Bentsen RGV SP - Part 2

 

Crescent Moon - Week of Solar Eclipse

Taken from the Hawk Tower

Every morning brought a unique sunrise

Resident Gray Hawk 

Calling Gray Hawk with full crop protruding through breast feathers

Gray Hawk surveys it's territory 

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher migrating south 

Turkey Vulture - one of thousands daily this past week migrating south

signals the end of raptor migration.

We  surpassed the Autumn record with 170,216 raptors.

Female Northern Harrier hunting below the tower.

Crested Caracara  lands on our "trident" snag.

Caracara closeup

Mare's tail Cloud canopy

Tiny, colorful Fruit Fly family

Wood Storks 

Great Egret

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, daily near the tower

Plain Chachalaca preening - "rezipping" tail feathers

Black-chinned Hummingbird

Rose Mallow

Six-lined Racerunner

Black & White Warbler

Golden-fronted Woodpecker 

Rare migrant to South Texas - Wood Thrush

Clay-colored Thrush

Long-billed Thrasher singing

Green Jay - South Texas Specialty

Rio Grande race of Wild Turkey

Honey Bee visits Catclaw Sensitive Briar

Farewell to the Hawk Tower and last Sunrise until March when we return for Spring migration.

Love & Prayers,

Ty & Ida Baumann

Bentsen Rio Grande Valley State Park

 

We have been at Mission, Texas for 4 weeks volunteering for the hawk count's Fall migration.

Each morning Ty goes out before dawn to count owls.  Full Harvest Moon lights the way.

This will give you an example of some of the night sounds.

What you heard was the McCall's race of the Eastern Screech Owl.

Sunrise from the Hawk Tower

White-tailed Hawk

Red-Shouldered Hawk

Gray Hawk

Juvenile Mississippi Kite

Peregrine Falcon

Cooper's Hawk

Osprey

Sharp-shinned Hawk

Broad-winged Hawk

Migrating Wood Storks

Indigo Bunting Female

We have seen 125 species of birds from the hawk tower in four weeks.

Groove-billed Ani crawling through the grass for insects below the tower

Groove-billed Ani

Great Kiskadee

White-eyed Vireo

Common Ground Dove

Couch's Kingbird

Bobcat tries hard to hide in the reeds

Coral Vine

Blue Collared Spiny Lizard

Javelina or Collared Peccary

Eastern Fox Squirrel

Millipede

Pacific Spiketail Dragonfly

Each blade of grass is covered with termite casings

Guayacan fruit also called Ironwood

Soapberry Tree - fruit loved by Parakeets

Kapok - the unhugable Tree (Get the Point?)

Kapok blossoms - Latin American tree - during WW1 the fruit silk was used for life preservers.

Vermilion Flycatcher - juvenile male

Plain Chachalaca

Three young Chachalacas share a stump

Black Phoebe

Buff-bellied Hummingbird

Altamira Oriole

Two foot long Altamira Oriole nest

Green Jay

Painted Bunting

We have 10 more days of hawk count then it's eastward to Weslaco.

Our prayers are with Israel as they deal with terrorism.

Love & Prayers,

Ty & Ida Baumann