[texbirds] Bastrop, Caldwell, and a tiny bit of Fayette Co.

From: Brush Freeman <brushfreeman@xxxxxxxxx>
To: "texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <Texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 7 Sep 2014 11:32:35 -0500
.....
  Got up around 4AM to the sound of wonderful rain and thunder...My first
measurable for many weeks totaling .46"  A female Great Horned Owl was
calling.  Had some tea and left the house around 5:20
   Got to Rosanky and it was still dark so wanted to kill time until it was
light enough so I could find birds so stopped at the store on 304 that
looked to be open but was not.  Here I made my most spectacular find of the
morning...Not a bird and may be off topic but I don't care...Its my note.
As I walked to the door I saw an immaculate female Luna Moth on the outside
wall...It absolutely blew me away.  It was then I discovered I had left my
Iphone that on the charger back home...I was very near to driving the 20
odd miles back home for it or a camera.  It has been years since I have
seen a live one in the county and was both surprised to find one in Sept.
and in an area that is predominately Post Oak, Blackjack and Mesquite.  If
you don't know what a Luna Moth is, I feel for you....For this area I could
not been happier even if I had seen a Jabiru. Then I realized that the
security cameras were probably watching this nerdy guy picking insects off
the wall so I left there pretty pronto...

  I continued to drive into Caldwell Co. as far as Delhi Lk. which had
nothing unusual at dawn and from there roamed east on some back roads thru
Jeddo, Cistern etc. I visited numerous small lakes and ponds. Zero Wood
Storks, Spoonbills or Tri-colored...I guess they are retreating back to the
coast....Only wader of interest was a Reddish Egret, not even a Little Blue
and only about 12 Beef Bitterns......But just after dawn I saw 8-9 Green
Herons heading south.

 The night's rains may have put down many passerines though I did not do
much woodland birding.  Still there were skidloads of Baltimore Orioles
along the route and I estimate what I saw to be about 75-80 of them mostly
flying across the backroads.

  At the Anchor Ranch Rd loop on the north end where it comes into 95,
barely inside Fayette Co. there were 3 Least Grebes...There may have been
more but vegetation blocked my view of much of this lake from the road.
This lake is where the late Ed Kutac and another, put me on my lifer Purple
Gallinule decades ago.  There were also about 40 Blue-winged teal there as
well as two Belted Kingfishers..

  Nothing else really of note, a big flock of maybe 40 Dickcissels, 5
Indigo Buntings on a fence line and coming home a kettle of about 35
Broad-wingeds with 3 Miss. Kites on 969.

  Thought about hitting Shipp Lk. near Smithville but figured it had to be
bone dry again with no reports from there.  Maybe I should have checked
anyway.
*******************************************************
***************
Brush Freeman
503-551-5150 Cell
120 N. Red Bud Trail. Elgin, Tx. 78621
http://texasnaturenotes.blogspot.com/
Finca Alacranes., Utley,Texas


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[texbirds] Bastrop, Caldwell, and a tiny bit of Fayette Co.

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