Drought and Unusual Birds

Barrow Pit at Lake Wichita Park, showing how far the water has receded.

This morning I went down the chat trail to the barrow pit at Lake Wichita Park. I didn't see or hear much on the trail--not unusual at this time of the year. The barrow pit has evaporated to mostly a mud flat with some shallow pools. Ducks can wade in most of the water--there are just a few deeper pools in which they can swim.

Black-necked stilts at the barrow pit.
I was surprised by some of the water birds I found. First there were about 2 dozen black-necked stilts. Although they are not unknown at this time of year, they are not common.

What was more unusual to me were the redhead ducks and canvasbacks. These are definitely winter ducks and although there are records here in late May/early June, this is definitely late for them.

Redhead ducks

Little blue heron

Other birds seen this morning included: blue jay, white-winged dove, rock pigeon, mockingbird, cardinal, brown-headed cowbird, robin, Carolina wren, snowy egret, great blue heron, Mississippi kite, American coot, chimney swift, barn swallow, purple martin, mallard, scissor-tailed flycatcher, and western kingbird.

Good birding!

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!