[texbirds] Bar-headed Goose and other exotics in my Houston patch

From: John O'Brien <j26.obrien@xxxxxxxxx>
To: Texbirds <texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2013 21:40:51 -0600
I had planned to post an update of how the local patch challenge was going at 
the end of the first month, but the headliner will change a little the way this 
comes out.  I've explored quite a few spots this month that I don't normally 
visit or have never visited and this has turned up some interesting birds.  
Here's a run down of some of the more interesting things.  I'll start with the 
exotics.  I've run into more escaped exotics than I am accustomed to, but 
perhaps this is due to spending a bit more time birding in a major metropolitan 
area.  I have not added these to my eBird lists, as eBird adds all of these 
exotics to your list totals.  However, they are all present in comments.

Bar-headed Goose:  A free-flying and quite vocal individual was at Willow 
Waterhole Park this morning in the northeast most pond.  He was standing or 
sitting in the water most of the time that I saw it so I couldn't see if it had 
any bands.  However, when someone's dog spied the juicy goose in the water and 
plunged in after him, he took off and flew to the other side of the pond, so he 
is quite capable of mobility.  If anyone wishes to argue for wild origin, feel 
free; I'm not in that camp.

Orange-cheeked Waxbill:  A flock of at least 8 birds was in an undeveloped 
industrial park just south of my home a couple of weeks ago.  They were quite 
entertaining as they flew around making a call clearly different than anything 
from around here. 

Budgerigar:  An almost white Budgie with bluish fringes visited the seed on the 
ground in my backyard one weekend with all the House Sparrows.  My wife said 
"Oooh, can we keep it?"  Aside from my knee-jerk response "Of course we can't 
keep it," I didn't think we could ever catch it.  It came quite a few times 
that day, but never again.  We have two Cooper's Hawks in the neighborhood.

There have also been a few interesting real birds:
Bald Eagle: The pair at Hermann Park that Larry Lander told us about.
American Woodcock:  Two displaying behind the baseball fields at Memorial Park.
Broad-tailed and Calliope Hummingbirds:  At Russ Pitman Park.  I'm still 
missing some other hummers like Buff-bellied, Black-chinned, Anna's and Allen's 
that are around nearby but not in my patch.
Crested Caracara:  At Willow Waterhole.
Merlin:  One hanging around on the Rice University campus - thanks to Cin-Ty 
Lee.
Sprague's Pipit: One at Willow Waterhole in the perfect-looking field bordering 
the northeast pond.
Wilson's Warbler:  I mention this not because it is rare, but because I have 
run into maybe 10 already this month.
Eastern Towhee:  Two at the industrial park with the waxbills.

This patch is very waterbird challenged, so I think my total of 106 species as 
of today is OK.  There are still plenty of common birds that I have not 
encountered yet, and some fairly interesting spots I haven't yet had a chance 
to investigate.

John O'Brien
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[texbirds] Bar-headed Goose and other exotics in my Houston patch

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