Catching a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

It has been about four years since I had seen a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher.  That was on a trip to the Big Bend National Park.  On our local Tom Green County Bird Checklist, it is listed as “rare, very hard to find, not present every year”.  So it was a thrill when Ann and I saw a pair of them Wednesday morning.  We were at Spring Creek Park, prowling along the perimeter, driving slowly by the thick brush and vegetation.  It was very quiet when some movement in the thicket caught our attention.  I stopped the car about 20 feet away.  We saw a Ruby-crowned Kinglet, then a Bewick’s Wren.

We were thinking that was the complete show, when we saw a blueish flash fluttering in the bushes.  They were the Blue-gray Gnatcatchers.  They left the brush and flew into a nearby pecan tree, but quickly returned to the thick brush.  We could see them but not very distinctly.  Then we got lucky.  One of them hopped out onto the wire fence that ran along the brush line.  I was able to get the following images  before we lost them again.

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

I hope you enjoyed these photos as much as I did obtaining them.  Click on any of  them to see enlargements.