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November 18, 2006
Damien Carey a board member of the Friends of Sheldon Lake State Park led 26 participants through Sheldon Lake State Park. We couldn’t have asked for better weather it was a beautiful day and we saw some great birds. Damien took time to explain a little bit about the History of Sheldon Lake and the how it became a state park before we started birding.
We started out working our way around the fish ponds near the Environmental Learning Center looking for ducks and sparrows. We did not see any ducks but did encounter one Golden-crowned Kinglet that a few of the participants got a look at and an Orange-crowned Warbler. We hit one good sparrow hole where some the participants got looks at Lincoln’s, Swamp, Song, and Savannah Sparrow. Damien thinks he may have had a brief look at a Lark Sparrow as well. After birding the fish ponds we went out and trudged through the prairie hoping to scare up some Le Conte’s Sparrows. With out to much work or trudging we managed to scare up some Le Conte’s Sparrows and push them into an area that all the participants could surround and get great looks. We had great looks at at least six Le Conte’s Sparrows. We also got a good opportunity to observe the Le Conte's Sparrow behavoir of preferring to run on the ground then fly. It was truly the moment of the trip. I believe it was a life bird for most of the participants and what an experience they got to have with a lifer Le Conte's. Le Conte's Sparrows can be very tough to get good looks at. Other highlights in the prairie included good looks at two Sedge Wrens, a few of the participants got a brief look at a Marsh Wren, Vesper Sparrows, fleeting glimpses of more Lincoln’s and Swamp Sparrows, and half the group got a good look at a White-throated Sparrow. Damien believes he may have seen a Grasshopper Sparrow in that area as well. After wearing ourselves out walking through the prairie we stopped for lunch. After lunch we decided we would go and try and find where the ducks were and finished the day birding around Sheldon Reservoir. We did manage to find a few Ring-necked, Ruddy, and Wood Ducks as well as a Canvasback, a few Gadwalls and Northern Shoveler on the reservoir.
We totaled about 70 birds for the trip. I would like to thank Damien for doing an excellent job leading this trip and sharing his knowledge about Sheldon Lake State Park with us. It is truly a nice place to go and bird and it is not that far from Houston. I would also like to thank everybody who participated in this trip and helped make it a truly wonderful one. Lets keep these good turnouts going. I hope to see everybody on future trips. The list of birds seen during the trip is below.
Location: Sheldon Reservoir Wildlife Management Area
Observation date: 11/18/06
Notes: List was compiled from all observations from each participant.
Number of species: 71
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck 10
Greater White-fronted Goose 50
Snow Goose 100
Wood Duck 2
Gadwall 6
Northern Shoveler 6
Canvasback 1
Ring-necked Duck 7
Ruddy Duck 3
Pied-billed Grebe 15
American White Pelican 15
Neotropic Cormorant 4
Double-crested Cormorant 3
Anhinga 5
Great Blue Heron 2
Great Egret 3
Snowy Egret 1
Little Blue Heron 1
Tricolored Heron 1
Cattle Egret 1
White Ibis 1 (Flyover)
Black Vulture 2
Turkey Vulture 7
Osprey 3
Northern Harrier 5
Sharp-shinned Hawk 1
Red-shouldered Hawk 5
Red-tailed Hawk 1
American Kestrel 3
Common Moorhen 10
American Coot 200
Killdeer 9
Laughing Gull 150
Ring-billed Gull 25
Belted Kingfisher 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 2
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 2
Downy Woodpecker 5
Northern Flicker 5
Eastern Phoebe 10
Vermilion Flycatcher 1
Blue Jay 2
Tree Swallow 50
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 5
Carolina Chickadee 2 (Heard)
Tufted Titmouse 2 (Heard)
Carolina Wren 2
Sedge Wren 2
Marsh Wren 1
Golden-crowned Kinglet 2
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 10
American Robin 5
Northern Mockingbird 5
Brown Thrasher 1
American Pipit 5 (Flyovers)
Cedar Waxwing 5
Orange-crowned Warbler 2
Yellow-rumped Warbler 20
Common Yellowthroat 1
Vesper Sparrow 6
Lark Sparrow 1
Savannah Sparrow 25
Grasshopper Sparrow 1
Le Conte's Sparrow 10
Song Sparrow 3
Lincoln's Sparrow 5
Swamp Sparrow 5
White-throated Sparrow 1
Northern Cardinal 15
Red-winged Blackbird 5
Eastern Meadowlark 2
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2 (http://www.ebird.org/tx)
Participants: Nelson Messinger, Bill and Jean Harwell, Jim Winn, Pat Lee, Jim and Bea Ann Kelly, Pam Smolen, Claire Moore, Sue Rieansnider, Pam Gaines, Sandy and Suzy Rhodes, Beth McCracken, Cindy Douglass, Gary Miller, Jennifer Backo, Fred Cambell, Bessie and Jerry O'Brien, Bob Schwartz, John Schneider, Kay Piper, Nancy Hannan, Bill Saulmon, and Gordon White.
~ Adam Wood, OG Field Trip Coordinator, birdman_570@yahoo.com, 713-515-1692
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