My time in Texas (1 Viewer)

[jremmons]

As I will be staying at Attwater Prairie Chicken NWR for another 10 months, I figured I'd start a blog-type thread similar to that of Pinewood, detailing primarily my times birding the Refuge as well as the visits to other hotspots I'm hopefully able to make while here.

So, today I decided to get an early start and began by going up to Horseshoe Lake which has recently been opened up for public visitation. A group of Ring-necked Ducks has been relaxing up there lately, and this group only seems to be growing every day. Strolling back to my car I was surprised to spot a Greater Roadrunner hunting in a tree near the creek; though they occur on the Refuge, they tend to be only rarely seen. Several Yellow-rumped Warblers, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, and a Hermit Thrush were seen foraging in the general vicinity. While not a bird, I got an amazing view of a bobcat strolling along the creek! Overall, this short detour from my intended route was quite a success.

I next got back in my truck and went cruising along the auto-tour route. As I began to round the first corner, I heard the raucous calls of Marsh and Sedge Wrens. While intently following some of these individuals I noticed something somewhat surprising in the corner of my FoV: a LeConte's Sparrow! Though not particularly uncommon on the Refuge, these birds tend to be quite difficult to see; however, today must have been my lucky day, as I ended up getting visual confirmation of 13 LCSP! Though the rest of the trip afforded little else in terms of rarities, as I exited the truck I put my glass up to one of the flyover flocks of Snow Geese and revealed a couple of Ross' Gesse mixed in.

Well, that's it for today's sightings, but I'm thinking I can add an entry at least once or twice per week.

Best,
Justin

 

[jremmons]

Well, the weather today was great so I decided it would be a good afternoon to conduct my weekly raptor survey. I was immediately met by a nice Cooper's Hawk, which is a species only occasionally seen on the Refuge as there are so few trees. After being bombarded by the near ubiquitous Northern Harriers, I saw an oddity; though acting very much like a NOHA, the coloration was all wrong; entirely dark brown above with a dark brown head, breast, and belly as well as contrasting dark and light wing lining, I was at a loss. After staring intently at this bird for around 5min, it finally hit me that what I was staring at was indeed a NOHA, but was a melanistic individual!

Continuing my survey, I came across a wonderful adult Bald Eagle, perched at the northern end of the Refuge. After admiring the BAEA for some time, I began my venture back towards the southern end; though prepared for an uneventful return, I saw something very large and very white peering from the recently burned pasture - upon further inspection, I found myself looking at a Ferruginous Hawk! These massive hawks are absolutely stunning, with their bright white front, black and rusty back, and dark leg feathers.

By the time I finished, I'd seen about 35 individual raptors, around 50% of which were NOHA. Aside from the raptors, the flooded pastures had also afforded wonderful views of White Ibis, Sedge and Marsh Wrens, American Bittern, Sandhill Crane, and 8 species of waterfowl.

At present, I've currently been able to see most of the species I had expected and wanted to see on the Refuge during the winter; however, both Lark and Grasshopper Sparrows, Cinnamon Teal, and Bewick's Wren continue to evade me. I've also kept my eyes peeled for the rarer Say's Phoebe, Ash-throated and Vermilion flycatchers, and Pyrrhuloxia, likewise to no avail. I'm hoping that my luck with these species picks up before Winter gives way to Spring!

Best,
Justin

 

[Pinewood]

Hello Justin,

You have a nice piece of territory in the Attwater Prairie Chicken NWR, about 4,260 hectares, about half the size of Manhattan. My turf is a small piece of Central Park, which totals about 320 hectares. NOHA's, ringed necked ducks and snow geese turn up in New York, but near JFK airport, at the Jamaica Bay NWR.

Please,keep us informed of what you see.

Happy bird watching,
Arthur Pinewood :hi:

 

[Gretchen]

Nice descriptions of some good sightings! It's great to see so many raptors - I guess they're all winter residents. Good luck with the Say's - they are a bird I'm looking forward to seeing in the flesh myself - I think they are very good looking.

 

[jremmons]

Arthur: although our plots of land may differ both in size and habitat composition, I found your semi-blog to be very entertaining and it inspired me to keep slightly more detailed field notes when I'm out performing non-birding duties on the Refuge.
Gretchen: thank you for the kind words; the Say's just has some sort of quality that really entices me, though I can't quite place exactly what that may be.

As I was tracking the entire Refuge today due to a colleague's leave, I figured it'd be a good opportunity to take some good notes. The day started out pretty typical, with numerous Vesper and Savannah Sparrows, several Yellow-rumped Warblers, and some other typical backyard birds as I walked over to our office. Once on the Refuge, the weather turned pretty poor and I doubted I"d find much of interest; such was not the case, though, as in our wetland unit I noted several entertaining birds such as American and Sprague's Pipits as well as a group of Northern Shovelers, which are always fun to view.

Continuing along I saw several "South Texas" birds such as Crested Caracaras, Cattle Egrets, and White-tailed Hawks. In our retention ponds, designed to provide our grazing cattle with water, I always find interesting things, from the Lesser Scaup and Green-winged Teal foraging about in the water to the Wilson's Snipe and Lesser Yellowlegs skulking about the perimeter. Just off-Refuge in the surrounding farm fields I saw hundreds of Snow Geese along with several Greater White-fronted, Ross', and Canada Geese. A few Harris' Sparrows, my favorite of all the Emberizids, were foraging about within a much larger group of White-crowned Sparrows.

Though the plethora of relatively typical birds is always welcome, seeing something atypical always adds an extra little brightness to a day. While nearing the end of tracking, I noticed a raptor that was just not quite right for either a NOHA or accipiter, and as I further inspected it while getting ever closer, I noticed it was indeed a White-tailed Kite! Though not the first time seeing this species on the Refuge, they are so entertaining to watch that I sat and viewed the bird for a good 5min before finishing up.

That's it for today, I'm debating upon vising somewhere such as the Galveston coast this weekend or waiting until after Christmas when I will, hopefully, have a nice new camera with which to document my findings!

All the best,
Justin

 

[JeffMoh]

Have you seen the Burrowing Owl? It was reported last week on Texbirds.

As far as I could work out, you drive up the entrance road from FM3013 and turn left on Cr 140. It hangs out about 1,000 ft along the road.\

Jeff

 

[jremmons]

Have you seen the Burrowing Owl? It was reported last week on Texbirds.

As far as I could work out, you drive up the entrance road from FM3013 and turn left on Cr 140. It hangs out about 1,000 ft along the road.\

Jeff

WHAT!

If you couldn't tell from my exclamation, no I have not; I did notice someone posted a sighting of one on eBird, but with no mention of the location. Being from the Midwest, a Burrowing Owl is certainly one of the 'lifers' for me that I was targeting when I came to work down here, though they are relatively rare. I'll have to go out tomorrow AM to look for him, though with the recent cold front, I'm not sure how well that will work.

Thank you very much for the heads up!

Justin

 

[jremmons]

Well, it's been a little while and though I've still yet to see the BUOW (grr...), I went out today to do one of my weekly 'surveys'; I've basically constructed this route in the same manner as a BBS, with about 20mi including both core Refuge habitat, the surrounding roads, and the auto-tour route to which visitors have access.

Today started out pretty eventful, as I was greeted with a cacophony of Carolina Chickadees, Northern Cardinals, Yellow-rumped Warblers, Tufted Titmice, and House Wrens which often inhabit the woodlot surrounding our field-house/Refuge headquarters. After getting in the work truck and heading out, I was quickly greeted by a myriad of White-crowned, Vesper, and Savannah Sparrows and Northern Mockingbirds, along with some Red-tailed Hawks soaring overhead. Continuing along the route, I occasionally flushed a rambling Sprague's Pipit or two from the grass surrounding the roads.

As I made my way towards the small wetland areas of the tour-route, I was greeted with a beautiful LeConte's Sparrow, a relatively shy bird that is often found during Christmas Bird Counts to be most numerous on this particular Refuge. Given the habits of this bird, I stuck around a bit and was greeted with my two favorite Wrens, the Marsh and Sedge which often are seen in the same habitat unit as the LCSP. Of course, I only got a view of one each of the Wrens, though several others in the distance were scolding my truck. Orange-crowned Warblers and an American Bittern also roamed in the thickety, grassy wet areas. Nearly completed with my tour-route portion, I noticed a pair of Warblers flicking their tails; under careful observation I believe them to be Palm Warblers, which though common winter residents on the coast about 1.5hrs away, are only rarely stragglers to the Refuge at this time of the year. Northern Shovelers and Pintails along with Green-winged Teal were also present in the surrounding ponds, with several Sandhill Cranes, Snow, Ross's, and Greater White-fronted Geese flying overhead.

Making my way onto the main portion of the refuge, I was intrigued by some Swamp Sparrows, White-tailed Kites, Northern Harriers, Ring-necked Ducks, and a lone female Ruddy Duck that seems to have become rather friendly with the RNDU, Common Gallinules, and American Coots that rest within Horseshoe Lake. American Pipits and Common Yellowthroats also made their presence known, primarily through vocalizations though I did get some good looks at a lone AMPI. Rounding out my route, I got a good look at our White-tailed Kite that has been relaxing in one of our prairie management units along with a few rather rotund Attwater's Prairie-chickens, some Harris's Sparrows, several hundred Brewer's Blackbirds, and a lone Merlin along the roads surrounding the Refuge.

So for a roughly three-four hour route, I viewed what I counted to be 84 species; living within the boundary of a Southern Texas NWR certainly has its perks!

Best wishes,
Justin

 

[jremmons]

Well, I was out on vacation for a couple of weeks visiting my significant other and family members in IN, but am happy to be back in TX and looking at fun fun birds.

Anyways, in the 3 months I was at the Refuge in 2013, I saw around 150 species, a total I hope to completely crush in the next 9 months in which I am here. As of today, my year list is up to 68, including such things as Peregrine Falcon and Pine Warbler that I'd not seen on the Refuge previously - Pine Warbler is, in fact, a life bird. I have yet to make it around the auto-tour route to get good looks at the Marshes and the birds residing in there; I'm sure the Palm Warbler(s) are still residing there along with the Sora and potentially Virginia Rail that my Christmas Bird Count group found in the area.

Happy birding,
Justin

 

[perterra]

Well, I was out on vacation for a couple of weeks visiting my significant other and family members in IN, but am happy to be back in TX and looking at fun fun birds.

Anyways, in the 3 months I was at the Refuge in 2013, I saw around 150 species, a total I hope to completely crush in the next 9 months in which I am here. As of today, my year list is up to 68, including such things as Peregrine Falcon and Pine Warbler that I'd not seen on the Refuge previously - Pine Warbler is, in fact, a life bird. I have yet to make it around the auto-tour route to get good looks at the Marshes and the birds residing in there; I'm sure the Palm Warbler(s) are still residing there along with the Sora and potentially Virginia Rail that my Christmas Bird Count group found in the area.

Happy birding,
Justin

Congrats on the warbler.

 

[jremmons]

Congrats on the warbler.

Thanks Gerald!

It was a very nice Pine Warbler with very vivid, bright yellow coloration, much like the Yellow-throated Vireo with which it is sometimes confused. I actually spotted it while attempting to scan around the woodlot for Orange-crowned Warblers which are very common around here, but for whatever reason I've still not been able to add to my year list!

Today I saw a Rusty Blackbird as well, pictures of which are in the Bird ID forum as I'm not as familiar with this bird as I am other blackbird species.

Happy birding,
Justin

 

[jremmons]

Hello all,

Well, so far I've seen about 93 species this year, 86 of which within the Refuge itself (the others were from just driving into town and included House Sparrows, Pigeons, etc.). This brings my Refuge total up to 142, 6th place and 54 off the current top eBird submitter. My original goal was to get into the top 3 before my time ends here, and I think this should be possible if migrating song and shore birds wander here during the spring (Summer also seems to bring nesting species such as Painted Bunting and Least great that I'm targeting). Oddly enough, I've yet to see a Grasshopper or White-throated Sparrow, both of which are apparently common on the Refuge according to eBird data. Anyways...

My most recent neat additions are White-winged Dove, Belted Kingfisher, Cedar Waxwing, and Cackling Goose, none of which I've seen on the Refuge before. Our two Palm Warblers are still sticking around the auto-tour route, although the Rusty Blackbirds seemed to have moved on following the most recent rainstorm event. I need to head down to some of the roads just south of the Refuge - it seems a flock of 100-200 Lapland Longsuprs is meandering about some recently plowed fields, and these would be life-birds for me; I attempted to make it down there on 11 January but the ranchers were doing something and blocking the roads (maybe due to flooding?). If any of you other Texas-based birders know if these birds are still loitering around, I'd greatly appreciate knowing this.

All the best,
Justin

 

[jremmons]

Hello all,

As you may or may not have noticed, there's not been much posting from me lately, mostly a result of my lack of new additions. I believe my 2014 APCNWR list is up to something like 98 species, with the latest being a Pileated Woodpecker I heard 'wuk wuk wuk'ing in the distance.

I received a Fujifilm Finepix S4500 30x optical zoom bridge camera as a Christmas gift, and though it is certainly much nicer than the old 5x optical zoom Canon I had, it is still lacking the reach I need for waterfowl and distant perching birds. I'm still awaiting a 7x43 Zen-Ray ED3 I traded from a fellow forum member; I've always like the 7x format and given that I have a high-quality 10x (non-SV WB EL, as rolling ball makes me nauseous), I thought it would pair perfectly. I'm giving my significant other my 8x42 Leupold BX-3, as I think the overall smaller build will work nicely for her. I'm also contemplating a spotting scope and tripod/head purchase - the Theron Saker ED 60mm seems nice, though I'm still not sure of a good tripod/head in my <$100 budget. Oh the woes of a poor wildlife technician.

Happy birding,
Justin

 

[jremmons]

Hello all,

Well, let us just say that a lot of good and a lot of bad has been happening lately. Issues with technology (my laptop seems to be dying) and binoculars (my trusty binos basically exploded [objective lenses seem to be 'separating' from the eyepiece and the focus knob is basically falling apart] and no one was able to get the mail which included a pair of binoculars I had just recently acquired for my significant other) put me in a poor disposition, and the best way I could think to manage this was to head out to bird. Suffice it to say I am very happy that I did!

So, as mentioned, my binoculars were in shambles so I borrowed a pair of old 10x50 Celestron/EO Rangers from the office and headed out. Having never used a 10x50, this was something of a learning experience, but they were nice and bright with a smooth focus knob, so whatever works! Anyways... I decided to make this a long, circuitous day and headed up to the northern end of the Refuge where a treeline has developed along the banks of the river which acts as the eastern border of APCNWR. As most of the habitat is prairie, I wanted to experience something a bit different. On my way up, I was treated with a view of both Sprague's Pipit and two Grasshopper Sparrows, a bird that has always done its best to evade my glances.

Upon arriving up north, I noticed several Chipping Sparrows, Orange-crowned Warblers, and Ruby-crowned Kinglets meandering. While inspecting these birds, I noticed something that didn't look quite right out of the corner of my eye and upon finally getting it in focus, I was treated to a good view of a Blue-headed Vireo, my first on the Refuge and of the year! Continuing along this route, I noticed a warbler-esque bird skulking about that looked far too bright to be another Orange-crowned or Yellow-rumped; upon close inspection, I noted it as a Pine Warbler, only the second I've seen. Finishing up along this path I noticed our resident White-tailed Kite perched on an ever-so-wonderful McCartney Rose thicket. Making my way down to the marsh, I noticed an Anhinga and Double-crested Cormorant perching along the banks of the creek; these two birds seem to enjoy this particular spot, as I've seen them in the general area a few times within the past week or so.
At the marsh, I was afforded nice views of Common Yellowthroat, Swamp Sparrow, Wilson's Snipe, and a group of about 10 Rusty Blackbirds that seem to have taken up winter residence; these birds are quite rare on the Refuge so it is always a treat to see so many at once. Finishing up, I rambled on up to our small lake and was able to view our lake-side residents, a single Ruddy Duck, Common Gallinule, and small group of Northern Shovelers. Overhead I was greeted with a cacophony of the raucous Greater-white Fronted, Snow, and Ross's Geese. I've still yet to see Canada Geese this year which is odd to me, a resident of the Midwest where CAGO are just an accepted part of every-day life.

I've found that when life gets me down, I can get my spirits lifted by looking at the things high up in the trees and sky.

All the best,
Justin

 

[JeffMoh]

Glad to see you finally got a Grasshopper Sparrow.

I still need 9 birds to reach the century mark for Colorado County, so you may see me up at Attwater one of these days.

Jeff
www.jeffincypress.blogspot.com

 

[jremmons]

Jeff,

I only just today noticed your post. I'm always happy to see visitors up here; it makes me realize that people actually do care, hah.

Anyways... Activity at the Refuge has picked up some recently due to spring migration and summer breeding seasons growing ever-closer; American Robins have been singing their hearts out, Titmice and Chickadess have been particularly territorial, and Purple Martins have returned to nest. On a recent walk along the Sycamore Trail, I heard no less than three White-eyed Vireo belting away their immediately recognizable songs and calls.

Last weekend I finally made it down to the coast, exploring the Surfside and Quintana beaches/jetties, and picked up about twenty new birds for the year, including Willets, Sanderlings, Forster/Royal/Caspian Terns, and a few life-birds as well such as Ruddy Turnstones and Black Skimmer (although the view was from some distance and we were really only able to identify them by their contrasting wing patterns and white rump - not even a single view of that absurdly adapted bill!). While I'm certainly not disappointed, I was hoping for quite a few more shorebirds, Oystercatchers, and even some waterfowl, as we only saw Shovelers and Gadwall - species that are also incredibly common here at the Refuge. I'll have to head back down and maybe drive more NE to the Lafitte's Cove/Galveston area in hopes of picking up some of these species. I'm also looking to get Seaside and Nelson's Sparrows but believe I will have difficulty with these two.

After taking my significant other to IAH yesterday, I stopped by Bear Creek Park looking for the oft-reported Greater Pewee. Unfortunately, gray and windy weather seemed to have limited activity and I was unable to locate this individual. Alas, I did enjoy birding the park as the habitat is very different from anything here at Attwater NWR.

Aside from heading back down to the Quintana/Surfside/Galveston/Bolivar area, I'd like to stop in at Brazos Bend SP at least once while here - aside from the Least Grebe, Little Blue Heron, and Vermilion Flycatcher I'd be targeting, I'd like to get some good looks at the overall habitat there as it too seems very different from Attwater.

Happy birding,
Justin

 

[Woodbadger]

Justin,
I have a trip to High Island planned on Apr 20-21. Staying in Galveston. Since you are on our way home (Austin area), we are thinking about stopping by Attwater NWR on our way home Tue 22nd.
Hoping that we will be able to pickup GRPC (lifer). I notice this is a week or so after the annual festival, so I assume I stand a good chance?
thanks
Ian

 

[jremmons]

Ian,

Unfortunately, picking up GRPCs when not on the "van tours" (first Saturday of every month, every Saturday in April) proves quite difficult as most of their "core" lekking areas are in the no-access interior portions of the Refuge. Interestingly, however, some birds have been "booming" in the southern part of the Refuge, along the auto-tour route that is accessible every day via your own personal vehicle; I can not promise that these birds will remain in this area.

Happy birding and hope to see you around,
Justin