Birding Clay County

Lark sparrow courtesy of US National Park Service
via Wikimedia Commons

The North Texas Bird and Wildlife Club held a field trip to one of its member's property on Saturday, April 4. Seven members took advantage of the opportunity to walk through Jenny Bechtold's property in Clay County. Although we didn't have an abundance of birds, it was a pleasant morning, and we did see some good birds. I completely forgot to take a picture while there, but I imagine readers of this blog will be OK with bird pictures instead.

We had an excellent look at a beautiful lark sparrow, as shown in the photo to the left. In addition to the lark sparrow, we had eastern meadowlark, house sparrow, northern bobwhite, double crested cormorant, eastern phoebe, white-winged dove, grasshopper sparrow, Lincoln's sparrow, European starling, turkey vulture, song sparrow, brown-headed cowbird, great-tailed grackle, red-winged blackbird, cardinal, American crow, northern mockingbird, loggerhead and shrike. We heard more than one grasshopper sparrow, but as usual they stayed in the grass, so we didn't get a look at any. For those interested, I am including a photo of the grasshopper sparrow in hand. You don't often see these little guys, except when singing from a low shrub or tall grass, but their call is distinctive. We also sighted a coyote running across a neighboring field.

Grasshopper sparrow, photo courtesy of Pookie Fugglestein
via Wikimedia Commons

Jenny was disappointed by the lack of eastern bluebirds, which are common on her property. She advised me to take a different route back to HWY 287 upon departure. I did see an eastern bluebird as well as several mourning doves, a red-tailed hawk and junco on my way out, so it was a worthwhile detour.

Many thanks to Jenny and her husband for hosting us for this field trip and plying us with doughnuts, kolaches, juice and coffee. We had a great time.

Good birding!