Listing

Field list

Bird people are notorious for their lists. Many keep all kinds of lists. The most significant list is their life list. As you might guess, a life list is a list of every bird you have seen in your lifetime, usually with the date and place you identified the bird first.

Before the advent of computers, everyone kept their life list on paper. Not ideal. I have lost my life list twice. Once you lose the documentation, you can't remember every bird you have seen, let alone when and where. Now, we have eBird, which protects your list. But I know I have seen a LOT of birds that are not on my current list, especially from the years I spent in Europe. I still have hope that I come across the list in one of the boxes in the garage that haven't been unpacked since our last move.

eBird does have a phone app. I have it on my phone, but I don't use it. It would make sense to do so, since I have to take my field notes and enter them into eBird when I get home, which means I have a lot of checklists that I haven't entered. And, as you can see in the photo, my field list is a little messy. I am working on entering some today.

If you would like to use eBird, you might consider taking the Cornell University Lab of Ornithology Bird Academy course eBird Essentials. It's free. There's a lot of things you can do with eBird besides keeping your lists.

In addition to life lists, birders keep yard lists, state lists, county lists, patch lists, etc. There is a Texas Century Club to encourage birders to find 100 birds in 100 counties in Texas (for those not familiar with Texas, we have 254 counties). There are several counties in Texas that are sparsely populated and bird records were few. The Century Club, and eBird, have greatly improved our knowledge of bird ranges. 

I can recall many years ago, when I would update a sighting in Wichita County, I would get calls from the people who try to help keep eBird accurate, questioning my entry since the bird wasn't supposed to be here or not at that time or in those numbers. Since I don't carry a camera, I don't take a lot of photos to prove I saw what I saw. Fortunately, there are a lot of people who do carry cameras and provide photographic evidence, and now there is plenty of documentation that the birds are in our area, which has made challenges rare.

I do know (a very few) birders who do not list. They feel keeping lists detracts from the experience of observing the birds. And I get that. Some people do seem to just want to tick off a bird on their list and not spend any time enjoying the bird. But I don't think that's true of most.

Truly, the best thing about lists is the memories they bring back. When I look at sightings, I can often remember the place, the people I was with, or some other fact about the day. I was on a hike in Copper Breaks State Park this weekend, and one of the people I was with stopped in the middle of a trail and said, "It was at this exact spot that I heard a canyon wren..." I often stop at places I have seen a special bird just to remember how I felt at the time.

To list or not to list...it's a question only you can answer for yourself.

Good birding!

Catching Up

Pretty mourning dove

I may not have been telling you about it, but I have been birding. Not as much as I would like, but it is July in Texas, so neither the birds not I are all that keen to spend a lot of time in the heat.

I was at 3 Rivers Ranch with some Texas Master Naturalists a couple of times in the last few weeks. The first time, we were looking for horned lizards, although nothing says you can't look for birds at the same time. I went with a group again last week. The rest of the group went out to look for more lizards and I stayed to do some much needed weeding in the pollinator garden we have there (and did see a horned lizard while doing so).

Horned lizard

Between the two trips, I saw/heard the following birds: killdeer, red-tailed hawk, mourning dove, Eurasian collared dove, ladder-backed woodpecker, golden-fronted woodpecker,  common nighthawk, bobwhite, barn swallow, dickcissel, mockingbird, eastern phoebe, painted bunting, blue grosbeak, roadrunner,  Bell's vireo, northern cardinal, yellow-billed cuckoo, scissor-tailed flycatcher, great crested flycatcher, brown-headed cowbird, lark sparrow, house sparrow.

I also visited Copper Breaks State Park. It doesn't get enough attention. It's well worth a visit. I was again there to look for horned lizards, so wasn't focused on birding, but did see a few birds. Burrowing owl, mourning dove, Eurasian collared dove, turkey vulture, bobwhite quail, roadrunner, ladder-backed woodpecker, Bewick's wren, cardinal, mockingbird, scissor-tailed flycatcher, painted bunting, lark sparrow, and brown-headed cowbird.

I also went with a group to do a quail call survey in Wilbarger County. In addition to some quail, we did see some other birds. Among them cattle egret, killdeer, mourning dove, cliff swallow, painted bunting, dickcissel, cardinal, yellow-billed cuckoo. red-winged blackbird, brown-headed cowbird, lark sparrow, eastern meadowlark, western meadowlark, and Cassin's sparrow.

Good birding!

Like to Be Outside?

 

Do you like to walk and perhaps learn about nearby places  you haven't been to? If so, the Rolling Plains Chapter Texas Master Naturalist is sponsoring monthly hikes for the public throughout their 10-county area.

So far, the chapter has sponsored hikes in Wichita, Archer, Clay, Foard, and Wilbarger counties. Next month will be Hardeman County at Copper Breaks State Park on August 2. Copper Breaks is a pretty park that tends to be overlooked because of its location near Quanah.

The hike is free, although participants will need to pay the park entrance fee (13 and up $3; children under 13, free). The hike is scheduled for 4 hours, beginning at 8 AM. Generally, the hikes aren't difficult and the pace is slow, allowing everyone the opportunity to look at and learn more about the flora and fauna seen. Several Texas Master Naturalist members will be available to answer questions about what participants see. Depending upon the temperature, it is possible participants may see some Texas horned lizards during the hike.

Since it will be the height of the summer, hats, sunscreen, bug spray, and water are highly recommended.

The town is named after Quanah Parker, the last Comanche Chief, and those interested in history will find a couple of small local museums of interest after the hike.

Sign up through Eventbrite. There is no cost, but it helps to know how many plan to attend. Here's the ticketing link.

If you are interested in the upcoming hikes, more information is on the group Facebook Page as well as on Eventbrite.

A Great Day Birding--Even if a Lifer Slipped Through My Fingers

Members of the Houston Audubon Society with me and Vernon birder, Brady Surber, at Copper Breaks State Park.

Today was the first day birding with the Houston Audubon Society. Brady Surber from Vernon took us to some of his favorite birding spots while we tried to find some of the group's target species. We found a couple of the target birds, but we also had a great day with a lot of other good birds.

We left Wichita Falls in the dark and headed out for the Vernon area in Wilbarger county. Brady took us to a location known for good sparrows and the group was happy to see Harris's sparrows, which apparently are less common near Houston than they are here. Some also got a good view of American tree sparrows, which was one of their target species. We had a pretty good day for raptors to include a ferruginous hawk and prairie falcon, two of the target birds we were looking for. We also had a nice Harlan's red tailed hawk. A local rancher allowed us to bird his land as well where we picked up some brewer's blackbirds and lark buntings (a life bird for one of the group.) He has a nice body of water where we were very happy to see a canvasback and some red head ducks.

After lunch we headed to Copper Breaks State Park. There the group was excited to see a rufous crowned sparrow. I missed a pyrrhuloxia, which would have been a life bird for me. Several other people did get to see it, however.

This isn't a total accounting of the birds we saw today, but since we're getting up to do it all again tomorrow, I'm hitting the sack. I'll get around to a weekend list in a few days.

Good birding!