[texbirds] Final Travis Audubon Sparrow Class field trip today to Commons Ford Park - 12 sparrow species
- From: "" <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> (Redacted sender "drbirdie@xxxxxxx" for DMARC)
- To: texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 13 Dec 2014 22:59:53 -0500
Hi Texbirders,
I led nine eager Sparrowhawks today on the fourth and final field trip for the
2014 Travis Audubon Sparrow Identification Class.
Today's destination was the meadow at Commons Ford Park where the native
prairie has been magnificently restored by Ed Fair's Commons Ford Prairie
Restoration Organization. Timely rains have resulted in chest-high Little
Bluestem in many parts of the meadow, and a lush growth of several dozen other
native grasses and forbs. The birds are there, too. Highlights of our day
included a small flock of LeConte's Sparrows foraging together, accompanied by
at least 3 Grasshopper Sparrows, several Meadowlarks, and a couple of Sedge
Wrens which were viewed by all in the group.
The Grasshopper Sparrows were the 18th native sparrow species encountered by
participants cumulatively on our four trips.
The only two regularly-occurring Austin-area winter sparrows that we missed
were Black-throated Sparrow and Eastern Towhee.
Sparrowman was pleased, but he's hoping for a 20-sparrow day at SparrowFest in
early February.
It was a good day to be a Sparrowhawk.
A copy of my eBird checklist for the morning follows:
Commons Ford Pk, Travis, US-TX
Dec 13, 2014 7:15 AM - 11:00 AM
Protocol: Traveling
2.0 mile(s)
Comments: Final Travis Audubon Sparrow Class Field Trip. Overcast until
late
morning, no wind, temperature very mild, high 50's to start.
41 species (+1 other taxa)
Double-crested Cormorant 1
Great Blue Heron 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk 1
Red-tailed Hawk 1
White-winged Dove 60
Eastern Screech-Owl 1 Heard-only, near house.
Belted Kingfisher 1 Heard-only.
Ladder-backed Woodpecker 2
Eastern Phoebe 9
American Crow 3
Carolina Chickadee 3
Black-crested Titmouse 7
Canyon Wren 1 At the barn.
House Wren 1 Near the river.
Sedge Wren 2 Small, short-billed wren in dense native bunch-grasses on
restored prairie meadow. Pale brown overall, with pale supercilium and pale
brown crown with fine white streaks. Giving distinctive dry chid-dit calls.
Seen
well by entire group.
Carolina Wren 4
Bewick's Wren 2
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 6
Eastern Bluebird 7
Northern Mockingbird 6
European Starling 35
American Pipit 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) 15
Spotted Towhee 4
Rufous-crowned Sparrow 1 Heard-only.
Chipping Sparrow 12
Field Sparrow 20
Vesper Sparrow 8
Savannah Sparrow 10
Grasshopper Sparrow 3
Le Conte's Sparrow 5
Fox Sparrow 1
Song Sparrow 12
Lincoln's Sparrow 3
White-throated Sparrow 2
Northern Cardinal 15
Red-winged Blackbird 20
Western/Eastern Meadowlark 4
Great-tailed Grackle 35
Pine Siskin 1
Lesser Goldfinch 7
American Goldfinch 8
Good birding ya'll,
Byron Stone, Austin
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