Texas eBird League of County’s Division A race continues
Nueces and Cameron counties come out of the summer heat with Nueces well ahead of Cameron by 13 species. This includes the Carolina Chickadee sighting at Polywog Ponds. The Nueces number includes the provisional species of Cattle Tyrant and House Crow, while Cameron includes the usual extra amazons. It will be interesting to see if a diverse number of fall or winter sightings will cover the gap. But the trend the last 3 years has Nueces an average of 3 species over Cameron County.
Cameron County’s last 10 years sheet shows Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet and Eastern Bluebird have not yet been added for 2026. These species have made the Last 10-year streak but that could be broken. New species seen this year that haven’t been seen in the last decade are Masked Duck, Northern Jacana and Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher. Three species that will possibly disappear from the “Species seen in the last 10 years” list entirely will be Western Grebe, Elf Owl and Rusty Blackbird unless by some miracle those will be found in the county before the year is up.
Meanwhile in Nueces County in 2026 the last 10 years sheet will show that the Painted Redstart addition to the list will help offset the disappearance of Red-bellied Woodpecker, Hammond’s Flycatcher and Rock Wren. And for the 10 year streak, Eastern Screech-Owl, Audubon’s Oriole and Common Grackle have become regular sightings for the last 10 years. Zone-tailed Hawk is still missing for the year, but it has become a regular visitor over the Hawk Watch at Hazel Bazemore each year. And somehow Ross’s Goose wasn’t detected in early 2026, hopefully someone will find some in this winter before the year times out.
I Hope luck and fair weather comes to the birders of both of these counties over the next 5 months at least. Take care out there.
Red-belled Woodpeckers have disappeared from Nueces County? Any idea why?
Usually the “cutting off” range of the Red-bellied Woodpecker is loosely at the Guadalupe River on the Refugio and Calhoun County border. There was a well documented bird that was present at Polywog Ponds the winter of 2012. Seems others show up coming down the Nueces River corridor. Otherwise a bird seen at Hazel Bazemore with good notes in April 2016: As well as one in June that same year at a home in Flour Bluff. To pick one out of the dominant Golden-fronted Woodpecker would require some pretty good documentation, I’d assume.