Birding Santa Ana NWR and Benston SP

Howdee all

It was a foggy start to a very gray day….

   Jeff and I decided we would try and find the Hook-Billed Kite at Santa Ana National wildlife refugee.

    We started our morning by joining a group nature walk…

Our guide pointed out a Least Grebe on a nest..  The ever present coot..  Jeff and I decided to leave the group and go off on our own in search of the Kite..

We took Willow trail, where others have seen the Kite..but had no luck..

We climbed one of the observation towers to see what we could see. Summer tanager

Black-crested nuthatchClay-colored thrush    A birding trio..

Plain Chachalaca, Gold-fronted woodpecker, Couchs Kingbird

We saw Kettles of Mississippi Kite and other hawks soaring far above us..

After viewing from the platform we birded around a few ponds in the park.

I wish these Pie-billed Grebes weren't so far away..I wanted to show you how cool looking the babies were..all stripy, orangey bills and heads..   Sora

We left the refugee…No target bird seen..but a great morning of birding..

From Santa Ana we headed to Bentsen state park

again..in search of the Hook-billed Kite.

We took the tram to the Hawk watching platform..

We were immediately treated to hundreds, if not thousands of hawks soaring by in kettles..Very distant views..

Can you see the dots??

There were streams of these kettles coming from Mexico heading north..it was around 3:30 till about 4:30 and then we didn't see as many kettles..

There were hundreds of Mississippi Kites throughout the afternoon circling in kettles..

  There may have been a Hook-billed Kite in the group..but we couldn't tell…too far away We saw a male and female Altamira Oriole   

She was gathering supplies for her nest

her mate followed her as she gathered her nesting materials…   We've had a bit of rain lately and the mushrooms are out..

This looks like some type of Agaricus   Shaggy mane..a very yummy edible..I left them..

As we were walking back the the car

a family of Javalena crossed the trailFunny looking creatures… Another fine day of birding in Texas!

Birds of the Day

Bob white
Great kiskadee
Golden-fronted woodpecker
Great-tailed grackle
Couchs kingbird
Mourning dove
Inca dove
White wing dove
Olive sparrow
Black-crested titmouse
Yellow headed blackbird
Red-winged blackbird
White-tipped dove
Buff-bellied hummingbird
Brown-crested flycatcher
Bronzed cowbird
Long-billed thrasher
Mississippi kite
American coot
Blue-winged teal
Barn swallow
Least grebe
Common yellowthroat
Plain chachalaca
Scissor tail flycatcher
Great egret
Black-bellied whistling duck
Ringed kingfisher
Broad-winged hawk
Little blue heron
Belted kingfisher
Altimira oriole
Clay-colored thrush
Great-crested flycatcher
White-eyed vireo
Common moorhen
Ladderback woodpecker
Northern cardinal
Northern mockingbird
Black-neck stilt
Snowy egret
Tri-colored heron
Cattle egret
Sora
Anhinga
Tropical kingbird
Forsters tern
Neotropic cormorant
Great blue heron
Turkey vulture
Black vulture
Green heron
Western kingbird
Green jay