Heavenly oasis day!

I thought I had died and gone to heaven when I was observing my lifer Cerulean Warbler at the oasis. Lee Hoy discovered it late this afternoon. It must have had a hard journey. It literally foraged at my feet.

Here's a video clip Lee Hoy took of it.

Everything else today pales by comparison. I spent most of the day watering and watching birds. A local bird guide brings clients here occasionally to get close looks at specialties like Lucifer Hummingbirds, Varied Buntings, etc.  Around 6 PM, I headed to my cabin, telling Lee to come get me if he saw a Ivory-billed Woodpecker or anything like that. About an hour later he came up to the cabin, saying, "You've got to get down there right away..." and proceeded to tell me about the Cerulean Warbler, and where to look for it. He had to leave, but I found the bird right where he said it had been, in a stand of short oak saplings beneath a big live oak tree. I had just watered there an hour earlier, with the temperature hovering around 100°.

As far as I can ascertain, this is a second Trans-Pecos record. I think the only other one was near Sheffield in Terrell County in May 2011. 

Other than that, the pair of Ash-throated Flycatchers that had been scrutinizing every nest box in the vicinity of the oasis for days now, finally made their selection. They lost no time in carrying nesting material into it.

And I got a nice photo of the Townsend's Warbler that's been around.

Can't wait for daylight tomorrow!