[texbirds] NW Austin (Williamson Co.) birds 1/26 and 1/27 Black-bellied Whistling-ducks, Hooded Merganser, Grashopper and Le Conte's Sparrows
- From: Rich Kostecke <rkost73@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: Texbirds <texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2013 20:22:14 -0800 (PST)
I spent this past weekend continuing to explore my NW Austin (Williamson) patch
as part of the Texas Local Patch Challenge. I am only reporting highlights
here, but full lists have been submitted to eBird. My first stop on 1/26 was
Champion Park, which is part of the Brushy Creek Trail in Cedar Park. Despite
a damp, drizzly morning, there was still a lot of human activity along the
trail, but I did manage to kick out 6 Wood Duck and 1 Swamp Sparrow (on the
creek between Champion and Olsen Meadows parks), 1 Golden-crowned Kinglet
(trail between Champion and Brushy Creek Lake parks), 1 Grasshopper Sparrow (in
the grassy field south of the restroom), and 24 Pine Siskins (some along the
creek, but many in the pecans around the restroom). My next stop was Silverado
Springs Park, which I have blown by without investigating several times in the
recent past. Luckily I stopped to check it out this time. It is a little gem
of a park that offers up some
nice marshy grassland habitat. It was crawling with sparrows, the highlight
being 3+ Le Conte's. I also had a Marsh Wren and a male Common Yellowthroat.
While I was there, 8 Black-bellied Whistling-ducks circled over several times
but ended up flying off to the east. The most interesting bird I had during my
brief stop at Brushy Creek Lake Park was a single Bufflehead.
On 1/27, I checked out several ponds with the most productive one being a pond
along the 620 (north of Hwy 183) frontage road (Williamson Co.). It was
difficult to find a pull-off, but I managed and was rewarded with 7 Northern
Pintail, 7 Green-winged Teal, 1 drake Hooded Merganser, and 1 Snowy Egret as
highlights. "Lake Fail", the retention pond along MoPac (Travis Co.) accessed
through the Arbor Walk shopping center continues to hold good diversity and
numbers of ducks and other waterfowl.
This is a belated report, but for those of you still interested in chasing the
Common Loons at Bob Wentz/Windy Point Park on Lake Travis (Travis Co.), they
were still present as of 1/19. With some patience, Veena Mohan and I were able
to observe one (looking to the northwest), but we ran into Ed Fair who had been
observing 2-3 of them. Apparently, they move around quite a bit and can
disappear for extended periods of time.
Rich
Richard Kostecke, Ph.D.
The Nature Conservancy
318 Congress Ave., Austin, Texas 78701
Email: rkost73@xxxxxxxxx or rkostecke@xxxxxxx
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- » [texbirds] NW Austin (Williamson Co.) birds 1/26 and 1/27 Black-bellied Whistling-ducks, Hooded Merganser, Grashopper and Le Conte's Sparrows - Rich Kostecke
