January 20, 2007
Bill Godley a volunteer and leader of the regular monthly bird walks at Brazos Bend State Park led 12 participants around 40 Acre Lake, Creekfield Lake and parts of Elm and Horseshoe Lake as well as out to Davis Estates. We could have asked for better weather on this trip. We were fortunate to stay dry in the morning albeit cold, however we weren't so lucky in the afternoon when the rains hit and bird activity diminished to almost nothing forcing us to call the trip a bit short. In spite all this we still saw some great birds.
We started out by walking down to the pier at 40 Acre Lake and scanning the lake to see what we could find. David Heinicke the park naturalist, who was able to join us for the morning, spotted a female Common Goldeneye on the far side of the lake. Everybody later got good looks at the Goldeneye when we were able to get close to it while walking around 40 Acre Lake. Other highlights around 40 Acre Lake were Black-crowned Night Herons, Roseate Spoonbills, two Vermillion Flycatchers, one Brown Creeper spotted by Claire Moore, Cave Swallows, one Cliff Swallow (very rare winter resident and probably the bird of the trip), and one adult Bald Eagle that flew directly over us twice while we were walking around the lake. We were not able to locate the Northern Waterthrush or an American Bittern around 40 Acre Lake.
We then drove over to the nature center and Creekfield Lake to look for the Least Grebes. The Least Grebes gave us a scare. We had walked all the way to the furthest pier looking for them without finding them and I couldn't believe that we were going to miss them on the trip until I heared Bill Godley yell out Least Grebe as he was headed off the pier and back towards the nature center. The Least Grebes were right besides the peir affording us great looks and a great photo opportunity. All I can figure is that they must have been under the pier when we first walked up and that is why we didn't see them on way out to the end of the pier. The only other highlight at Creekfield was a Tricolored Heron. After taking numerous photos of the Least Grebes we left to go back to the Nature Center to get our cars and drive to the pavilion at Elm Lake for lunch. That is when the rains started. We made an attempt for the Red-headed Woodpecker at Elm lake but missed it and did not find anything new along the portions of Elm and Horseshoe Lake that we walked. We ended the day going for the Palm Warblers out near the landfill on Davis Estates Road. We got brief flitting glimpses of five Palm Warblers including one pretty yellow one.
We totaled about 80 birds for the trip. We probably could have done better if we would have had better weather in the afternoon but at least we didn't get rained on until the afternoon. I would like to thank Bill for doing an excellent job leading this trip and sharing his knowledge about Brazos Bend State Park and Davis Estates with us. It is truly a nice place to go and bird and it is not that far from Houston. I would especially like to thank David Heinicke and Bill Tarbox for assisting with this trip. Your help was greatly appreciated. I would also like to thank everybody who participated in this trip and braved the cold morning and put up with the rain in the afternoon for a couple of hours. I hope to see everybody on future trips. The list of birds seen during the trip is below.
Location: Brazos Bend State Park
Observation date: 1/20/07
Notes: Observations were during the Houston Ornithology Group field trip and include birds seen along Davis Estates. Least Grebes were seen in their usual location on Creekfield Lake and the Cliff Swallow was seen with the Cave Swallows near the observation tower of 40 Acre Lake. Cliff Swallow had the white triangle on its forehead with the dark rufous throat and the black necklace at the base of the throat.
Number of species: 80
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck 15
Snow Goose 150
Ross's Goose 5
Gadwall 6 (Davis Estates)
Blue-winged Teal 6
Northern Pintail 45
Common Goldeneye 1 (female, 40 Acre Lake)
Least Grebe 2 (Creekfield Lake)
Pied-billed Grebe 8
Neotropic Cormorant 2
Double-crested Cormorant 4
Great Blue Heron 2
Great Egret 4
Snowy Egret 3
Little Blue Heron 1 (Creekfield Lake)
Tricolored Heron 1 (Creekfield Lake)
Black-crowned Night-Heron 5 (40 Acre Lake)
White Ibis 75
White-faced Ibis 1
Plegadis sp. 5
Roseate Spoonbill 3 (40 Acre Lake)
Black Vulture 5
Turkey Vulture 10
Bald Eagle 2 (40 Acre Lake)
Northern Harrier 2
Sharp-shinned Hawk 1
Cooper's Hawk 1
Red-shouldered Hawk 5
Red-tailed Hawk 3
Crested Caracara 1 (Davis Estates)
Merlin 1 (Davis Estates)
Common Moorhen 50
American Coot 200
Killdeer 3
Least Sandpiper 40 (40 Acre Lake)
Ring-billed Gull 1 (Davis Estates)
Mourning Dove 4 (Daivs Estates)
Red-bellied Woodpecker 3
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 3
Downy Woodpecker 2
Pileated Woodpecker 2 (Heard)
Eastern Phoebe 6
Vermilion Flycatcher 3 (2-40 Acre Lake, 1-Elm Lake)
Blue-headed Vireo 3
American Crow 15
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 3 (40 Acre Lake)
Cliff Swallow 1 (40 Acre Lake) (Pending acceptance by the TBRC)
Cave Swallow 20 (40 Acre Lake)
Carolina Chickadee 3
Tufted Titmouse 2
Brown Creeper 1 (40 Acre Lake)
Carolina Wren 3
Golden-crowned Kinglet 5
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 25
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 2
Eastern Bluebird 5
American Robin 50
Hermit Thrush 1
Gray Catbird 2
Northern Mockingbird 5
European Starling 6 (Davis Estates)
American Pipit 8
Sprague's Pipit 2 (Davis Estates)
Orange-crowned Warbler 3
Yellow-rumped Warbler 20
Pine Warbler 2
Palm Warbler 6 (Davis Estates)
Common Yellowthroat 3
Field Sparrow 4
Savannah Sparrow 4
Song Sparrow 1
Lincoln's Sparrow 2
Swamp Sparrow 5
White-throated Sparrow 5
Northern Cardinal 6
Red-winged Blackbird 50
Eastern Meadowlark 1 (Davis Estates)
Common Grackle 100 (Elm Lake)
Boat-tailed Grackle 5
Great-tailed Grackle 1 (40 Acre Lake)
American Goldfinch 50
*Birds in bold were target birds or good birds for the park. Birds in bold and italicized are rare birds for the seaon on the Upper Texas Coast or for the park.
~ Adam Wood, OG Field Trip Coordinator, birdman_570@yahoo.com, 713-515-1692
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