Tag Archives: Yellow-Breasted Chat

All Hail Breaks Loose

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I wasn’t too excited about the photographs I found on my laptop for the day after the big hike, but then when I checked my phone I remembered why there were so few. If my memory serves me correctly, we woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of hail hitting the roof and then when we set out for a short local trek before taking vehicles to other trails, finding hail piled up almost a foot high on the gravel road.

So it looks like it was a cloudy, iffy day weather-wise, and eventually we had hail again. Only this time we were safe inside the vehicles.

The video and these images are from the cell phone. A dramatic landscape enhanced by weather.

Two birds willingly posed within range that day: the Audubon’s Yellow-Rumped Warbler at the top of the page and this lovely Say’s Phoebe.

But also ubiquitous on the entire trip were Bell’s Vireos. We didn’t always see them but we definitely heard them every day.

Bell’s Vireo
  • More of the Say’s Phoebe
A distant Yellow-Breasted Chat

Dark, cloudy and distant pictures of two hummingbirds (Lucifer on the upper left and middle and Broad-Tailed below, right) and a Varied Bunting in between them.

We visited this amazing fossil discovery exhibit which is in Big Bend National Park.

Some flora which I might be able to identify if I could just find the laminated checklist of Big Bend wildflowers I purchased at the Visitors Center. Looking through even more pictures on the internet makes it tempting to revisit this area some day. I want to come back as a plant fanatic.

Not sure who this is either…
A distant but very cooperative Loggerhead Shrike.
Black-Chinned Sparrow
This was the vista behind the Bell’s Vireo above.
  • More views of the Audubon’s Warbler
A Rock Squirrel and his rock.

There are four more days of photographs from the Southwest Texas trip to decipher. Then it’s onward to rejuvenate or replace the travel laptop before I take it on another adventure coming up next month!

Texas Day Two

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Yellow-breasted Chat, in a class by itself

It seems a good time to go back to my Texas trip photo memories before I lose track of it entirely. Day Two was a travel day from Del Rio, where we had spent the night, to Big Bend National Park where we stayed three days. Of course we birded along the way.

Black-bellied Whistling Ducks

Yesterday I turned on the reluctant travel laptop to see if it was in any mood to let me look at my Texas pictures. Lo and behold I found more images, and the amazing thing is that I was allowed to process them, so here is everything from that travel day, including the domestic waterfowl below which adorned the first stop.

  • Viewer discretion advised: a Mallard menage a trois that might prove disturbing to younger viewers
Northern Shoveler and Blue-winged Teal

Travel notes from my cell phone… I love the rugged terrain of Southwest Texas.

A view of the Rio Grande along the way
  • Rocks and what to do with them

It was nice to revisit species I have seen before. Some I saw much better than on previous occasions, while others like the Rufous-Crowned Sparrow below, eluded the camera, even though fairly common. And then there were the life birds.

Rufous-crowned Sparrow
  • Bewick’s Wren
  • Cliff Swallows
Brown-headed Cowbirds
  • Great-Tailed Grackle Bash
Olive Sparrow – a lifer which looked much better than the lighting allowed
  • Clay-colored Sparrow

The Morelet’s Seedeater is not exactly new, if I can believe I have seen a White-Collared Seedeater before. Anyway, it’s been split into its own species, so that makes it a life bird. We searched for this guy for a while and then he practically followed us around for the next quarter hour or more.

  • Morelet’s Seedeater
Lesser Goldfinch I have seen before, maybe not so well.
Orchard Oriole we get in the Chicago area, though not as common as Baltimore Oriole.
House Finch (of the original population!), not the ones that crowd my backyard.

It would have been nice to see a Western Meadowlark but this Eastern Meadowlark posed nicely for us.

Eastern Meadowlark

I’ve glimpsed Ladder-backed Woodpeckers in New Mexico but have never seen them so well as on this trip.

Ladder-backed Woodpecker

Then to see some old friends really well…

Golden-fronted Woodpecker (female) with White-Winged Dove
Lark Sparrow
Hepatic Tanager
Blue Grosbeak

We arrived at the Chisos Mountain Lodge in Big Bend National Park, checked into our rooms and witnessed this sunset outside the dining hall that evening.

Chisos Mountains sunset

Meanwhile back home, it’s intermittent thunderstorms and cooler weather. I am fond of rain, but not so much.

Goose Lake Prairie

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DICK Goose Lake Prairie 07-03-17-5002

Dickcissel

I spent three hours at Goose Lake Prairie State Natural Area this morning. I saw and heard a lot of birds, if not necessarily a lot of species. Most of the birds I photographed were quite far away. Some Northern Rough-Winged Swallows below, then a Field Sparrow.

FISP Goose Lake Prairie 07-03-17-5039

Field Sparrow

Did I see the King Rail? I’m not sure. Maybe I did, so maybe it’s half-a-lifer, but without a scope to clarify anything, my binoculars could not discern any detail on the likely suspect and my camera lens was no better at deciphering a preening bird at the water’s edge.

King Rail Goose Lake Prairie 07-03-17-5157

But rarer birds have a way of showing up when you least expect them. So it is with the Yellow-Breasted Chat. When I think of all the Chats I have heard and never seen on their breeding grounds, seeing and photographing one this morning had all the sweetness of any surprise. I was first drawn to the yellow bird by its behavior kiting after insects. Then when it perched I realized it was a Chat, however far away. This species is still considered a warbler.

I was photographing anything I could focus on before identifying it. So it was with the Grasshopper Sparrow below.

And this elusive Sedge Wren too.

SEWR Goose Lake Prairie 07-03-17-5131

Sedge Wren

This Indigo Bunting was right out in the open. With the abundant sunshine, he picked the right day to do it.

Likewise with this young Baltimore Oriole, but so far away.

Some wildflowers in bloom…the first one is not Blazing Star but similar, and then Bergamot which is now in my yard, and in the lower right hand corner, Wild Parsnip, something I never noticed before but recognized right away this time after all the parsnip growing in my yard.

For all the abundance of Red-Winged Blackbirds I almost tend to ignore them, and in some measure it’s a defensive action because they can get testy this time of year, as you probably noticed in my last post.

RWBL Goose Lake Prairie 07-03-17-5077

Female Red-Winged Blackbird

But sometimes they can be fun to capture anyway.

RWBL Goose Lake Prairie 07-03-17-5224

Male Red-Winged Blackbird

I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a young Eastern Kingbird before, so this was a treat.

EAKI Goose Lake Prairie 07-03-17-5101

Juvenile Eastern Kingbird

And although Common Yellowthroats are constantly announcing themselves, they’re often hard to see, so I was grateful to these two.

COYT Goose Lake Prairie 07-03-17-5026

Common Yellowthroat

COYT Goose Lake Prairie 07-03-17-5078I still have a few photos to share from Sunday’s adventures and that could still happen. The remedy for all this is to just stop taking pictures but there is always more to see.

I’m glad I got to Goose Lake Prairie, I missed it last year. The other Goose Lake Conservation Area awaits exploration.