On the (Chat) Trail After a Chat!

Yellow-breasted chat. Photo courtesy of Jim Conrad, Wikimedia
Commons.

This afternoon I was heading back to the house with the very serious intention of shoveling some work off my desk so I can leave for the Rockport Hummingbird Festival tomorrow morning with a clear conscience. I was just a few blocks from my house and sitting at the red light on the corner of Fairway Blvd and Southwest Parkway when I get a text from fellow birder, Rick Folkening. He said he had stopped at the Chat Trail in Lake Wichita Park that morning and had seen some good birds, to include a yellow-breasted chat. What to do?

One could argue that I should have been responsible and headed home, but that's not what happened. I convinced myself that a short detour wouldn't be a horrible thing. After all, Lake Wichita Park is just off Fairway Blvd, right?

Yes, I know the Chat Trail is "closed" due to the temporary water reuse project, but there is no better place to bird in Wichita Falls during migration season. It was hot and humid and not the best time of day for birding (11:45 AM), but I decided to go for it. I spent about 45 minutes walking down to the bridge and back on the trail and did indeed pick up some good birds to include the yellow-breasted chat, which was cooperative enough to sit right out in the open for a couple of minutes to give me a very good view.

I didn't see all of the birds Rick saw, but I did see three 1st winter blue grosbeaks, which were a complete surprise. As noted in another blog post, I saw two blue grosbeaks at Lake Arrowhead last month and was very excited. I definitely did not expect to see any on the chat trail, although it is great habitat for them. I tried to turn them into house finches, which I frequently see along this trail, but it didn't work.

Other birds seen in this short stop: red-tailed hawk, mourning dove, downy woodpecker, chimney swift, barn swallow, northern cardinal, northern mockingbird, blue jay, yellow warbler, Baltimore oriole, Carolina wren, robin, eastern kingbird and eastern phoebe. Well worth the stop.

So yes, tonight I am stressing about what I didn't get done today, but I did see some extremely good birds, so I'll get over it. After all, it was "only" 45 minutes.

Thanks, Rick! Appreciate the text.

Good birding!

Super Morning at Lucy Park

A little downy woodpecker that perched just above my head at Lucy Park (lower center of photo.)

This morning I headed out to Lucy Park for the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) and spent two very enjoyable hours walking the trails and watching birds.

I took the circle trail and then cut back into the less visited areas of the park at the pagoda and followed the outside dirt trail around until it came out of the woods again on the circle trail near the canoe launch area. When I got back to where I started, I took the short trail to the Falls and back. So a total of about 3 miles.

Lucy Park is one of those places that tends toward one extreme or the other. You either have a great birding morning or it's a bust. I know several birders who tell me they seldom bird Lucy any more because they haven't gotten the birds they used to get. Well, it's mornings like today that keep Lucy Park high on my birding list.

There are always a lot of homeless people in the park, and I have never had a problem, but I am also careful, since I usually bird alone. I was coming up from the back side of the park when I heard a lot of noise off to the side in a large clump of giant reed. A homeless man came out of what appeared to be a good size camp in the middle of the reeds. There is no way to be quiet in dried reeds. Anyway, he didn's see me so I waited for him to head off before I set out again. However, when I got to the open field which is normally great for sparrows, there he was. He was carrying a makeshift bow. Normally, when one of the homeless see me, they immediately turn in the opposite direction and quickly head off. This one didn't, which was a little disconcerting. However, he did place his bow on the ground, stayed in the open and didn't move, so I could skirt the outside of the field to pass him at a good distance. I was disappointed that I wasn't able to spend time in the meadow as there was a lot of bird activity, but safety first. Like I said, I have never had any problems, but there is no sense in pushing my luck.

Although I was disappointed about the sparrows, this turned out to be a good thing because it led to one of my best sightings of the morning. Since I wasn't able to spend the time on meadow, I went down a brushy area I don't normally bird in the main area of the park to try to pick up those sparrows I missed. I didn't get the sparrows, but I did come across two golden-crowned kinglets--a good spot. While I was watching the golden-crowned kinglets, a ruby-crowned kinglet came down within arm's reach of me to check me out--pretty much eye-to-eye. I got a very good look sans binoculars at the curious little guy.

Shortly after this spot, I had the downy woodpecker perch just over my head and then a brown creeper at eye level in a tree not 6 feet in front of my face. Of course, by the time I got my little camera out, he was well out of range of a reasonable photo.

Here's my GBBC list for Lucy Park this morning. Remember the count is the highest number of a species seen at one time, not a cumulative count. For example, I saw 3 red-breasted nuthatches this AM, but I saw them one at a time, so the count was 1. The large robin flocks of a few weeks ago have broken up for nesting, so there were only one or two birds at a time counted, even though dozens were in the park.

Turkey vulture (the first in a while) 1

Red-tailed hawk 1

Cardinal 1

Blue jay 3

Carolina chickadee 4

Mallard 6 (I did not count the ducks or the geese at the duck pond as I consider them domestics, but did count ones seen on the river.)

Robin 3

Red-breasted nuthatch 1

Brown creeper 1

Red-shafter flicker 2

Red-bellied woodpecker 1

Downy woodpecker 1

Yellow-rumped warbler 7

Ruby-crowned kinglet 1

Golden-crowned kinglet 2

Carolina wren 1

Tufted titmouse 1

Black-crested titmouse 1

Eastern phoebe

Northern mockingbird 2

Rock pigeon 6

Mourning dove 1

Eurasian collared dove 2

White-winged dove 3

American goldfinch 17

Cedar waxwing 27

Brown-headed cowbird 2

Great-tailed grackle 2

Common grackle 300+

Dark-eyed junco 5

Fox sparrow 1

Brown thrasher

So a great morning.

Good birding!

Good Morning for Woodpeckers at Lucy Park

Photo of rehabbing downy woodpecker courtesy of Wild Bird Rescue.


Sunday morning I decided to go to Lucy Park for my bird walk in hopes of seeing some spring migrants. That didn't pan out, but it was a good morning nonetheless, primarily because of the woodpeckers.

Lucy Park is a good place to see woodpeckers because of the large number of snags in the woodland. On Sunday, the birds were drumming and calling to establish territories, which made it easier to find them. I saw/heard several red-bellied woodpeckers and the downy woodpeckers seemed to be everywhere. A special treat were the yellow-shafted flickers. According to the North Texas Bird and Wildlife Club checklist, The Birds of North Central Texas, flickers don't breed here, but they must do some pairing before heading north, because a couple were drumming and calling like mad.

I was watching a yellow-shafted flicker drumming and calling from a bare snag when a downy landed immediately below him. It must be a snag that has good noise-producing qualities. The downy was not able to convince the much larger flicker to leave, so he hopped over to an adjacent branch to start his own drumming.

I almost always see (or at least hear) the red-bellied woodpeckers in Lucy Park. I often see one or two downys. However, on Sunday I saw and heard numerous downys (at least 6) and as many or more red-bellied woodpeckers. I saw 3 flickers. I thought I saw a hairy woodpecker, but the distance was too far and the glimpse too brief to be absolutely certain.

Since I was having such a great woodpecker morning, I walked over to the duck pond where I have seen red-headed woodpeckers a few times in the last several months, but no luck this time. It would have been exciting to have seen them too, but I suppose I shouldn't be greedy and should be content to see them on another day.

Good birding!