaneus Harris's Hawk Parabuteo unicinctus White-tailed Hawk Geranoaetus albicaudatus Red-tailed Hawk Buteo jamaicensis American Avocet Recurvirostra americana Black-bellied Plover Pluvialis squatarola Greater Yellowlegs Tringa melanoleuca Willet Tringa semipalmata Long-billed Curlew Numenius americanus Ruddy Turnstone Arenaria interpres Sanderling Calidris alba Laughing Gull Leucophaeus atricilla Ring-billed Gull Larus delawarensis Herring Gull Larus argentatus Caspian Tern Hydroprogne caspia Forster's Tern Sterna forsteri Royal Tern Thalasseus maximus Golden-fronted Woodpecker Melanerpes aurifrons Ladder-backed Woodpecker Picoides scalaris Crested Caracara Caracara cheriway American Kestrel Falco sparverius Eastern Phoebe Sayornis phoebe Great Kiskadee Pitangus sulphuratus Couch's Kingbird Tyrannus couchii Loggerhead Shrike Lanius ludovicianus White-eyed Vireo Vireo griseus Chihuahuan Raven Corvus cryptoleucus Verdin Auriparus flaviceps House Wren Troglodytes aedon Sedge Wren Cistothorus platensis Long-billed Thrasher Toxostoma longirostre Northern Mockingbird Mimus polyglottos European Starling Sturnus vulgaris Orange-crowned Warbler Oreothlypis celata Common Yellowthroat Geothlypis trichas Cassin's Sparrow Peucaea cassinii Savannah Sparrow Passerculus sandwichensis Lincoln's Sparrow Melospiza lincolnii Eastern Meadowlark Sturnella magna Great-tailed Grackle Quiscalus mexicanus Altamira Oriole Icterus gularis 54 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