Look what Hurricane Dolly blew in this morning: CONE Welder’s first warbler, a beautiful Prothonotary photographed twice by idbirds:
Congratulations, idbirds!
Update: I should mention that we previously got a shot of what I think was probably a Louisiana Waterthrush. But it was never ID’d, which makes this the first official warbler in the game.
The latest species in the game is a Carolina Chickadee that showed up this morning on the platform feeder. Honors for the first shot went to birdbrain:
My favorite shot of the bunch was this great close-up by vanilla:
Congratulations to everyone who got a shot of this fun new bird!
Check out these two shots that txbird got this afternoon around 3:30:
I’m leaning toward “bunting” on these, based on the general shape and pattern, as well as the fact that it’s perched on the same plant we’ve seen buntings feeding on a bunch over the last month or so. Especially in that second shot, I’m getting a subtle sense of some blue coloration — could it maybe be an immature male Indigo Bunting? We had a single beautiful shot of an adult male Indigo Bunting way back near the start of CONE Welder, on May 3, and then five more shots of a male on June 24. The range maps in Sibley, and the Welder checklist, both seem to suggest that it’s more of a spring and fall migrant than a summer resident, but I can’t think what else that bird might be.
I’m curious what others think.
It had been the rarest bird in the game, I believe, in terms of number of successful IDs, with just one image, this one, taken back on May 18 by birderbf:
But then yesterday birdbrain and txbirds got the following two shots on the tray feeder:
And today the following three shots don’t yet have IDs, but I’m pretty sure that’s the same species. These are by leacox, birdbrain, and anneelizabeth:
That last one by anneelizabeth is really interesting; I think it might be a blurry video capture of the bird opening its wings. Cool!
New species today, with three shots, all by rafa:
Easy to mistake for an Inca Dove to a casual glance, but check out the dark markings on the wings. Congratulations, rafa!
I had overlooked this, but rafa alerted me to it in email. Check out this very interesting shot taken by breffni yesterday at 8:48 a.m.:
That’s a male Red-winged Blackbird in the middle of the shot, but what is that bird in the lower left? In the comments on the shot, idbirds asserts that it isn’t a Northern Mockingbird because of the length of the tail, and suggests it could be a juvenile Scissor-tailed Flycatcher.
Personally, I think either bird is possible. That tail doesn’t necessarily look longer than a mockingbird’s to me. The end of the tail also doesn’t look much like what Sibley shows for the juvenile Scissor-tailed (a bird I don’t know from personal experience, so I’m kind of dependent on field guides). The Sibley illustration seems to show that the tail of the juvenile flycatcher is distinctly notched; this shot seems to be right in the middle between the squared-off tail tip of a mockingbird and the notched tip of the flycatcher.
I’m curious what others think. Is this a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher? Or a Northern Mockingbird? I’m pretty sure it’s one or the other, but I’m really up in the air as to which one.
Thanks to breffni for getting this very interesting shot, and to rafa for calling my attention to it.
Here are some shots from today of what looks like a new bird for the game, at least if we can figure out what it is. These four shots were all by txbird; either no one else was on the system at the time, no one else was paying attention, or no one else had any shots left:
It’s clearly a flycatcher, and the overall color pattern says Myiarchus to me. If I were seeing this bird around my Southern California home, I wouldn’t even wonder; I’d call it an Ash-throated Flycatcher and be done with it (which I realize is a little bit bogus; rarities happen, after all). But in the south-central Texas environs of CONE Welder things are more complicated.
Sibley shows three species of Myiarchus flycatchers near CONE Welder in the summertime: Ash-throated, Brown-crested (which is a species of interest in the shifting-breeding-range study), and (maybe) Great Crested. The Welder checklist gives the following:
| S | S | F | W | |
| Ash-throated Flycatcher | R | U | ||
| Great Crested Flycatcher | O | O | ||
| Brown-crested Flycatcher | R | U |
The three species are quite similar-looking, and even though we’ve got a number of excellent shots here, I can’t say that I’m confident based on appearance which one of the three birds to call it. But overall I guess if I had to pick something I’d pick Ash-throated Flycatcher: It looks as much like that to me as it does either of the others, and the Sibley range map and the Welder checklist both agree that it’s unambiguously there in summer. But I really don’t know.
I’d definitely be interested in whether Dr. Glasscock has any opinion about this bird’s ID. And of course, it goes without saying that I’ll be watching closely to see if we can get any more shots of this very interesting bird. Thanks, txbird, for doing such a great job on the camera!
Here are a bunch of shots of a mystery bird from earlier today. I’m assuming these are all of the same bird, but I wasn’t on the camera at the time, and don’t really know that. The shots are by birdbrain, txbird, birdbrain, kryptonkay, birdbrain, and kryptonkay, respectively:
That hint of a light eyestripe running back from the eye in the first shot gives me pause; the first thing I thought when I saw that was, whoa, is that a female House Sparrow? But even with that, I think I’d vote for a female Painted Bunting. It’s the second shot that pushes me that way. The bird appears to be feeding on the same plant’s seeds that we’ve been seeing the Painted Bunting feeding on lately, and it’s going about it in what looks to me like a fairly bunting-like manner.
What do the rest of you think?
rafa got a single shot early this morning of what has been ID’d as a Yellow-billed Cuckoo. Check it out:
Apparently the bird was moving around too fast for rafa to get a closer shot. Here’s a magnified version of the one shot we have:
Zoomed in like that, and checking the field guide (which I have to do, since it’s a bird I don’t know personally), I’d say there’s no question. I can barely make out the bird’s beak, extending to the left, and the dark marking around the bird’s left eye. The markings on the tail, and the overall shape and coloration, are perfect: It’s an adult Yellow-billed Cuckoo. Fits the Welder checklist and the Sibley range maps, too.
Great bird! Thanks for being alert on the dawn patrol, rafa!
Here are a few of my favorite shots from the last few days.
On the night of July 3, avatar99 got what I think is the best shot so far of the Barred Owl:
A number of us have been getting shots of frogs in the pond. Here’s a nice one taken on the Fourth of July by leacox:
Finally, this afternoon rafa got a couple of shots of the male Painted Bunting that I think are the best shots anyone has obtained of him with CONE Welder yet:
Those are pretty spectacular, but if you want some real Painted Bunting fireworks, check out these two shots that user Sabine on the Steve’s Digicams site uploaded back on July 1:
I really love the views we get with CONE Welder, but it sometimes takes a shot like these, or better yet, a trip out in the field with my binoculars (like the visit I paid this afternoon to the Carpinteria Bluffs, where I got to watch a Black Oystercatcher bathing in a tidepool), to remind me of how neat birds really look.