Greetings All:
If somebody had said to me "Anthony, you are going to add three species of
bird to your 2016 yard list this week - what will they be?" I would have
said, well, MacGillivray's Warbler (everybody likes to back a winner, eh,
and that is the most likely warbler in my yard this late in the season), a
contopid or empid of some sort (a bit of hedging I know) and some member of
the grosbeak/bunting clan (more hedging but Lubbock birding is well beyond
predictable).
Not even close!
What I got was 1) an American White Pelican flying over the yard yesterday
(I think it was the Dupree Park bird checking out the wonders of Maxey
Park) 2) a Dickcissel singing from my tallest pecan and pigging out at the
feeder in the backyard this morning (the House Finches and House Sparrows
were no competition for this fellow) and 3) during half-time of the L.A.
Galaxy vs. S.J. Earthquakes game a brace of Franklin's Gulls flying high
above the yard, in the 'wrong' direction, earlier this evening as I stared
upward at the clouds, willing myself to move from one hard cider to the
next ... and one, somewhat unrewarding, half to the next.
Arguably, the Dickcissel is a member of the grosbeak/bunting clan but it is
the first that I recall visiting my yard and the first I have seen at a
feeder since I watched my lifer Dickcissel - at a feeder in a yard in North
Bend Oregon, with Jaap Hellanius and Dave Swanson, back in 1988!
I would like to thank Rich Kostecke for providing me with the incentive I
needed to really enjoy the yard, as opposed to merely working in it, this
year.
Anthony 'Fat Tony' Hewetson; Lubbock
