[texbirds] Government Canyon Golden-cheeks and Painted Buntings

From: "Stevan Hawkins" <shawkins4@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "TexBirds" <texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 21 May 2012 06:29:12 -0500
TexBirders:

 

On Saturday I led the May 19 edition of Government Canyon State Natural
Area's Explore the Canyon 2nd Saturday hike.  As it turned out, the three
retired teachers opted to explore the Joe Johnston Route all three miles up
to the Zizleman House.  Their interest in flowering plants taught me to
include a flower guide in my pack.  So, we focused on flowers and the
history of people usage of the drainage.  Bluebonnets were long gone and
many of the composite flowers were well into seeding out.  Fortunately
enough for this report I have done enough Golden-cheek work since 1974 that
I can interpret a site for an audience and simultaneously listen for GCWAs
as a matter of habit.  As we headed north along the Joe Johnston Route I
heard a GCWA singing at trail marker 9.  I don't know if this is the same
guy I have noted on previous hikes on the JJR or if another Golden-cheek has
taken his place.  This would have been around 9:00 or 9:30.  That site is
1.25 miles from the trailhead.   Since we left the Zizleman House at 1:30,
it would have been around 12:00-12:15 that I heard a GCWA song at trail
marker at trail marker 15, about two miles from the trailhead.  

 

Painted Buntings have been present in 2012 at Government Canyon State
Natural Area for at least the last five weeks.  On Saturday I heard fewer of
them.  That suggests to me that the males are devoting more time to nesting
and possibly feeding young duties.   That is one reason I found it
interesting to see a male Painted Bunting fly across the entrance round in
front of my truck below hood level as I was leaving GCSNA at around 5:00
p.m.  

 

Other things of note:  A photographer showed me a nice shot of an
Ash-throated Flycatcher he had taken at the visitors center.  I head Summer
Tanagers at the Hoffman Hayfield, TM 11 along the Joe Johnston Route.
Black-and-white Warblers were still singing.  A Canyon Wren was singing at
TM 19, the only water crossing of the Joe Johnston Route.  Millipedes have
come out. They are mostly the dark red, almost cylindrical round ones that
are seen from San Antonio to Big Bend.  They varied in size from 1 1/2
inches to three inches long.  The guests also found me my Bexar County Coral
Snake as we were walking.  It was in leaf litter, possibly-probably hunting
for prey.  At 14-18 inches long it was smallish compared to the one I saw in
Austin several years ago.  The fact that seven years of volunteer work at
Government Canyon hasn't produced a Copperhead for me on the site probably
means that I have spent most of my time looking in trees.  Although reports
of the at least two species of rattlesnakes at Government Canyon State
Natural Area http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/state-parks/government-canyon are
not uncommon, I have yet to have heard of anyone getting bit or struck by
any species of snake, let alone any of the venomous snakes on the site.  

 

The bird nesting season at Government Canyon is progressing.  Come on out
and see it happening! 

 

Steve

 

Stevan Hawkins

Education Committee, member

Friends of Government Canyon
[texbirds] Government Canyon Golden-cheeks and Painted Buntings

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