The second trip down to the valley from Fort Worth in under a week was for the Roadside Hawk which was being seen in San Ygnacio at the Bird and Butterfly Sanctuary, LTC87. A friend and I left Thursday evening to see the bird first thing Friday morning and at 7:25 we got our first look at the bird as it landed in the tree to the right of the house. As it was still fairly dark all you could make out was its silhouette which was distinctive for this bird, giving it a very "top-heavy" appearance. It stayed for about 3 minutes then flew off northward and was found again about 10 min later just up the road. Here we were able to get good looks at the bird with scopes for about 20 minutes or so. Everyone was happy for such a quick reward! There were about 12 of us there from different parts of the states.
After the bird had flown we moved on to Santa Ana NWR to try to get looks at the Blue bunting. We had no luck on the Friday afternoon although the bird had been seen that afternoon. We tried again the next morning but were unsuccesful. However, we did get GREAT looks at the White-throated Robin right out in the open and it was quite content with people walking the trail beside him. He was there both days for most of the time.
Again, plenty of other cool birds were to be seen including the Altamira Orioles, Olive Sparrows, Clay-colored Robins, Blue-headed and White-eyed Vireos, Black-throated Green, Black & White and plenty of Orange-crowned warblers. It was a great weekend for walking around the refuge.