We look to the south and there are 75 broad-winged hawks lifting off from the mesquite forest. They found their thermal, circled up, and disappeared to the south faster than I could get my camera. Nothing left but a turkey vulture.
Got a text from Jon telling me that the flycatcher was seen again at the Birding Center on Padre Island this morning. A flycatcher? Big deal. Well, a little research revealed that it *was* a big deal. There was a variegated flycatcher there. We’ve never seen a variegated flycatcher before. We’ve never even *heard* of a variegated flycatcher before. We were taking the motorhome to Harlingen this morning anyway. That’s the right direction. That’s even over half way to South Padre Island. We googled the flycatcher to see what we would be looking for.
So we dropped the motorhome off with Jacinto in Harlingen, got a quick lunch at Taco Bell, and headed off to the island. Got there at 2:30, parked the car, and by 2:31, we had the bird. Lifer! ABA bird number 610. (Bird number 404 for the year.) Got to love those walk-up lifers. People standing around. “Got the bird?” “Yeah, it’s right here in the scope.”
We had to hang around for a while and visit. A chance to catch-up with Javi. He used to be a naturalist at Edinburg Wetlands by where we live, but the Birding Center on South Padre Island stole him away from us. Since we were there already we had to walk around the butterfly garden and find a few warblers. Since we were already so close we had to pop over to the Convention Center and score some warblers there as well. And heck, right on the way home is the Valley Land Fund lot right in town that had warblers too.
Got home about dark. A super successful day-trip.
Variegated Flycatcher.
Hooded Warbler.
Great Blue Heron
Boardwalk and mangroves.
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