[texbirds] Results of Weekender to Fort Clark/Del Rio Area

  • From: Bryan Calk <bryancalk@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: texbirds <texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Rio Audubon <brazosaudubon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Mon, 17 Mar 2014 18:15:23 -0700 (PDT)

Howdy!

This past
weekend, I was fortunate enough to get to show some members of the Rio Brazos 
Audubon Society around
the areas I know best. We started by heading straight out to the Pecos River
high bridge area (highest highway bridge in Texas at the confluence of the 
Pecos and Rio Grande Rivers) on Friday afternoon, then finished the evening 
birding along
San Felipe Creek in Del Rio. While we missed a couple stake-out birds (Ringed
Kingfisher [too many people enjoying the creek], Black-throated Gray Warbler),
we made other discoveries (Wilson’s Warbler). Birds we enjoyed Friday were:
 
(San Felipe Creek
– S, Pecos River – P)
Black-crowned
Night-Heron S
Osprey P
Red-tailed
Hawk (on nest in crevice of cliff face) P
Sandhill
Crane P
White-throated Swift P
Black Phoebe
S
Say’s Phoebe
P
Great
Kiskadee S
Common Raven
P
Northern Rough-winged
Swallow P
Verdin P
Rock Wren P
Canyon Wren
P
Bewick’s
Wren P
Wilson’s Warbler S
Rufous-crowned
Sparrow P
Canyon
Towhee P
Cassin’s
Sparrow P
Clay-colored
Sparrow P
Black-throated
Sparrow P
Lark Bunting
P
Pyrrhuloxia
P
Lesser
Goldfinch S
 
Saturday was
spent primarily on Fort Clark Springs in Kinney County, with a visit midday to
Kathy Bader’s property west of town. Easily, for me, the most exciting bird of
the trip was found at Fort Clark Springs singing from the chimney of the old
Commissary building: a CANYON WREN!!! The first I have EVER seen on Fort Clark
itself in 9ish years of birding there! Some NEW highlights for the trip were:
 
(Fort Clark –
F, Bader Ranch – R)
Mallard (Northern and Mexican) F
Wild Turkey F
Eared Grebe F
Greater Roadrunner R
Black-chinned Hummingbird F
Green Kingfisher F
Vermilion Flycatcher FR
Ash-throated Flycatcher R
Couch’s Kingbird F
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher F
Blue-headed Vireo F
Green Jay F
Purple Martin R
Cave Swallow R
House Wren F
Cactus Wren F
Long-billed Thrasher F
Curve-billed Thrasher R
Black-and-white Warbler F
Yellow-throated Warbler F
Black-throated Gray Warbler (making
up for the missed bird in Del Rio!)F
Olive Sparrow F
White-throated Sparrow (can be uncommon in the area) F
Hooded Oriole FR
 
Finally, Sunday morning some of us met up at Cook’s Slough in Uvalde on
the way out of town to round out the weekend. Very windy conditions kept most
of the birds down, but we still managed a few new good ones: 
 
Common Ground-Dove 
Winter Wren 
White-crowned Sparrow (mentioned because it was neat to see good
examples of both Common and Gambel’s)
 
We ended the trip with 113 species of bird (counting only if seen by at
least two people in the group) including 7 warbler species and 16 sparrows. 
Overall, I think everyone had a good time. The
people were great, lifers were had, locations were beautiful as always, and
birds were seen. 

Photos from the trip are being posted by several RBAS members to their Facebook 
group page (apologies to those who do not have facebook): 
https://www.facebook.com/groups/281152578656334/

 
Bryan Calk
Fort Clark Springs/College Station
 
P.S.
 
For those interested, below is a list of lepidopterans for the trip 
identified and
compiled by Bruce Neville.
 
(Cook's Slough - C) 

Pipevine Swallowtail PRFC
Black Swallowtail P
Checkered White RC
Southern Dogface R
Sleepy Orange R
Gray Hairstreak P
Elada Checkerspot F
Pearl Crescent R
Mourning Cloak F
Red Admiral FC
Funereal Duskywing P
Common/White Checkered-Skipper C
White-lined Hawkmoth, Hyles
lineata P
Edit your Freelists account settings for TEXBIRDS at 
//www.freelists.org/list/texbirds

Reposting of traffic from TEXBIRDS is prohibited without seeking permission 
from the List Owner

Other related posts:

  • » [texbirds] Results of Weekender to Fort Clark/Del Rio Area - Bryan Calk
  1. Home
  2. texbirds
  3. Archive
  4. 03-2014