Groove-billed Ani update coming soon..

.., as in this afternoon.

Heidi located the bird in the Marathon Motel Courtyard's big Retama.

I was busy talking about the organic garden to a guest from the Santa Fe, NM area. Got a call from Heidi, with winded breath, telling me where it was. I happened to have a camera with me.

So.....

pics will be up at some point this afternoon/evening.

It had been two weeks of silence from a bird we assumed flapped along its merry way, until I heard it yesterday.

VERY few records of GROOVE-BILLED ANI (Crotophaga sulcirostris) out here. I figure next to zero outside of Big Bend Nat'l Park and its "Rio Grande Village."

One member of the dual-owner team even got a life bird out of it. Don't have to go to the Lower Rio Grande Valley for that target bird now, Mindy.

I'm doing all I can, on my lunch break not to report this and write it up for list serves.
Heidi will have the opportunity this afternoon.

Mindy and Heidi also heard a "First of fall/winter Season" Red-Breasted Nuthatch (Sitta canadensis).

Exciting times.