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!

Good Birding at Lake Arrowhead Today

The second Saturday of every month is a bird walk at Lake Arrowhead State Park. On the drive out, I saw 5 red-tailed hawks and 4 kestrel, so I was hoping for a good morning. After a week of snow and bitterly cold weather, I had a hunch there wouldn't be a crowd at the park for the walk today; nevertheless, the roads were clear, so I went. And I was right. However, me, myself, and I had a good morning. It wasn't too cold (30's) and there was no wind, making for decent weather.

While I was waiting to see if anyone else was going to show, I watched a mockingbird go over my truck looking for food. I realize my little cell phone camera isn't the best, but you can see him perched on the front of my truck--looks like a hood ornament. He actually let me get pretty close. He was going over the grill and searching in the space between the windshield and the hood, probably looking for bugs. I did notice the mockingbirds were beginning to chase one another and other birds, although none are singing yet.

The lake, besides being low, has a film of ice on it, with some of the last round of snow still setting on top of it. The lake is currently sitting at around 28% capacity.

In addition to the birds, there were a number of white-tailed deer. It is amazing that you can be looking over a field and see nothing, then something startles the deer and suddenly, there are a dozen of them running across the field with their white tails flashing.



I also saw some bobcat tracks and when I was climbing the rock stairs on the trail, it was obvious a cotton tail had come that way before me--he had climbed the stairs too.

You can't really see it, but in the picture to the right there are several hundred gulls sitting on the ice. Most all of them are ring-billed gulls but there were two first winter herring gulls mixed in--they really stood out from the others, being much larger and darker. Although a large group of birds, this was just what was left after well over 1000 took off just a little earlier.

In a little over an hour inside the park, I saw the following birds: Canada goose, cackling goose, white pelican, mallard, double-crested cormorant, killdeer, great blue heron, spotted sandpiper, ring-billed gull, herring gull, red-tailed hawk, red-bellied woodpecker, downy woodpecker, golden-fronted woodpecker, northern mockingbird, northern cardinal, eastern bluebird, red-winged blackbird, meadowlark sp., dark-eyed junco, white-crowned sparrow, Harris' sparrow, song sparrow, and house sparrow.

By the time I left the park, the weather was really warming up, so I decided to take West Arrowhead Road to see if I could add any birds to my list. I did add starlings (yippee), Eurasian collared dove, blue jay, American kestrel and American crow.

I then decided to head home by way of FM 9154 and FM 2650 (Sisk Rd). Most of the small tanks were frozen, but there was one tank with some ducks, so I was able to add not only some great-tailed grackles, but gadwall, ring-necked ducks and green-winged teal.

Now, aren't you sorry you stayed home? Don't forget you can participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count at Lake Arrowhead State Park next Saturday, February 15, at 9:00 AM. Why not join in?

Good birding!