Since
returning from Costa Rica I hadn’t had a chance to get out birding (except
around the neighborhood), so I was anxious to at least join Arroyo Colorado
Audubon’s (ACAS) Birder Patrol and see my friends as we all descended upon Dan
Jones’ yard in Progresso Lakes! The
temperatures were forecast to reach triple digits once again (it’s been that
way for almost a month), so we figured that sitting in the shade of his back
yard overlooking Moon Lake Resaca for a couple of hours would hit the
spot! Steve and Kathy joined me in Alamo
and we headed over to Progresso Lakes; they actually took their own cars in
case we all wanted to go our separate ways from there, so they followed me
in. I lowered my window along Moon Lake
Drive and added a beenting Common Nighthawk and tons of Dickcissels singing in
the fields!
Pulling
into Dan’s drive, Norma, Sue, Billy, Alicia, and Mark (ACAS’ new conservation
chair) were already there, so having brought our lawn chairs we settled down to
watch the show. A Black Phoebe was up on
the wire, and five Green Herons chased each other up and down! A real treat was a Least Bittern flying back
and forth, and a pair of Muscovy Ducks apparently nesting on top of a thick,
dead palm tree! Purple Martins were all
over, and even a Bank Swallow called.
Both Couch’s and Tropical Kingbirds song-battled, and I thought I heard
(and Billy thought he saw) an Eastern Kingbird, but without another good
“listen” I wasn’t willing to say for sure, especially since eBird would have
flagged it. Eventually during the course
of the morning both Green and Ringed Kingfishers shot by, a Yellow-crowned
Night Heron briefly showed, and an Anhinga sailed past! A Spotted Sandpiper bobbed across the way
while a handful of Black-bellied Whistling Ducks flew over (a far cry from the
mobs that were there last winter)!
The Birder Patrol patrolling Moon Lake Resaca
Feral Muscovy Duck at presumed nest site
One of several Green Herons
Kathy, Norma, Steve, Alicia, and Billy (Sue and Mark are hidden)
Some
of us decided to walk down to the end of the road just to stretch our legs and
see if anything else was about; an Olive Sparrow was singing from the woodland
edge, and at one point a Yellow-billed Cuckoo went tearing past and landed for
a look! The neighbor’s friendly lab mix
accompanied us while the girls gave me a crash course on some of the trees
there (and I’ll need a lot more practice for sure).
Norma points out a Retama bush
Retamas bloom late in the summer and have multiple bean pods, in addition to long, skinny leaves.
Huisache, which blooms early in the spring
Tepehuaje, with large, single bean pods
Close-up of the Tepehuaje leaves
Returning
to the yard we saw that Dan had joined the guys that stayed behind; he had
forgotten we were coming and opened up his curtains to see a mob of people in
his back yard! J Billy
was jokingly giving Dan a hard time for not producing a Clay-colored Thrush (he
said that was the whole reason he came J), when suddenly
the thing darted out of a tree and across the resasca! We commented that his butterfly bushes were
coming along nicely, and already his Pyramid Bush had some Clouded Skippers on
it. Just before we left Dan was showing
Alicia the pods from his deceased yucca plant that could be used to make
“babies”!
Pyramid Bush, a butterfly magnet!
Some
of the gang continued on to Tiocano Lake to look for King Rails, but I had too
many chores to do so headed home. I
ended up with a modest but very high quality list of 40 birds for the
morning! (And later I found out they had a lingering Sora there!) Bird list:
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck
Muscovy Duck Plain Chachalaca
Neotropic Cormorant
Anhinga
Least Bittern
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Tricolored Heron
Green Heron
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
Black-necked Stilt
Spotted Sandpiper
Eurasian Collared-Dove
White-winged Dove
Mourning Dove
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Common Nighthawk
Buff-bellied Hummingbird
Ringed Kingfisher
Green Kingfisher
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Black Phoebe
Great Kiskadee
Tropical Kingbird
Couch's Kingbird
Purple Martin
Bank Swallow
Black-crested Titmouse
Carolina Wren
Clay-colored Thrush
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Olive Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Dickcissel
Red-winged Blackbird
Great-tailed Grackle
House Sparrow
40 SPECIES
