A Spiny Lizard and a Banned Kiskadee

Lorna was visiting her sisters on South Padre with our truck, so Brian Plath offered to furnish the wheels for a day of birding and generally harassing each other. The Brain had pulled himself out of bed bright and early so by 11:00 we were on the road to Quinta Mazatlan. Brian hadn't seen a Blue Bunting since there was the one at Frontera a couple of years ago. We were hopeful.

We were there for quite a while, seeing nothing special or unusual. Eventually we wandered away from the other Bunting hunters to a little nook in the bushes with promising views. In the deep shadows The Bird is black, but if the sun catches it it shows flashes of blue light. After a while Brian spotted the little blue bugger back in the undergrowth. A good find. Just as he raised his camera, there was the flash of a Cooper's Hawk fly-by. When a hawk shows up all the bite-size birds vanish, sometimes disappearing for half an hour or more. 

Brian got a rather poor I.D. photo of The Bird for his year list and he was happy. We decided it was over for our Bunting day.

We hiked the estate trails for a while, then spent some time touring the large hacienda until mid afternoon when Brian claimed he had the shakes and he was in danger of passing out from hunger. As it was obviously a life threatening situation we went directly to the McAllen Blue Onion for some life saving sustenance, beer and fish soup. I believe we probably made it just in the nick of time. 

On our way back to Alamo the navigator lady in the cell phone became quite confused and we ended up at the San Juan Wetlands (the sewer ponds and garbage dump). There were a few ducks, Least Grebes, and Great and Snowy Egrets. 

It was 84F and sunny, not humid or windy, a great day to finish off with a friend and a Templeton Rye on our high porch.

Thanks Brian - Gunnar