PAGE UPDATED: December 15, 2008 TRES PRESAS RANCH, JOHN & BILLIE HOFFMANN'S PROPERTY I am a professional nature photographer who particularly enjoys photographing wildlife. The birds and other wildlife are plentiful on the property and below I have listed the bird species and some other wildlife seen since November 2005, some of which I have photographed. Credit is due to my friend Martin Hagne, Executive Director of the Valley Nature Center in Weslaco, Texas. He is one of the people who spurred my interest in birds and encouraged me to start and maintain a Tres Presa bird list. This year, 2008, marks the fourth year that Tres Presas has been one of the properties used for the annual Christmas Bird Count. During the morning of the CBC, we added three new birds to the ranch list, bringing the total bird species documented to 86, which is pretty exciting. I have noted only species that have been seen and identified by Martin or other experts, observed by me on numerous occasions or photographed by me for positive identification afterward. BIRDS Black-bellied Whistling-Duck Mottled Duck Blue-winged Teal Northern Bobwhite Great Blue Heron Tri-colored Heron Great Egret Snowy Egret Cattle Egret Yellow-crowned Night-Heron Roseate Spoonbill Wood Stork Black Vulture Turkey Vulture Norther Harrier Sharp-shinned Hawk Cooper's Hawk Harris's Hawk Red-tailed Hawk White-tailed Hawk Crested Caracara Aplomado Falcon American Kestrel Common Moorhen Sandhill Crane Killdeer Solitary Sandpiper Greater Yellowlegs Lesser Yellowlegs Long-billed Curlew Wilson's Snipe White-winged Dove Mourning Dove Inca Dove Common Ground-Dove White-tipped Dove Greater Roadrunner Great Horned Owl Lesser Nighthawk Common Nighthawk Common Pauraque Golden-fronted Woodpecker Ladder-backed Woodpecker Eastern Phoebe Vermilion Flycatcher Great Kiskadee Couch's Kingbird Scissor-tailed Flycatcher Loggerhead Shrike Green Jay Black-crested Titmouse Verdin Cactus Wren Bewick's Wren House Wren Ruby-crowned Kinglet Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Least Flycatcher Northern Mockingbird Long-billed Thrasher Curve-billed Thrasher Sprague's Pipit Orange-crowned Warbler Yellow-rumped Warbler Common Yellowthroat Painted Redstart Cassin's Sparrow Chipping Sparrow Lark Sparrow Black-throated Sparrow White-crowned Sparrow Lark Bunting Savannah Sparrow Lincoln's Sparrow Northern Cardinal Pyrrhuloxia Rose-breasted Grosbeak Blue Grosbeak Red-winged Blackbird Eastern Meadowlark Western Meadowlark Brewer's Blackbird Great-tailed Grackle Bronzed Cowbird American Goldfinch House Sparrow BIRD SPECIES SEEN: 86 MAMMALS Unidentified mice Hispid Cotton Rat Ground Squirrel Nine-banded Armadillo Black-tailed Jackrabbit Cottontail Gray Fox Raccoon Bobcat White-tail Deer Striped Skunk Opossum MAMMAL SPECIES SEEN: 12 INSECTS & ARACHNIDS Various skipper butterflies Queen Giant Swallowtail Various sulphur and other non-skipper butterflies Various moths, including Black Witch Moth Ants, bees, wasps and other social insects Various dragonflies and damselflies Various beetles Various spiders Various flies, grasshoppers, true bugs, walkingsticks and mantids Scorpion Red Velvet Mite INSECT & ARACHNID SPECIES SEEN: uncounted REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS Red-eared Slider Texas Tortoise Texas Toad Rio Grande Leopard Frog Mediterranean Gecko Unidentified whiptail lizards Texas Spiny Lizard Western Diamondback Rattlesnake Checkered Garter Snake Bull Snake Gulf Coast Ribbon Snake Great Plains Rat Snake Indigo Snake REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS SEEN: 13 VIEW GALLERY CURRENT EXHIBIT