For comparison, farther north in the Houston area, I had a personal best of a flock of about 3000 on the Katy Prairie near intersection of FM362 and Hebert Rd just two weeks ago. Bob Honig tells me that a few years ago he saw a flock at an estimated 5000 Brewer's on the prairie. Steve Gast Houston, Texas segast23@xxxxxxxxx ________________________________ From: John Arvin <jarvin@xxxxxxxx> To: txbrush5@xxxxxxxxx; TexBirds <texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Monday, March 4, 2013 7:28 PM Subject: [texbirds] Re: Rio Beef Farm Feed Lot Area, Mar 1, 2013 Tim, Brewer's Blackbirds are interesting. They seem to have favorite places that they winter and are absent from other, similar sites. One is McAllen High School parking lot and the little park across the street. Another is the Sarita rest stop (actually they are all along Hwy 77 on the shoulders). John C. Arvin Research Associate Gulf Coast Bird Observatory 103 West Hwy 332 Lake Jackson, TX 77566 jarvin@xxxxxxxx www.gcbo.org Austin, Texas ---------------------------------------- From: "Tim Brush" <txbrush5@xxxxxxxxx> Sent: Friday, March 01, 2013 12:33 PM To: "TexBirds" <texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Subject: [texbirds] Rio Beef Farm Feed Lot Area, Mar 1, 2013 After a week full of classes and meetings, John and I were happy to head north to the area near Sal del Rey (Hidlago Co.). We did not go to that salt lake itself, but headed north on Brushline Road (next report) and then east to the Rio Beef feedlot area. We were following the lead of Dan Jones and others, as we searched for Brewer's Blackbirds (which is very local in the Valley), and we were not disappointed. They were easily visible from GI Road, the east-west road that we were on, in a barren pasture where horses were grazing. The full list for GI Road and the feedlot area is below. Regards and good birding, Tim (and John) Brush Rio Beef Farm Feed Lot Area, Hidalgo, US-TX Mar 1, 2013 9:15 AM - 9:50 AM Protocol: Traveling 2.0 mile(s) 16 species White-tailed Hawk 2 Killdeer 5 Eurasian Collared-Dove 2 Mourning Dove 10 Common Ground-Dove 4 Greater Roadrunner 1 Ladder-backed Woodpecker 2 Eastern Phoebe 1 Loggerhead Shrike 3 Northern Mockingbird 10 Lark Sparrow 14 Northern Cardinal 2 Red-winged Blackbird 60 Western Meadowlark 25 Brewer's Blackbird 30 a mixed group of males (saw glossy head and yellow eyes, long legs compared to cowbirds) and females interspersed throughout the muddy field. Brown-headed Cowbird 130 View this checklist online at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S13227521 This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org/tx) 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 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 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