[texbirds] Belated SparrowFest Report (8th annual) from Saturday February 2, 2013
- From: drbirdie@xxxxxxx
- To: texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 22 Feb 2013 17:27:21 -0500 (EST)
Hi Texbirders,
I apologize for such a tardy report, but it has taken awhile not only to
recover from such a fun-filled day of birding, but also to collate and
corroborate data and narratives from multiple leaders and trips to far-flung
portions of the refuge, so here is the semi-official 2013 SparrowFest report.
We conducted our 8th annual SparrowFest on Saturday February 2 on various
portions of the Balcones Canyonlands NWR and nearby environs.
The weather was unseasonably warm, with afternoon highs in the mid-70's, but we
were able to find some good birds.
We found 17 species of native sparrows (18 if you count the single Harris's
Sparrow reported by a single participant on the morning trip to the Eckhardt
tract). This is slightly below average in terms of the number of sparrow
species we typically encounter. Our best years have produced 20 sparrow species
for the day; our worst, I believe, was 16 sparrow species for the day. We
usually find 18 or 19 for the day.
It is not unusual for some participants and leaders to see 17 or 18 sparrow
species for the day (this does not include House Sparrows or longspurs, neither
of which are typically encountered on SparrowFest). My personal best day was 19
sparrow species. I had 16 on the day of the festival this year. I tell sparrow
class participants that on any given day in "sparrow season" in the Austin
checklist area we have 20 native sparrow species in the area. Some years we get
"bonus birds," including Lark Bunting and Green-tailed Towhee, both of which we
had on Saturday the 2nd.
Since we had 2 bonus birds, but only had 18 sparrow species for the day, we
must have missed some of the "regulars."
One of our misses this year was White-throated Sparrow, which is never numerous
or widespread in the locales we visit for SparrowFest.
I am sometimes able to find a few of these along Cow Creek Road, but not this
year.
Another of our misses was Swamp Sparrow, which is one of the hardest
regularly-occurring native sparrows to find on the refuge.
We sometimes get Swampies along the creek on the Eckhardt tract, but we missed
it there and elsewhere this year.
Another miss was Canyon Towhee. There once was a resident pair at the Flying X
Ranch, but they have been gone for about 5 years.
Peaceful Springs, a private property near the Flying X, has a couple of pairs
of Canyon Towhees, but we are no longer able to visit this property for the
festival. There are one or two other refuge tracts that have resident Canyon
Towhees, but they weren't part of the itinerary this year, and visiting those
locations might have meant missing out on something else.
Our most flagrant miss this year was Dark-eyed Junco. We often have pretty good
numbers of this bird on several different refuge tracts, but they can be
spotty, and I don't think this is the first year we have missed it. It seems to
me that DEJU numbers are down area-wide this year, perhaps because of the mild
winter and relative absence of snow cover in areas to our north.
Some of the good news is that Lincoln's Sparrows were back this winter in
fairly good numbers, though still slightly below average in my estimation.
We completely missed LISP last year, which was an absolute shocker to me. I
think that most trips this year had good looks at Lincoln's Sparrows and
opportunities to compare with its Melospiza congener, Song Sparrow. We had a
very good batch of Song Sparrows this year, with lots of opportunities to study
them on every trip I think.
Another bit of good news is that one of the real stars of the sparrow world,
LeConte's Sparrow, was back in pretty good numbers after being very scarce last
year. It appears that all SparrowFest participants had good looks at LeConte's
Sparrows, which is one of the things we pride ourselves on.
Interestingly, Zonotrichia numbers appear down area-wide. It's not too
surprising that we missed White-throated Sparrow and almost completely missed
Harris's Sparrow (which is present in small numbers most years). But the
paucity of sightings of White-crowned Sparrows was surprising. I think we had
one or more trips that completely missed WCSP, which is very unusual. I believe
the mild winter may have something to do with this, too, but I can't prove it.
One other interesting phenomenon this year was the low number of Savannah
Sparrows in most areas visited. Vesper Sparrows far outnumbered Savannahs this
year, and it is usually the other way around. I don't think this phenomenon is
true area-wide, as it seems to me that Savannah Sparrow numbers east of the
Edwards Plateau are about normal this year.
The refuge and other nearby areas are still suffering from the multi-year
drought, but not as bad as last year.
We do still need rain, so keep that in your prayers.
As usual, I led two of the walks this year, to the prairie restoration area on
the Eckhardt Tract in the morning, and to Cow Creek in the afternoon. Some of
the highlights for me were great close-up looks for all of LeConte's Sparrows
on the morning trip, and singing Lark Sparrows and a close-up vocalizing
Rufous-crowned Sparrow in the afternoon. One of the last field trip highlights
for me was a female Eastern Towhee, which Jeff and I first found while scouting
the day before, giving all of my afternoon trip participants a good view at our
last stop along Cow Creek Road.
Eastern Towhee is the hardest-to-find of the 20 species of native sparrow that
occur regularly between November and March in the Austin checklist area.
I did a slide presentation on towhee identification after lunch, so it was nice
to have this cooperative female Eastern Towhee giving us a good look to compare
with the several Spotted Towhees we had seen earlier in the day.
It takes a village, though, to do SparrowFest.
I will append a species list for the day at the end of the note, but I first
want to thank some of the many people who help make SparrowFest possible.
First, I want to thank my co-leaders, beginning with Bill "Mr. Spizella"
Reiner, who has been with me for all 8 SparrowFests.
Bill always finds some great birds, and this year was no different. He found a
couple of Lark Buntings on the day of SparrowFest, and I believe that all of
his trip participants were able to see at least one of these "bonus" birds. He
also found a singing Black-throated Sparrow at the Flying X after lunch while
leading his "grass walk," and all participants on the grass walk were able to
see this handsome specialty bird (all this while Randy and I were tromping
around nearby trying to find exactly that bird). Bill also located our other
bonus bird, Green-tailed Towhee, on the Flying X during a scouting trip a week
or so before the festival. The bird was relocated on the day of the festival,
and was a new addition to our cumulative SparrowFest list. And his trip to
Simons featured three Sage Thrashers. We've had them before, but still, wow!
Bill is an outstanding teacher, and people are always excited about what they
learned on one of his outings.
Thanks also to Jeff "Towhee" Patterson. Jeff relocated Bill's Green-tailed
Towhee (in a different location from where Bill originally found it) during a
scouting trip on Friday, then helped me find it Friday afternoon, then found it
again for his Flying X trip on Saturday morning. Way to go Jeff! Efforts like
this are part of what make SparrowFest special. Jeff teaches a class on bird
vocalizations for Travis Audubon, and his presence adds a special dimension to
SparrowFest.
Many thanks also to Randy "pink-note" Pinkston of Temple. Randy's knowledge of
birds is encyclopedic, his enthusiasm for sparrows rivals my own, and he is one
of the best field birders in the state, so I feel privileged to have him with
us at SparrowFest. Randy accompanied me much of the day, and it was a real
pleasure to have his expertise available for our trip participants.
Thanks also to the refuge manager Deborah Holle for allowing us access to so
many parts of the refuge, and to all of the refuge staff who help us in so many
different ways. Special thanks to the fire crews for NOT starting any
prescribed burns during any of our SparrowFest trips. That's one of many
reasons that it's imperative to coordinate these things with the refuge office
and management.
Thanks also to the Friends of Balcones Refuge, including Sandi Gilchrist and
President Dub Lyon and all of the other volunteers who help cook, clean, greet
and coordinate. Special thanks to Cathy Harrington, who brings her husband
"Chef John" to cook and to run the kitchen, and who does so many things to make
SparrowFest run efficiently that I can't even begin to list them all. Suffice
it to say that without Cathy we would have trouble making SparrowFest the
success that it is.
Now for the birds.
In addition to the sparrows mentioned above, some of the other interesting
finds were 3 Sage Thrashers on Bill's trip to the Simons Tract, a Merlin which
Randy identified as it flew off a perch over the Flying X entry road, multiple
Northern Harriers in multiple locations, and a flock of Brewer's Blackbirds on
Bill's trip to Simons.
And did I mention no House Sparrows? (Actually, we may have had a few House
Sparrows at one stop on Cow Creek Road, but I did my best to ignore them).
An annotated birdlist follows:
American Wigeon - 12 - Cow Creek
Great Blue Heron - 1
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Northern Harrier - 4 - Unusual to have this many.
Red-shouldered Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Crested Caracara
American Kestrel
Merlin - 1 - perched briefly in tree along entry road to Flying X
Sandhill Crane - 32 - soaring over Flying X Friday afternoon
Killdeer
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Mourning Dove
Greater Roadrunner - 1 - Flying X
Great Horned Owl
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Eastern Phoebe
Loggerhead Shrike
Western Scrub-Jay - Cow Creek
American Crow - Eckhardt
Common Raven
Carolina Chickadee
Black-crested Titmouse
Canyon Wren
Carolina Wren
Bewick's Wren
House Wren
Winter Wren - 1 - Cow Creek during a Friday afternoon scouting session
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Eastern Bluebird
American Robin
Northern Mockingbird
Sage Thrasher - 3 - Simons tract
Cedar Waxwing
Orange-crowned Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Green-tailed Towhee - 1 - fairly cooperative bird on Flying X
Spotted Towhee - modest numbers in multiple locations
Eastern Towhee - 1 - Cooperative female on Cow Creek
Rufous-crowned Sparrow - multiple trips
Chipping Sparrow - fewer than usual
Field Sparrow - many, but lower numbers than usual
Vesper Sparrow - everywhere
Lark Sparrow - Cow Creek and Simons
Black-throated Sparrow - 4 - 3 on Simons and 1 at Flying X
Lark Bunting - 2 - Flying X
Savannah Sparrow - far fewer than usual
Grasshopper Sparrow - good numbers multiple locations
Le Conte's Sparrow - everyone had good looks at this handsome SparrowFest
specialty
Fox Sparrow - Simons and Cow Creek
Song Sparrow - good numbers
Lincoln's Sparrow - fair numbers, but at least they are back this year
Harris's Sparrow - 1 - seen by one participant on Eckhardt
White-crowned Sparrow - lower numbers than usual
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Western Meadowlark
Brewer's Blackbird - Simons tract
House Finch
Pine Siskin
Lesser Goldfinch
American Goldfinch
65 species, if I count correctly.
It was a good day to be a Sparrowhawk!
If you are interested in singing up for SparrowFest next year, the best thing
to do probably is join Friends of Balcones NWR.
see <http://friendsofbalcones.org/>;
By doing so, you will help the refuge, and you will get the earliest notice
possible of next year's SparrowFest (in addition to all the other great
activities that the Friends organize on and for the refuge). Only about 60% of
land originally authorized by Congress for the refuge has actually been
purchased or placed into conservation easements, so the refuge and Friends
still need our help to complete planned acquisitions.
Cathy will probably send out notices in early December, and we will do
SparrowFest again in late January or early February of next year.
Until then, good birding ya'll,
Byron Stone (aka Sparrowman), Austin, Tx
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