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October 27-29, 2006
Tim Fennell showed six participants around the Granger and surrounding areas in search of the Mountain Plover, Sprague’s Pipit, and the Burrowing Owl. We were hopping for cloudy cool days with no wind but we were greeted with cool sunny days with slight to moderate winds, which is about the worst conditions for looking for Mountain Plovers. However, on the first morning of the trip after driving up and down CR 346 three times Tim finally spotted the flock of 32 Mountain Plovers he had seen there the previous evening. We watched them fly around low over the field hoping they would land to afford us some decent looks. They did land in the middle of the field about 200 meters out allowing us decent views through scopes. After watching them for about 30 minutes they took off and flew to another field nearby. We drove to the field to find that they had indeed set down in that field but this time some where as close as 50 meters from us and were visible to the naked eye. Tim stated that that is about the best look we could have hoped for of the Mountain Plovers. It was quite an experience and all participants got very satisfying looks at the plain but magnificent plover, which was a lifer for all of us. After watching the plovers for another 15 minutes we decided to go chase the Red Phalarope that was being seen daily for the past week on Stillhouse Hollow Lake at Union Grove Wildlife Management Area. Within half an hour of arriving at Stillhouse Hallow Lake we had the Red Phalarope. If that wasn’t enough to describe where the Red Phalarope was we used a juvenile Reddish Egret a rare bird for the central Texas as a point of reference. There are not to many times that you can use a rare bird as a point of reference to describe where an even rarer bird is. There were also impressive numbers of ducks on the lake highlighted by a few Canvasbacks. We then drove to Salado to have some lunch and discuss the plan for the afternoon.
The afternoon was spent looking for other good central Texas birds that we would not encounter on the Upper Texas Coast. We decided to go to Lake Georgetown Dam in search of Rock and Canyon Wrens. Lake Georgetown Dam is the eastern most limit of the ranges of both species. We were rewarded with both the Rock and Canyon Wren and at one point they were right beside each other and you could see both of them at the same time in the scope. Next up we tried unsuccessfully to find the Ringed Kingfisher at San Gabriel City Park the first bird that we were targeting for the day that we missed. Other highlights from the first day included a White-breasted Nuthatch that called back to my ipod, a juvenile Red-headed Woodpecker a very tough bird to get in Williamson County at the Pecan Grove off of CR 337, singing Eastern and Western Meadowlarks, and two Burrowing Owls standing near culverts. After the first day we had already tailed 85 species, which is a high day count for October in central Texas and it seemed like every bird that we targeted we found with out to much effort.
The second day was a much tougher day due to the great success of the first day and to the moderate to high winds that we experienced. However, we did manage to add 16 more species to the list to bring the total species tailed for the trip to 101. Highlights from day two included another Burrowing Owl in a culvert, a Harlan’s Red-tailed Hawk flying over a field with several Turkey Vultures, 177 Sandhill Cranes in a large field with cattle and some of the cranes where actually sitting down like the cattle, at least one Eastern Bewick’s Wren (the endangered race), Brewer’s Blackbirds, Sprague’s Pipit flying directly over head, and a Virginia Rail at Hornsby Bend. The main highlight of the day was seeing several Sprague’s Pipit perform their distinctive aerial flight and giving their traditional squeak squeak in flight. They afforded us good looks at the necklace between the breast and throat and the extensive white on their outer tail feathers. They put on quite a show for about a minute.
This was a great trip and Tim was an excellent guide and we learned a lot from him. I for one never knew that the best place to look for Burrowing Owls is in culverts provided that you are in the proper habitat. Also, there are not too many trips that you can do prairie and pelagic birding in the same day. I was amazed by the rows and rows of expansive agricultural fields and just wondered what the Granger area must have looked like 200 years ago when it was still native blackland prairie. I am sure it must have been quite a site. I found it interesting that with all the agricultural fields around the Granger area, it gets very few geese in the winter and during the trip we only saw one flock of blackbirds in an agricultural field. I wonder if the crops that they grow in the fields around Granger don’t attract the favored food of geese and blackbirds. Everybody added at least one bird to their life list, had a wonderful time and saw some truly wonderful birds including some that were ordinary on the Texas Coast but exceptional for Central Texas on this trip. A big thank you goes out to Tim Fennell for leading this trip and getting everybody good looks at the Mountain Plovers. The bird list for the trip is below:
Eared Grebe GL (1), HB (1)
Pied-billed Grebe SH
American White Pelican GL
Double-crested Cormorant GL (7), SH (5)
Reddish Egret SH (1-juvenile)
Great Blue Heron SH (2), GL (1)
Great Egret SG (1)
Snowy Egret SG (1)
American Wigeon SH (60), GL (5)
Canvasback SH (4), GL (4)
Gadwall SH (30), GL (5)
Ring-necked Duck SH (5), GL
Redhead SH (30), GL (15)
Ruddy Duck SH (25), GL (10), HB (10)
Northern Shoveler GL (2), HB (20)
Bufflehead GL (1), HB (1)
Lesser Scaup GL (15)
Mallard 2
Blue-winged Teal HB (15)
Green-winged Teal HB (50)
Northern Pintail HB (3)
Turkey Vulture CR 346 (1), GS (10)
Black Vulture GS (10)
Northern Harrier CR 346 (1)
Crested Caracara GS (2)
American Kestrel GS (2), SH 95 (1)
Cooper's Hawk GS (1)
Osprey SH (1)
Red-tailed Hawk (1-Harlan's) SH (2), CR 124 (1), SH 95 (1)
Red-shouldered Hawk SH 95 (1 Heard)
Virginia Rail HB (1)
American Coot SH (2,000), GL (50), HB (20)
Sandhill Crane 177, SH (30 Flyovers)
Mountain Plover CR 346 (32)
Killdeer CR 346 (5), SF (5), GL (5)
Black-bellied Plover SH (6)
Red Phalarope SH (1)
Long-billed Dowitcher SH (5)
Dunlin SH (3)
Least Sandpiper SH (10), SF (15), GL (15)
Western Sanpiper SH (1)
Wilson's Snipe SH
Spotted Sandpiper SG (1), HB (4)
Greater Yellowlegs 5
Long-billed Curlew GL (1)
Ring-billed Gull SH (10)
Franklin's Gull GL (6)
Forster's Tern GL (5)
Inca Dove PG (4)
Rock Dove GS
White-winged Dove GS (3), HB (5)
Mourning Dove GS (10)
Burrowing Owl CR 346 (1), CR 124 (1), CR 354 (1)
Great Horned Owl 1 (Heard)
Belted Kingfisher SH (1), SG (1), MC (1)
Red-bellied Woodpecker SG (2), PG (1), SH 95 (1)
Red-headed Woodpecker PG (1)
Downy Woodpecker PG (1 Heard)
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker GL (1)
Eastern Phoebe CR 346 (1), GS (1)
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher MC (1)
Loggerhead Shrike CR 346 (1)
Blue Jay PG (1 Heard)
American Crow GS (5), HB (4)
Barn Swallow 1
Carolina Chickadee PG (1), several more were heard
Tufted Titmouse sp. PG at least one was heard
White-breasted Nuthatch PG (1 Heard)
Sedge Wren SH (1 Heard) Wren LG (2)
Rock Wren LG (2)
Carolina Wren PG (1 Heard)
House Wren PG (1 Heard)
Eastern Bewick's Wren 1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet PG (2)
Eastern Bluebird PG (5)
Northern Mockingbird GS
European Starling SG (4), HB
Sprague's Pipit CR 346 (2 Flyover)
American Pipit CR 346 (10 Flyovers), SH (30), SG (1), GL (5)
Cedar Waxwing GL (3)
Orange-crowned Warbler 2
Yellow-rumped Warbler PG (5)
Northern Cardinal MC (1)
Savannah Sparrow CR 346 (50)
Song Sparrow SH (1), SF (1)
Chipping Sparrow PG (1), SH 95 (8)
Vesper Sparrow 10
White-crowned Sparrow SF (4)
Swamp Sparrow SF (1)
Lincoln's Sparrow SF (1), SH 95 (1)
Western Meadowlark CR 346 (50)
Eastern Meadowlark 2 (Heard)
Red-winged Blackbird 50
Brewer's Blackbird 25
Great-tailed Grackle GS (50)
Common Grackle GS (100), SG (100), HB (100)
Brown-headed Cowbird GS (50)
House Finch SH 95 (1)
House Sparrow GS
Locations: Granger to Salado (GS), Stillhouse Hollow Lake (SH), Lake Georgetown (LG), San Gabriel City Park (SG), Mankin's Crossing (MS), CR 337 Pecan Grove (PG), Sore Finger WMA (SF), Granger Lake (GL), SH 95 near CR 337 (SH 95), and Hornsby Bend (HB).
*Birds in Bold were target birds for the trip and birds in italics and Bolded were rare birds in the area they were seen.
Participants: Adam Wood, Jim Winn, Jennifer Backo, John Schneider, Liz Zivley, and Jerry Stanislav.
~ Adam Wood, OG Field Trip Coordinator, birdman_570@yahoo.com, 713-515-1692 |
