[texbirds] Highlights from a weekend trip to El Paso - day three
- From: Anthony Hewetson <terrverts@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "leas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <leas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 6 Sep 2012 08:03:33 -0700 (PDT)
Greetings All:
Over the past weekend I wandered a big loop that could be described as
Lubbock - Andrews - Kermit - Mentone - Orla - Guadalupe Mountains -
Homestead Meadows - Clint - Rio Bosque Wetlands Park - Tornillo
Reservoir - Fort Hancock Reservoir - McNary Reservoir - Van Horn - Lake
Balmorhea - Pecos - Mentone - Kermit - Andrews - Lubbock. I spent the
first night at a frightfully cheap hotel in Clint and the second night
at a delightfully inexpensive hotel in Van Horn.
As always for these far flung trips, my inclusion of sightings as
noteworthy is shaded by my lack of an intimate knowledge of the region I was
visiting. I will rely on the regional compilers to sort out what
is truly significant and to contact me for details about any sightings
they consider particularly noteworthy. In general I was impressed with
the scatter and diversity of migrant songbirds - particularly empids,
Townsend's Warblers, and tanagers.
Highlights from the first day - Monday - 3 September 2012
Reeves County: hordes of Aechmophorus grebes (at least 40 that I would call
Clark's and at least 6 that I would call Western - plus twenty or so that
remained too distant to call), 3 Great Egrets, 13 Snowy Egrets, 1 subadult
Little Blue Heron, 3 Tricolored Herons, 1 American Avocet, 5 Spotted
Sandpipers, 2 Solitary Sandpipers, 1 Greater Yellowlegs, 1 WILLET, 2 Baird's
Sandpipers, 2 Least Sandpipers, 3 Long-billed Dowitchers, 2 FRANKLIN'S GULLS
flying well overhead - did not drop in on the lake, 2 Black Terns, 1 subadult
LEAST TERN, 2 Forster's Terns, 1 Olive-sided Flycatcher, 1 Western Wood Pewee,
1 Willow Flycatcher, 1 Gray Flycatcher, 3 Tree Swallows, 2 Bank Swallows, 1
Nashville Warbler, 1 MacGillivray's Warbler, 1 female Common Yellowthroat, 4
Yellow Warblers, 2 Wilson's Warblers, 1 Lark Bunting, and 52 Yellow-headed
Blackbirds at Lake Balmorhea.
Reeves County: 1 subadult male Rufous Hummingbird, 1 Olive-sided Flycatcher, 1
Plumbeous Vireo, 4 Chipping Sparrows, 1 Brewer's Sparrow, and 1 female Summer
Tanager in/under the big trees along the canal in Balmorhea.
Reeves County: 1 Plumbeous Vireo, 2 Yellow-rumped Warblers, 1 BLACK-THROATED
GRAY WARBLER, 1 Townsend's Warbler, 1 Wilson's Warbler, 1 Green-tailed Towhee,
and 2 Vesper Sparrows at the cemetery just north of Interstate 10 on Highway 17.
Reeves/Loving County (all birds seen on both sides of the truly sad Pecos
River): 1 Western Wood Pewee, 1 Willow Flycatcher, 2 Yellow Warblers, 1
Wilson's Warbler, and 1 female Western Tanager at the Pecos River crossing of
Highway 302.
Loving County: 1 adult male ANNA'S HUMMINGBIRD, 1 Western Wood Pewee, 1
Plumbeous Vireo, 1 Nashville Warbler, 5 Yellow Warblers, 2 Yellow-rumped
Warblers, 1 Townsend's Warbler, 5 Wilson's Warblers, 2 Chipping Sparrows, and 2
subadult male Indigo Buntings at the Loving County Courthouse. They were
watering the lawn and water was hitting and dripping from the mulberry and oak
trees - songbirds just kept drifting in and, by Loving County standards, it was
a mesmerizing assemblage of migrants; many of which were bathing in puddles
beneath the trees.
Winkler County: 2 Yellow Warblers, 3 Wilson's Warblers, 1 female Summer
Tanager, 3 female/1 male/1 subadult Western Tanagers at the Winkler County Golf
Course - as well as a very proud kid with a huge, freshly-captured Great Plains
Toad.
Winkler County: 1 Willow Flycatcher, 1 Northern Waterthrush, 2 Yellow Warblers,
1 Townsend's Warbler, 1 Wilson's Warbler, and 1 first fall female Black-headed
Grosbeak at the willow seep along FM 874 just west of Highway 115.
Andrews County: 1 Spotted Sandpiper, 2 Baird's Sandpipeers, 1 Least Sandpiepr,
1 Olive-sided Flycatcher, 1 Western Wood Pewee, 1 GRAY CATBIRD, 1 Northern
Waterthrush, and 1 female Western Tanager at Lakeside Park in Andrews.
Andrews County: 6 Common Gallinules, 2 Greater Yellowlegs, 2 Forster's Terns, 1
Olive-sided Flycatcher, 1 Hermit Thrush, 1 Nashville Warbler, 1 female and 4
male Common Yellowthroats, 1 MacGillivray's Warbler, 4 Yellow Warblers, and 7
Wilson's Warblers at the Andrews Birding Trail.
Andrews County: 3 Vesper Sparrows just north of Andrews.
Gaines County: 1 Olive-sided Flycatcher, 2 Western Wood Pewees, 1 Willow
Flycatcher, 2 MacGillivray's Warblers, 1 Wilson's Warbler, and 1 female Western
Tanager at Gaines County Park.
Gaines County: 2 Snowy Egrets over Seagraves.
Also of note: not a single meadowlark during day three. This is, without a
doubt, the most ground I have covered in the region without seeing a single
meadowlark. Is anybody else noticing this phenomenon?.
Anthony 'Fat Tony' Hewetson; Lubbock
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