Hi, all! I'm sure others will share their results, but I spent a VERY windy morning exploring the fields north of Santa Ana NWR for the Christmas Bird Count; because of the wind there wasn't much movement (and granted I spent most of my time in the car), but highlights include blackbird flocks of Hitchcockian proportion, a Merlin doing acrobatics, a couple of gorgeous White-tailed Hawks, and a couple of Collared Doves, which are actually write-up birds (but I have a feeling they won't be for long...). One of the blackbird flocks that happened to have a handful of Yellow-headed Blackbirds in with it inconveniently decided to plop down right in the middle of a major cabbage-harvesting party where "Dodge the Truck" was the name of the game along there! Not surprisingly the thornscrub habitat along the levee had the most songbirds, and the little private bond along Unland had a couple of Black-crowned Night Herons. Pictures and a recording of the blackbird mob are posted here: http://miriameaglemon.com/photo_gallery/2013%20Field%20Trips/December/Santa% 20Ana%20CBC.html Bird List (which includes an exercise walk around Chachalaca Trail): Mottled Duck Anas fulvigula Northern Shoveler Anas clypeata Plain Chachalaca Ortalis vetula Black-crowned Night-Heron Nycticorax nycticorax Turkey Vulture Cathartes aura Northern Harrier Circus cyaneus Harris's Hawk Parabuteo unicinctus White-tailed Hawk Geranoaetus albicaudatus Red-tailed Hawk Buteo jamaicensis Killdeer Charadrius vociferus Greater Yellowlegs Tringa melanoleuca Lesser Yellowlegs Tringa flavipes Long-billed Curlew Numenius americanus Stilt Sandpiper Calidris himantopus Rock Pigeon Columba livia Eurasian Collared-Dove Streptopelia decaocto Mourning Dove Zenaida macroura Inca Dove Columbina inca White-tipped Dove Leptotila verreauxi Golden-fronted Woodpecker Melanerpes aurifrons Ladder-backed Woodpecker Picoides scalaris Crested Caracara Caracara cheriway American Kestrel Falco sparverius Merlin Falco columbarius Eastern Phoebe Sayornis phoebe Great Kiskadee Pitangus sulphuratus Loggerhead Shrike Lanius ludovicianus White-eyed Vireo Vireo griseus Green Jay Cyanocorax yncas Horned Lark Eremophila alpestris Tree Swallow Tachycineta bicolor Black-crested Titmouse Baeolophus atricristatus House Wren Troglodytes aedon Carolina Wren Thryothorus ludovicianus Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Polioptila caerulea Ruby-crowned Kinglet Regulus calendula Long-billed Thrasher Toxostoma longirostre Northern Mockingbird Mimus polyglottos American Pipit Anthus rubescens Orange-crowned Warbler Oreothlypis celata Common Yellowthroat Geothlypis trichas Yellow-rumped Warbler Setophaga coronata Savannah Sparrow Passerculus sandwichensis Lincoln's Sparrow Melospiza lincolnii Northern Cardinal Cardinalis cardinalis Red-winged Blackbird Agelaius phoeniceus Eastern Meadowlark Sturnella magna Western Meadowlark Sturnella neglecta Yellow-headed Blackbird Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus Great-tailed Grackle Quiscalus mexicanus Bronzed Cowbird Molothrus aeneus Brown-headed Cowbird Molothrus ater House Sparrow Passer domesticus 53 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