[texbirds] Thoughts. And University of Dallas birding - Fox Sparrow. Also belated White Rock parula

From: Christian Walker <christian.walker@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Wed, 6 Nov 2013 16:16:56 -0600
Hey,
First off, I had a female Northern Parula, a young Herring Gull, and a Marsh 
Wren in weird habitat at White Rock Lake on the 23rd of October.  Sorry for the 
belated post.  Really surprised about the parula.  Great looks.  

Ok.  I went birding yesterday with Julia and was pleasantly surprised to run 
into a flock that contained some good birds, including a latish Nashville 
Warbler, a very bright Pine Warbler, a Brown Creeper, and a Tufted Titmouse.  I 
was very surprised to see the titmouse - they have not been in the area for the 
past four years now.  I had seen a pair occasionally the fall of my freshman 
year, 2010, but never since.  There was also larger numbers of winter 
residents, including three Spotted Towhees and a singing Fox Sparrow.  
oh and I had a woodcock a few weeks ago.  

The number and diversity of birds I saw yesterday was very atypical for my 
patch here at UD.  Over the past four years I've noticed a gradual decrease in 
biodiversity, especially in the richness of the local resident birds.  I 
usually only find a few of the resident birds, and have to cover a bit of 
ground to find anything.  Migrants are hard to come by, and even the ubiquitous 
flocks of White-throated Sparrows are hard to find.  
The best adjective to describe an hour's birding here is boring.  

However it was not always so.  My freshman year here was unreal compared with 
what I see now.  I recall walking into the woods in a fall rainstorm, standing 
in a flock of hundreds of migrants, including Warbling Vireos, Summer Tanagers, 
and Tennessee Warblers, with Solitary Sandpipers flying overhead and flocks of 
nashville Warblers and Baltimore Orioles everywhere; and it wasn't just that 
one day.  Both in the spring and fall I would consistently find good numbers of 
regular migrants, bolstered by numerous resident birds.  There was a cold front 
day that came through when I had 2 Bald Eagles, 12 Ospreys, and hundreds of 
other raptors; the hordes of White-throated Sparrow flocks in the winter were 
full of Fox and Harris's Sparrows as well, and I recall one morning when I 
found at least 12 Winter Wrens.  Spring was just as good with numerous warblers 
and migrants.  Highlights included Bell's Vireo and a Cassin's Sparrow.  

After that it was pretty much downhill (aside from a Black-throated Gray 
Warbler fall of sophomore year).  I never found the flocks of migrants I had 
seen before, and resident birds experienced a pretty sharp decline. Whereas 
before I would regularly run into 2 or 3 flocks of resident birds, now I'm 
lucky to run into one.  I imagine the decline may be due to drought and high 
heat in the summer, as well as possible the further degeneration of the habitat 
out here due to privet and tallow trees, but this past birding trip has gotten 
me hoping maybe all this rain we've been getting could be helping the general 
birdiness of the place.  Or at least stopped it from getting worse.  In any 
case, things could be looking up here at UD - the return of the Tufted Titmouse 
especially makes me hopeful.  

Good birding,

Christian Walker
University of Dallas
Irving, TX
512 431-2495


Begin forwarded message:

> From: do-not-reply@xxxxxxxxx
> Subject: eBird Report - University of Dallas, Nov 5, 2013
> Date: November 6, 2013 2:53:43 PM CST
> To: christian.walker@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> 
> University of Dallas, Dallas, US-TX
> Nov 5, 2013 8:00 AM - 9:40 AM
> Protocol: Traveling
> 0.5 mile(s)
> Comments:     With Julia.  Overcast, SE 10-20 mph, around 65 degrees 
> Fahrenheit.  Good day. (Finally!)
> 28 species
> 
> Great Egret  1
> Rock Pigeon  12
> Mourning Dove  3
> Belted Kingfisher  1
> American Kestrel  1
> Blue Jay  10
> American Crow  4
> Carolina Chickadee  2
> Tufted Titmouse  1
> Brown Creeper  1
> Carolina Wren  2     HO
> Bewick's Wren  2     HO
> Ruby-crowned Kinglet  4
> American Robin  3
> Brown Thrasher  2
> Northern Mockingbird  3
> European Starling  10
> Orange-crowned Warbler  3
> Nashville Warbler  1
> Pine Warbler  1
> Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)  1
> Spotted Towhee  3
> Field Sparrow  1
> Fox Sparrow  1     singing.  Awesome.
> White-throated Sparrow  20     15 HO
> Northern Cardinal  13
> Great-tailed Grackle  3
> House Finch  20
> 
> View this checklist online at 
> http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S15589486
> 
> This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org)


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[texbirds] Thoughts. And University of Dallas birding - Fox Sparrow. Also belated White Rock parula

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