I had it today along with Andy Bankert, Christian Hagenlocher and others.
Andy spotted it at 3:22 pm as it flew in from across the river by the little
boardwalk / observation deck at the second pavilion. It went into the dense
foliage of the tree to the right of the viewing area, and then moved slowly
through it, giving us tantalizing looks.
By the time it reached the edge of that tree, it was right over the pathway,
and we got smokin' good looks of it, as well as burning up more than a few
electrons on the digital cameras. It flew across the path, disappeared for a
few minutes, and then flew back into the original tree. We were all very
pleased with the looks.
Previous to that we were at the other pavilion (with the memorial bench) and at
about 2:15pm Andy found the Golden-crowned Warbler foraging in the leaves of
the trees to the right of the pavilion. There was a Wilson's Warbler in the
immediate area, as well as a White-eyed Vireo. The G-c was in constant motion,
offering up snippets of views and brief full-body glimpses. It crossed over
the pavilion into the really big tree above the bench, and then headed off
through the treetops in the direction of downstream.
After the Golden-crowned Slam (the warbler and the Kinglet) we completed the
Refugio Trifecta by getting the Greater Pewee in the parking lot, teed up in a
large tree just past the basketball pavilion and accompanied by a Couch's
Kingbird.
Altogether, a very productive visit!
Clay Taylor
TOS Life Member
Calallen (Corpus Christi) TX
Clay.taylor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
-----Original Message-----
From: texbirds-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:texbirds-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On ;
Behalf Of dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Thursday, January 14, 2016 8:45 PM
To: texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [texbirds] Re: Flame-colored Tanager at Lions Park (Refugio Co.)
Texbirders,
Has anyone tried to relocate the tanager Sam and AJ found at Lions Park in
Refugio County? I am thinking of driving down to have a look around the park
Saturday.
David Bradford
Houston
-----Original Message-----
From: Sam Fason <scfason@xxxxxxxxx>
To: texbirds <texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Mon, Jan 11, 2016 8:37 pm
Subject: [texbirds] Flame-colored Tanager at Lions Park (Refugio Co.)
Hi all,
This morning AJ Johnson and I found a very interesting Piranga tanager while
looking for the Golden-crowned Warbler at Lions Park in Refugio. The bird was
yellowish overall with an orangish head with dark auriculars, a heavily
streaked back, dingy rump, and two white wingbars all of which made me come to
the conclusion that the bird is a immature / 1st winter Flame-colored Tanager.
The one thing that appears off is the bill, which is pale at the base but
darker gray at the tip. I thought that maybe this was because it is a young
bird, but it has made a few hypothesize it is a hybrid...I personally think
that it looks good for a pure FCTA, and despite a bill that is colored
strangely (shape looks spot on, however), there are really not any other
intermediate traits such as a solid rear mantle or yellowish wingbars that
would seem to indicate a hybrid. I would love to hear opinions on the bird
either way.
Here are my photos of the tanager
https://www.flickr.com/photos/57637231@N04/albums/72157663272857532
The bird moved around a lot, and we saw it on both sides of the river but
always downstream of the pavillion...it seemed to be liking the ligustrums in
this area.
In other news, the Golden-crowned Warbler and Greater Pewee were not seen
despite our best efforts. A Louisiana Waterthrush, 2 Wilson's Warblers, and a
Black-and-White Warbler were nice, though.
Sam Fason,
Austin
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