Now that I am running out of photos of the migrants to post from the last few days, with migrant numbers taking a dip, I thought I would post a Purple Gallinule shot from South Padre earlier in the month. These are migrant birds and indeed have recently turned up in High Island for the first time this spring (they were at the Smith Oaks rookery on Monday and Tuesday-our first records this spring). South Padre was ahead of the game apparently having two birds present all winter (when they should have been wintering down in Central America). This was one of those oddly wintering birds that were still hanging around the boardwalk in early April. Thought this was a timely post seeing as they are now starting to appear on the Upper Texas Coast. Hopefully I'll be seeing another soon.
This morning's migrant update-a walk around Houston Audubon's Boy Scout Woods in High Island today yielded the continuing male Blackpoll Warbler (for its third day at least), Yellow Warbler (1), Red-eyed Vireo (1) munching mulberries, the odd vivid male Scarlet Tanager, an Ovenbird slowly creeping through the shadowy leaf litter, and the now regular Indigo Buntings and Orchard Orioles, as well as a few "jaffa" orange male Baltimores. Best of all though is lingering warbler oddity from yesterday. When I found it then I cried Townsend's Warbler- a good bird in these parts, although the minimal yellow on the breast (nearly invisible!) hints at a hybrid, perhaps it is a Townsend's x Hermit Warbler hybrid, that is rarer than the pure thing. A fun bird to see, and I hope to try and shoot the thing this afternoon...
This morning's migrant update-a walk around Houston Audubon's Boy Scout Woods in High Island today yielded the continuing male Blackpoll Warbler (for its third day at least), Yellow Warbler (1), Red-eyed Vireo (1) munching mulberries, the odd vivid male Scarlet Tanager, an Ovenbird slowly creeping through the shadowy leaf litter, and the now regular Indigo Buntings and Orchard Orioles, as well as a few "jaffa" orange male Baltimores. Best of all though is lingering warbler oddity from yesterday. When I found it then I cried Townsend's Warbler- a good bird in these parts, although the minimal yellow on the breast (nearly invisible!) hints at a hybrid, perhaps it is a Townsend's x Hermit Warbler hybrid, that is rarer than the pure thing. A fun bird to see, and I hope to try and shoot the thing this afternoon...
3 comments:
The hybrid sounds interesting. It would be nice to see what that looks like.
Actually it now sounds like the hybrid is a Townsend's x Black-throated Green Warbler. To top all this off last week we also had a parula like bird with no yellow at all (so it was called a Cerulean many times) and a slight flank mark that a pure Parula would never have. So it has has been hybrid High Island so far this spring!
had a purple gallinule show up in my yard this morning and is still hanging around! got some great pics of him "wading" in the beach entry of my pool. can I forward a pic?
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