Tern, Tern, Tern... Common Terns on Boca Chica today

Here's a first summer Common Tern, smaller than the Sandwich, with a dark carpal bar and heavy bill.   

This second bird is the same age but has a less distinct carpal bar and a more extensive black cap.  It never gave me good views, and when it flew it headed straight to the horizon.  Still, the  legs don't look overly short and the bill is about "middling" in length.

 Here's an adult, which had some dark red on the bill and a gray blush on the breast.

Melanistic Dove at the National Butterfly Center 6/27/2015

All indications are this is going to be a strange year.  I spent a few hours this morning looking and listening for Dan J's Yellow-green Vireo at the National Butterfly Center (don't call me NABA) in Mission.  While I didn't have any joy with the vireo, which was singing heartily for Dan, I did have a pair of Bullock's Orioles pass through the area of the feeding station and cross the levee twice before 9 AM.

By far the oddest bird was an apparently melanistic White-tipped Dove.  Now you might ask why "apparently" melanistic or "apparently" White-tipped, and those are both good questions.  The bird was "apparently" melanistic because it was black, however it was missing a lot of feathers on the neck and the bases of the feathers was pale.  The area seemed "greasy" as though perhaps the bird got into something, but other areas of the plumage didn't appear to be anything but normal feathers that happened to be jet black.  So why "apparently" White-tipped?  Well, it's hard to imaging identifying a black dove until you are faced with one.  This bird had a yellow-orange eye but lacked the shocking light blue eye skin of a White-winged.  The tail wasn't pointed like a Mourning Dove, and the bird was large.  The bird also left the feeding station by walking through the brush barrier at the back and not flying out of the area.

If you go to NBC keep your eyes open for this stunning bird, I'd love to see some better photos of it!  The bird landed behind the food can and walked rapidly into the feeding station, almost immediately going nearly out of view behind the water feature.  As I saw it out of the corner of my eye I though "pigeon" but the second look obviously wasn't.  I wish it had been more cooperative, or I'd seen it a second sooner.  But that's birding!

Gray Hawk nest with five chicks!

Here's a great shot by Bill Supulski of the Gray Hawk nest with a record five chicks.  This is the largest clutch documented for Gray Hawks.

Bully! - Martin Refuge

I had the great fortune to spend a few hours at the Martin Refuge, a premier photo ranch in south Texas.  I could fill the blog with the hundreds of images of just these three species, but I think I'll leave it at this.  It's a spectacular experience!

Rusty Blackbird at Santa Ana NWR

I don't have any photo editing software right now, so these are full frame and not enhanced.  It was a dull and dreary afternoon at Santa Ana NWR - at least weather-wise it was.  The rain held off, and we were able to relocate one of the Rusty Blackbirds reported yesterday and refound this morning.  The location was originally Willow Lake #1, the small pond on the tram loop.  After JD arrived, it moved to the dike separating Willow Lake #1 from Willow Lake #2.  

This bird has a pale eye, rufous fringes on the tertials and flight feathers, and a thin bill compared to a female Brewer's Blackbird.  Note also the habitat selection as the area is a brushy swamp, quite different from the typical Brewer's Blackbird habitat in the Lower Rio Grande Valley (feed lots and big box store parking lots).  

Thanks to those that found it and reported it!  

Horned Lark - McCook, Hidalgo County

Thayer's Gull, Brownsville Landfill, 2/14/2015

I went to the dump (excuse me, the Brownsville Sanitary Landfill) on 2/14 mostly because I could. There are very few dumps that allow birders access into the landfill, and I always enjoy the time I spent sorting through the gulls.  Others had found a Thayer's Gull earlier in the week, so I had my eyes peeled for a large, Herring Gull-sized first winter gull.  Here's the Thayers as I first saw it.  It looks massive compared to the Laughing Gulls.  There are some Herring Gulls behind it, and it still looks larger than I would  have expected for an Iceland Gull.  This bird is on the pale end of Thayer's Gull, yet to me it is too large and the secondary bar is too dark for an Iceland Gull.  

 I was entertained by the Thayer's Gull flying around chasing other gulls and returning to the same area in good light.  Note the darker outer webs to the primaries.  It was fairly windy so the gull was flying slowly (almost at stalling speed into the  wind) which made in flight photos easier to get.

It ended up close to the car, but not  near any Herring Gulls.  I guess that would have been asking too much!  If you go to the dump, go when it hasn't rained recently, take a high clearance vehicle, and stay out of the way of the trucks - both the workers and the dump trucks.  It's a rare treat to be allowed into a working landfill these days.