I agree. I have had more species of birds but not species of warbler and
vireos for two days. I'm going to include the 16th and the 17th but in
Wichita, Archer, and Clay counties I had 12 warbler (a buddy adding 2 more)
and 4 Vireo species. We never get quantity with the exception of YEWA (had
around 40 for the two days) but I had quality this year. Blackburnian,
Blackpoll, Magnolia, Am Redstart, Yellow, Nashville, Wilson, Common
Yellowthroat, Mourning, Black-throated Green, Black and White,
Tennesse (OCWA, YRWA by a buddy). Four Vireo species: White-eyed, Red-eyed,
Warbling, Philadelphia. A very good two days that also included my 2nd
Black-headed Grosbeak for the year. These would be great totals for the
whole spring for Wichita/Archer, I usually get around 10 for the year,
which brings the total for the spring to 16 warblers and 6 vireos.
Fantastic year.
Scotty Lofland
Archer City
On Mon, May 18, 2020 at 8:26 AM Christian Walker <
christian.icapadjuster@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hey,
At least the best I’ve ever had. I birded Harry Moss Park in NE Dallas
county first until about 11 am, stopped by Oak Grove Park on Lake Grapevine
for the continuing Ruddy Turnstones and my county Sanderlings, and then
worked the Village Creek Drying beds from 1315-1730. Without a doubt, the
heavy rains on Saturday and Saturday night must have coincided with a heavy
migrant flight that knocked down a lot of birds.
Harry Moss Park HMP has just been smoking hot this whole past week, with
lots of warblers, Yellow-throated vireo, and Veery reported. This was my
first time in the park, and it was amazing. The pecan grove just east of
the creek was had lots of birds, and I ended up with 15 warblers species, 4
vireo species (not the Yellow-throated unfortunately), and great looks at
singing Alder and Wilow Flycatchers. There were other birders at the park
and we kept getting each other on different birds - I found a female Hooded
Warbler, and others got me on a gorgeous, tame male Bay-breasted along with
a female Blackpoll. These, along with the two Traill’s Flycatchers and a
singing Philadelphia Vireo, were all Dallas county birds for me! Probably
the last time I ever get 6 county birds in a day, geez.
I was particularly pleased with the singing Alder and Willow Flycatchers,
but I didn’t realize how many flycatchers had been knocked down over DFW -
from conversations with others, pretty much everyone had singing Alder and
Willows today, along with lots of Least and some Yellow-bellied. Thanks to
a tip from Ed Wetzel I headed over to Village Creek (VCDB) to try to get my
Tarrant county Willow Flycatcher, thinking that even though it was mid-day
I would at least be able to work all the willow trees and manage to find at
least one Traill’s with a whit call, maybe even singing. I got my rain
boots on and worked through the big willows on the south-east corner,
walking just in the short water very slowly (only got water in my boots
once or twice!). This proved to be a wonderful strategy, because the water
made me move very slow, and the birds just didn’t seem to notice me. Only
one snake. In this area alone I had 1 Willow Flycatcher, 4-5 Alder
Flycatchers, Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, Eastern Wood-Pewee, a late
Lincoln’s Sparrow, and 12 warblers species including Blackburnian and a
male Mourning, my 16th warbler species of the day. I felt like I was
birding the Willows at Anahuac!
Anyway, I ended up with just ludicrous numbers of Traill’s Flycatchers,
anything identified to species was by call, and I saw all the calling
Willows. Got decent recordings of both species at both parks, including
singing Alder at both parks and a singing Willow at HMP. Empid list as
follows:
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher: 1 VCDB
Alder: 2 HMP, 8 VCDB
Willow: 1 HMP, 2 VCDB
Traill’s: 3 HMP, 4 VCDB
Least: 3 HMP, 5 VCDB
empidonax sp: 4 HMP, 8 VCDB
10! Alder Flycatchers - this doubled the number of Alders I had detected
in my birding career. Also got 5 Tarrant county birds - Willow and
Yellow-bellied Flycatchers, Northern Waterthrush, Mourning Warbler, and
Sanderling.
HMP checklist: https://ebird.org/checklist/S69211231
VCDB checklist: https://ebird.org/checklist/S69237248
Good birding! Keep birding in May!
Christian Walker
christian.icapadjuster@xxxxxxxxx
Independent Adjuster
Irving, Texas
(512) 745-3227
