Shorebird Weekend

I birded some on Saturday and on Monday at Lake Wichita. On Saturday I was conducting a Nature Trackers Mussel Watch and doing some invasives monitoring--I probably spent as much time birding as doing those projects. I started at the boat ramp off Kemp Blvd and walked down to the spillway, where there were several migrating shorebirds.

My species list for Saturday morning at Lake Wichita: Canada goose, American coot, mallard, great egret, cattle egret, Forster's tern, spotted sandpiper, white-rumped sandpiper, Baird's sandpiper, killdeer, Wilson's phalarope, black-necked stilt, double-crested cormorant, turkey vulture, rock pigeon, mourning dove, northern mockingbird, cardinal, yellow warbler, barn swallow, cliff swallow, red-winged blackbird, great-tailed grackle, common grackle, European starling, and house sparrow.

I then drove over to Crestview Cemetery, which has two small ponds. There I added lark sparrow, bobwhite, upland sandpiper, and scissor-tailed flycatcher.

On Monday I birded for about an hour, starting behind Wild Bird Rescue and then walking down the chat trail to the barrow pit. Behind Wild Bird Rescue I saw my first orchard oriole of the year, scissor-tailed flycatcher, white-rumped sandpiper, great-tailed grackle, white-winged dove, purple martin, great blue heron, red-winged blackbird and European starling. In Lake Wichita Park along the chat trail and barrow pit, I added mallard, canvasback, American coot, ruddy duck, black-necked stilt, great egret, Mississippi kite, Eurasian collared dove, American robin, northern mockingbird, yellow warbler, eastern phoebe, Carolina chickadee, northern cardinal, barn swallow, my first of season yellow-billed cuckoo, and chipping sparrow.

I was also lucky on the chat trail seeing a large red-eared slider and a rough green snake.

This morning while visiting the bank, I saw a green heron behind American National Bank on Midwestern/Maplewood.

Overall, a very good weekend. The only thing that could have made it even better would have been a lifer.

I got some email that there has been a brown pelican over between Seymour and Munday and a curve-billed thrasher on the north side of Lake Arrowhead State Park. It is a little far to drive for the brown pelican, unless I make a birding day of it. Haven't had any luck with the curve-billed thrasher.

Good birding!

Good Birds for Mother's Day

Treated myself to birding at Lake Wichita for Mother's Day and had a very nice bunch of birds. I went down the chat trail to the barrow pit and then stopped for a short time by the playground and main pavilion at the south end of the park.

It's getting to the time of year when you have to start early in order not to melt into a puddle after an hour or two. We're not quite there, but it was close to 80 degrees when I got up at 6 AM. But it isn't yet miserable weather in the morning. But with predictions of temps returning to the 100 degree mark in the afternoons, it won't be long.

So far this spring there haven't been many mosquitoes, but with the recent rains, they are back. Not horrible, but you can definitely tell they're around.

Left: yellow warbler photo by Dori, Wikimedia Commons.

It's warbler migration season and I am sure I missed several with the heavy foliage along the chat trail, but I did see and hear a number of yellow warblers. I also saw a common yellowthroat along the drainage ditch along the chat trail. I know I saw a vireo I couldn't quite identify. I know some species it wasn't, but not certain about what species it was. The story of my birding life.

One of the morning's highlights was watching a black-chinned hummingbird pluck an insect out of a spider's web. It may have caught the spider itself, but I couldn't tell for sure, but whether a spider or insect, it was a plump morsel.

When I got to the barrow pit, I was surprised at the number of water birds still present. Not a lot of them, but several types, to include: mallard, ruddy duck, blue-winged teal, cinnamon teal, gadwall, northern shoveler, redhead, American coot, and pied-billed grebe. There were also a number of Wilson's phalarope on the water. These are such a slender, elegant bird, I enjoy seeing them when they pass through on migration. I did not realize until I read the species account I linked to the name above, I didn't realize that in this species the female is the more colorful bird and the male incubates the eggs.

Photo left, eastern kingbird by Dori, Wikimedia Commons

One of my best sitings of the morning were Eastern kingbirds. I have very occasionally seen one here in the past. I saw two near the bridge from the chat trail to the dam and then another near the entrance to the chat trail on the way out.

I then decided to make a quick stop at the inlet adjacent to Wild Bird Rescue, but was thwarted by a swarm of bees. It seems there is a swarm in that area around the willows every spring.

Overall a very nice morning with some good migrants. There are still cedar waxwings in large numbers--they should be gone in the next week or two, so I am enjoying these pretty birds while I can. My birds this morning included: killdeer, Wilson's phalarope, great blue heron, green heron, Canada goose, American coot, cinnamon teal, blue-winged teal, northern shoveler, redhead, ruddy duck, gadwall, pied-billed grebe, mallard, turkey vulture, red-tailed hawk, Swainson's hawk, Mississippi kite, Eurasian collared dove, white-winged dove, mourning dove, American robin, brown thrasher,black-chinned hummingbird, northern mockingbird, blue jay, cardinal, scissor-tailed flycatcher, eastern kingbird, western kingbird, cedar waxwing, chimeny swift, barn swallow, purple martin, house wren, red-winged blackbird, common grackle, great-tailed grackle, brown-headed cowbird, yellow warbler, common yellowthroat, chipping sparrow, clay-colored sparrow, and house sparrow.

Happy Mother's Day and good birding!

Vera, TX

I had to go to Lubbock, TX for a conference. The trip down Thursday evening wasn't very eventful--the wind was horrible and I was just trying to get there. Coming home on Saturday was better. I'm not much on car birding, because you can't see much at 70+ mph (hey, it's west TX--there is NOTHING out there) and I know I missed a lot of little birds that were gone before I could get a decent look at them.

As I was leaving Lubbock Saturday afternoon, I saw some avocets in a flooded field. Along the way, I did manage to ID a few birds that are easy to identify on the fly: European starling (yippee), great-tailed grackle, American coot, Swainson's hawk, crow, rock pigeon, mourning dove, American kestrel, cattle egret, cliff swallow, eastern meadowlark (heard at roadside park), house sparrow, turkey vulture, scissor-tailed flycatcher, mockingbird, red-tailed hawk, red-winged blackbird, barn swallow, mallard, brown-headed cowbird, lark sparrow, great egret, Eurasian collared dove, and killdeer.

Fortunately for me, I had to slow down in Vera, TX. As I was coming out of town, I noticed a flooded area that had some shorebirds on it. Since I wasn't going as fast, I could see they would be interesting and stopped. Seven Wilson's phalaropes, 5 blue-winged teal and 6 long-billed dowitchers made for a great stop.

Good birding!