Nice Morning at Lake Arrowhead State Park

I am just now getting around to writing a summary of our morning at Lake Arrowhead State Park. Saturday, April 12, was the monthly bird walk at the park. A beautiful morning, although a little cool and nippy. One of my regular walk attendees, June, came as well as Karen, one of the new class of the Rolling Plains chapter Texas Master Naturalist. Robert Mauk with Inland Fisheries stopped by for a few minutes, although he was in the park primarily to take some nature photos.

On my way to the park, I noticed my first flock cattle egret of the year in Archer county and then came across a small flock of black vultures around a carcass on FM 1954 in Clay county.  That was a good start for what turned out to be a decent birding morning. Several summer birds have arrived--both snowy and great egrets were around the lake and everyone's favorite, scissor-tailed flycatchers, were everywhere. The highlight was probably the large group (probably easily 300 birds) of white pelicans massing over the park. A front was moving into the area, so perhaps the birds were preparing to head north. No sign of any gulls, so they have apparently all left--I haven't seen any around Lake Wichita for several days now. Some winter birds are still around--most noticeably the white-crowned sparrow.

We spent two hours birding. The birds cited included: Canada goose, white pelican, double crested cormorant,  killdeer, great egret, snowy egret, mourning dove, Eurasian collared dove, turkey vulture, red-tailed hawk, sharp-shinned hawk, Carolina chickadee, northern mockingbird, northern cardinal, eastern phoebe, eastern bluebird, red-bellied woodpecker, ladder-backed woodpecker, cliff swallow, scissor-tailed flycatcher, Bewick's wren, red-winged blackbird, eastern meadowlark, brown-headed cowbird, common grackle, lark sparrow, savannah sparrow, white-crowned sparrow, and house finch.

Overall a pleasurable couple of hours.

Good birding!

Archer County This Morning

I did a short (1.75 hr) birding trip in Archer County today, trying to increase my numbers for my Texas Century Club list for that county. Don't know that I added more than one or two species, but there was rain, so no complaints. Not a lot of rain, but more than I was seeing at the house, and much needed. Altogether I saw 33 species driving the roadways, with a few short stops.

 At Lake Archer, there was a mixed flock of turkey and black vultures perching on the dock and a nearby tree I was able to get fairly close to. Once again, I left  my little camera at home and had to use my cell phone camera, so the pictures are not the best.

I also saw a small flock (11) of ruddy ducks on the lake.

I mostly saw the usual birds, but some special ones (in my book) were a golden-fronted woodpecker that flew across the road in front of my car on Hwy 25, a Bullock's oriole in the Hollliday cemetery and a yellow-headed blackbird on Hwy 277, just before the county line into Wichita.

My list: killdeer, rock pigeon, Eurasian collared dove, white-winged dove, mourning dove, cattle egret, great egret, great blue heron, snowy egret, Canada goose, ruddy duck, gadwall, turkey vulture, black vulture, golden-fronted woodpecker, northern cardinal, blue jay, American robin, scissor-tailed flycatcher, Western kingbird, Bullock's oriole, northern mockingbird, purple martin, cliff swallow, chimney swift, eastern meadowlark, common grackle, great-tailed grackle, yellow-headed blackbird, red-winged blackbird, brown-headed cowbird, European starling, house sparrow.

Altogether, a nice start to the day.

Good birding!

Palo Pinto County Birding

Left, Lake Tucker near Strawn, TX.

Saturday I went birding with fellow birder Brady Surber from Vernon. Brady is active in the Texas Ornithological Society (TOS) Texas Century Club. This is a project to encourage birders to visit and record their observations in more Texas areas. There are many hot spots in Texas that are visited regularly, so we have a good understanding of the birds that inhabit those areas. However, there are many counties in Texas for which records are sparse. Hence, the Century Club, which is a challenge for birders to find at least 100 birds species in at least 100 counties. Brady has completed 40-some counties, and Saturday he wanted to work on Pal Pinto county. He already had 66 species.

Saturday was not the best day to bird in our region of Texas. The misty rain wasn't an issue, but the high winds were. Birds don't really like to expose themselves to a lot of wind any more than we do. We thought our best bet would be ducks, but we had only minimal luck with those, although we did add a few waterfowl to Brady's county list. As you can see in the photo of Lake Tucker above, the birds were not sitting on any open water. We found some ducks on small, sheltered tanks along the roadsides, but that was it.

One phenomenal sight was a kettle of hundreds of migrating turkey vultures passing over Strawn, TX. There were a few black vultures mixed in, but the turkey vultures stretched for miles. It was an impressive sight.

My own favorite bird of the day was the hooded merganser (see photo left, from Malcolm on Wikimedia Commons.) These are just beautiful, elegant birds. We came across a small tank and counted 10 birds in the small flock.

Although it wasn't a great birding day, I had a great time. Even a poor day birding is better than a good day doing anything else. We drove about 320 miles on this trip.

My list for the day included: mallard, gadwall, green-winged teal, ring-necked duck, hooded merganser, western grebe (I didn't get the greatest look at this one, but Brady was able to identify it,) pied-billed grebe, turkey vulture, black vulture, red-tailed hawk, sharp-shinned hawk, American kestrel, northern harrier, mourning dove, rock pigeon, northern cardinal, Carolina chickadee, Bewick's wren, yellow-rumped warbler, American crow, eastern bluebird, northern cardinal, ruby-crowned kinglet, field sparrow, white-crowned sparrow, Harris' sparrow, white-throated sparrow, European starling, and American goldfinch.

Good birding!

San Marcos

I'm in San Marcos for the weekend. I drove down Hwy 281 again and the wildflowers were gorgeous. I got even more pictures and will post another one in a day or two.

Just around sun up on Friday in Archer County I saw a flock of about 10 - 12 black vultures feeding on a deer carcass in the field adjacent to the highway. I did stop and try to get a photo, but between the dark and the distance, I did not get a good picture, but I enjoyed the opportunity to watch them for a few minutes anyway. The "windows" at the wingtips were very obvious when the birds flew away.

Other than that, I haven't had a chance to bird at all....bummer.

Good birding!

On the Road Again

Yesterday, I went to Stephenville to make a presentation. I went HWY 281 to enjoy the wildflowers, which I did (see photo for an example).

I didn't get much of a birding opportunity at 70 mph, but I did see some black vultures in Jack and Palo Pinto counties and some wild turkeys in Jack County. I also saw my first great egret of the year in Archer County.

I stopped by Wild Bird Rescue and saw my first black-chinned hummingbird (a female) of the spring.

Tomorrow I am heading out to San Marcos for the weekend (no, not a birding trip.) I hope to see a few birds while tooling down the highway.

Good birding!

It's Not Always the Birds

There wasn't much in the way of birds to see on my trip to San Antonio. It wasn't intended as a birding trip, but one likes to think we'd still see some good birds on the way, especially as I didn't have to drive.

The trip down was done in the heat of the day, which makes birds less likely to be out and about. However, I did see one black vulture around Mineral Wells and a Swainson's hawk in Jack County.

We went out to eat in Lytle, TX (outside San Antonio). I saw a black-bellied whistling duck jump up into a tree and then, better, started seeing bats pouring out from behind a sign on the front of a small store across the street. There were easily a couple of hundred bats. That was exciting.

We left San Antonio before light on Thursday, July 16 to head back to Wichita Falls. Going through the hill country was beautiful, and I have not seen more deer in my life. They were in every field and often yards. It was a bit harrowing driving the narrow roads with so many deer on either side of the road. But my best siting was at 7:24 AM. A cougar was in the field just off HWY 16, just north of Kerrville. This was the first cougar I have ever seen in the wild, and was I excited (still am for that matter.) I was fortunate to have a siting as clear as day.

The rest of the trip was uneventful, with few birds other than turkey vultures, which were abundant. But with bats and a cougar, I am not complaining!

Good birding!

It Just Takes One Thing

I have been birding for many years, and am still learning. Thankfully, there will never come a day when I know everything there is to know about birds. What fun would there be in that?

I find that you can struggle with identifying a bird for years and then one thing will strike me and afterwards I'll be able to identify the bird on sight. Sometimes, these identification hints come from another birder, a magazine article, a blog post, or a field guide (that's why most birders have multiple field guides--the identification information varies).

I used to struggle with the black vulture on the wing. I don't know why as their shape is quite different from the turkey vulture, but there you have it. But then somewhere I read about a triangular "window" at the wing tips, and I haven't had a problem since. And with that key ID information, I have been able to spend more time looking at the bird, just to watch. Even more differences then become apparent when you're not so focused on trying to compare ID points.

This "window" is very helpful when driving. Friday, I was driving down the highway at 70 mph and caught sight of a flock of black birds over a field. It's not a good idea to spend a long time scoping out the birds at that speed, but in this case, a fraction of a second was all that was required--the field mark was obvious. There are no turkey vultures in this area in the winter, but when I initially caught sight of the flock, I thought "crow." Size-wise that doesn't make much sense, but at a distance and at speed (and supposedly focused on traffic), it's easy to jump to the wrong conclusion.

To a birder experience with the black vulture, it might seem this was an easy ID, and it was. But I am often asked by new birders how I can ID birds so quickly. All I can tell them is practice, practice, practice. Every year another bird goes from my frustrating list to my familiar list. I'm not likely to live long enough to move all of the birds from one list to another, but I look forward to the process.

Good birding!