Good Saturday Morning Birding

Black and white warbler. Photo by William H. Majoros, Wikimedia Commons.

Well, Saturday was a busy day. I decided to do a quick stop at Lake Wichita Park to check the chat trail and the barrow pit. Thirty minutes, tops. The birding was very good, so I ended up staying a little over an hour and made an extra stop at the mudflats over by Murphy's Mound.

My surprise bird was a black and white warbler. Not generally here in the summer, but if I remember correctly, I had one or two sightings last summer as well. I also saw a brown thrasher. Although known to be in this area year around, I usually only see them in the winter. This one was looking a little rough with molt well underway.

As mentioned in the previous post, I also tried out my newly acquired shorebird identification knowledge on some long-billed dowitchers and a snowy plover. It's hard to believe fall migration is starting, but it is. Seems like we just finished spring migration.

Overall, a good hour with the following birds seen:

Green heron, black-necked stilt, great egret, killdeer, snowy plover, long-billed dowitcher, Mississippi kite, turkey vulture, white-winged dove, mourning dove, Eurasian collared dove, red-bellied woodpecker, downy woodpecker, chimney swift, barn swallow, purple martin, black and white warbler, orchard oriole, robin, cardinal, blue jay, black-crested titmouse, Carolina chickadee, western kingbird, scissor-tailed flycatcher, mockingbird, brown thrasher, great-tailed grackle, brown-headed cowbird, red-winged blackbird, house finch, house sparrow.

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!