[texbirds] White River Lake - Summer Survey
- From: Anthony Hewetson <terrverts@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "leas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <leas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 28 May 2012 06:57:55 -0700 (PDT)
Greetings All:
I undertook, if you will pardon the expression, to kill two birds with one
stone yesterday: the annual survey of recently discovered breeding birds
(Yellow-breasted Chat, Field Sparrow, Indigo Bunting - and more recently,
Summer Tanager) at White River Lake (Crosby County) and a field trip for my
brother, Martin Campbell, and his two daughters (Ally-14 and Brittney-12).
On the way to the lake the only highlights were 1 Common Raven atop the Caprock
Escarpment just east of the Lubbock/Crosby County line and 1 Common Raven where
FM 651 drops off of the Caprock Escarpment.
The two girls did pretty well but my visit to the woodlands just north of the
lake was a bit on the short side. During the three hours we were hiking the
woodlands we covered roughly 1/4 of the habitat available to the four target
species and noted: 33 Yellow-breasted Chats (including one copulating pair); 2
pairs of Field Sparrows at or near nests; 3 female and 6 male Indigo Buntings
(including one copulating pair). As regards Summer Tanagers; I heard two - one
singing full song from the area where I detected a nest last year and one
making noises that sounded like something between call notes and song from a
different stand of cottonwoods. The latter bird was, so far as I could tell, a
female.
Additional highlights at the lake included 2 RED-SHOULDERED HAWKS soaring
together amidst a small herd of Mississippi Kites; 2 Black-necked Stilts, 5
American Avocets, and 3 White-rumped Sandpipers along the edged of the
drying-down eastern arm of the lake; 1 Willow Flycatcher, 1 VEERY, 1
MacGillivray's Warbler, and 1 Common Yellowthroat whilst walking about the
woodlands.
The Veery was particularly interesting. Unlike the western-race Veeries seen
in Lubbock County last year, this bird appeared to be a typical eastern-race
Veery. Also interesting: it sang, at least two times, before I got my eyes on
it.
There were no highlights to speak of on the way back though the two girls,
growing up in Arkansas, were suitably impressed by a large Western
Diamond-backed Rattlesnake found dead on the road in Lubbock County.
All in all, an interesting set of birds for the day ... and one can't help but
wonder about the possibility of breeding Red-shouldered Hawks in the
increasingly wooded area just north of White River Lake.
Anthony 'Fat Tony' Hewetson; Lubbock
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