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May 10-13, 2007
This spring’s quarterly trip was to west Texas around the Uvalde area in search of Golden-cheeked Warbler and Black-capped Vireo and other more western brush land birds. Mike Overton, a naturalist for the Frio Country Resort and Tony Gallucci were our leaders for this trip. Mike did the leading on Friday and Saturday and Tony lead us on Sunday. The weather during the trip couldn’t have been nicer with the mornings starting off on the cool side and it never got to be unbearably hot. The nice thing about this region of Texas is that it is more arid and not humid so the shade and breezes felt cool. It was partly cloudy for most of Friday and Saturday but clear on Sunday. The only rain on the trip was on the drive up and back.
One of the funniest moments of the trip occurred on the first night during the organizational meeting. We decided to have the meeting outside by the pool because it was such a nice evening. I was in the process of collecting money from a participant when the wind blew my sheet of paper with who owed me what and all the participants’ cell phone numbers out of my portfolio. I chased after it and wound up going in the pool after it. I will let the other participants tell the story because it is always funnier when you hear it from a bystander then the one it happened to. Here is what one participant had to say about the incident.
"The pond event featured your ill-advised attempt to log roll on a beer can. " - Bill Godley
Friday was spent birding Chalk Bluff Park and The Uvalde Fish Hatchery instead of Kickapoo State Park like originally planned since we could not get into Kickapoo State Park. We started off by birding the entrance road into the park, which was quite birdy. Shortly after getting out of the cars we were already hearing a Black-throated Sparrow and a Bell’s Vireo singing. We spotted the Black-throated Sparrow first and enjoyed good looks at this handsome sparrow as he was singing away on an exposed branch. Once everyone had the looks they wanted at the sparrow Mike taped in the Bell’s Vireo that we were hearing singing in the distance. We all enjoyed good but kinda brief looks at this vireo. The other highlight along the entrance road was watching a Cassin’s Sparrow skylarking out in the middle of a field. We unfortunately were only able to get brief looks at it perched in the scope since it was actively skylarking and only afforded us about ten second long glances at it. However, this sparrow is easily identifiable by its behavior because it is the only sparrow found in the area that skylarks. Other birds encountered along the entrance road were two Greater Roadrunners one of which was spotted perched up in a tree, Long-billed Thrasher, Painted Bunting, Hooded Orioles, numerous Dickcissels, Clay-colored Sparrows and a singing Grasshopper Sparrow. The Grasshopper Sparrow came into Mike’s playback and teed up for us about 20 feet away, You really couldn’t have gotten a much better look at this handsome usually shy sparrow. After birding the entrance road we drove to the park headquarters to pay the admission fee and for a bathroom break.
While waiting for the participants to use the facilities we birded around the park headquarters and saw several Black-chinned Hummingbirds visiting the feeders, a not very satisfactory look at an Ash-throated Flycatcher, Lesser Goldfinches and heard a Cactus Wren but we could not locate it. Once everybody was ready we drove down to the Nueces River and parked. We spent the rest of the morning birding along the Nueces River. Highlights included seeing a Chihuahuan Raven and a Commoon Raven flying alongside the bluffs near the river, a single male Bullock’s Oriole, a Western Kingbird and Couch’s Kingbird perched in the same tree, a mated pair of Green Kingfishers, Yellow-throated Warbler, Yellow Warbler, several Yellow-breasted Chats, Yellow-throated Vireo, Eastern Wood-Pewee, Summer Tanager and a Cactus Wren seen in the process of constructing a nest. We also briefly heard a Black-tailed Gnatcatcher but could not get it to come it to the playback. After a successful morning of birding Chalk Bluff Park we decided to head over to the Fish Hatchery in Uvalde to try and add some ducks and sandpipers to the list for the day.
We did not spend too much time at the Fish Hatchery since it was getting rather hot. However, we did get some good birds in the short time we were there and a nice water snake. The main highlight was seeing a nice male Yellow-headed Blackbird in the cattails in one of the ponds. Yellow-headed Blackbirds are migrants through Uvalde County but it was getting rather late for them to be seen migrating through. It was a life bird for some of the participants and a Texas lifer for me. Other then the blackbird we also heard and got a very brief look at a Marsh Wren, one Ruddy Duck in basic plumage, a female Wilson’s Warbler and a pair of Yellow Warblers. Other then birds we did get a good look at a water snake that was curled up in the shade on one of the support columns of the observation deck we were on and numerous species of dragonflies and damselflies. Once it got to hot for us to stand any more we decided to call it a day and return to the cabin for a nap or a dip in the pool. When we got back everybody was relieved to hear that we would be getting a later start the next morning since we didn’t have to go as far to get to Lost Maples as we did to Chalk Bluff Park.
The next morning Mike took us over to Lost Maples to look for the Golden-cheeked Warbler. Before I get into our morning at Lost Maples I have to tell the story of the Wild Turkey that nearly wound up in Patsy’s lap. As we were driving to Lost Maples I noticed a Wild Turkey running along side a fence on the side of the road. People in the car in front of me being driven by Marcy also saw it. I was thinking it better not decide to turn and fly across the road as I watched it proceed to lift off. It took for what seemed like an eternity for the bird to get off the ground. It really was like a big jumbo jet taking off. It flew along side the road for a little bit but then decided to turn and fly across the road right in between my car and Marcy’s. Patsy was riding shot gun in my car and she thought for sure that the turkey was going to wind up in her lap. However, I managed to break just enough that it was able to get enough altitude to get above my car but it was a close call. One that we all would be talking about with the rest of the group once we got to Lost Maples. As it turns out Mike and everybody in his car never even saw the turkey. Below are a couple of first hand accounts of this story from the other participants.
"The "turkey" carcass has been found and reclassified as the last evidence of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker species. Informed sources have secured the license plate of the vehicle involved. " - Bill Godley
"I didn't notice the turkey until I heard blood-curdling screams coming from Cindy and more screams from Patsy! I looked up out the front window and saw a huge turkey flying slowly to the left flying right in front of Adam's car. It was getting closer and closer and then was touching the front windshield with its wings. Adam exhibited great restraint breaking only slightly as the turkey got closer and closer. (If any of the rest of us were driving, I think we would have been STANDING on the brakes!) After the turkey brushed slightly against our windshield, it began moving away across the road. An amazing encounter! " - Claire Moore
Sure enough once we reached Lost Maples while we were waiting for people to pay their admission fee and use the facilities we told Mike and those in his car about the close encounter with the turkey. Once everybody was ready we drove back to the trail head for the east trail to begin our search for the Golden-cheeked Warbler. We spent the morning walking the east trail just to the point before it starts getting steep on the way up to the ridge of the bluffs. We heard several Golden-cheeked Warblers on our walk to the turn around point but did not see one until we turned around and headed back to the cars. Before seeing the Golden-cheeked Warbler we got good looks at a couple Acadian Flycatchers, heard Red-eyed Vireos including getting a good look at one, heard Yellow-throated Vireos and heard and saw a Black-and-White Warbler. Claire was also able to locate a Blue-gray Gnatcatchers and a Black-chinned Hummingbirds nest for us. In fact the Black-chinned Hummingbird nest was near were we saw our first Golden-cheeked Warbler. I am not sure who first spotted the male Golden-cheeked Warbler as I was off chasing what I initially thought was a Golden-cheeked Warbler a little ways behind the group. What I had seen turned out to be a Yellow-throated Vireo. After I discovered that it was not the Golden-cheek I heard Karen calling me that she thought she had a Golden-cheeked Warbler. I rushed over there to get a look at it but by the time I got there we could not relocate it and that was when I notice Liz waving at us to come join them and I figured they most have a Golden-cheeked Warbler. So we made our way over there and sure enough they had one and those of us late arrivals were able to get good looks at it. Shortly after leaving that Golden-cheeked Warbler the group got stretched out again with me being towards the back when Sally called out that she thought she had another Golden-cheeked Warbler. Sure enough she had another one and this time it was a female. We wound up seeing two Golden-cheeked Warblers during our morning hike. I was a little disappointed in the lack of activity compared to the last time I was there. A notable miss for the morning was not coming up with a Scott’s Oriole. After getting back to the cars we decided we would head back to Concan and bird around Neal’s Lodges for the afternoon.
At Neal’s we first stopped by the feeders and saw House Finches and Lesser Goldfinches gorging themselves. We then walked a few of the trails behind Neal’s to see if we could find Verdin, Bushtit, Olive Sparrow, Rufous-crowned Sparrow and Clay-colored Sparrow. We were able to get brief look at a Verdin that came into Mike’s playback. I think most were able to get a look at the yellow on the face and the red epilate in the scapular. We heard a Rufous-crowned Sparrow but could not get it to come in to the playback Other birds of note that were seen were a pair of Ladder-backed Woodpeckers that afforded us some great looks and getting some more good looks at two more Black-throated Sparrows. We decided to call it a day around 3:45 and headed back to our cabins. There we said goodbye to Mike and thanked him for leading us for the past two days and sharing his incredible wealth of knowledge with us not just about the birds we were seeing but about the insects we encountered as well. That night we all had dinner at the House Pasture Restaurant in the Frio Country Resort near our cabins. At the dinner Bill gave a nice toast in honor of Mothers Day since the participants sacrificed being with their family and children on Mothers Day to go on this trip. We also found out that Nancy had reached the 400 milestone during the trip after seeing the Golden-cheeked Warbler. Not a bad bird for No. 400. Some of the participants left the dinner early to go watch the bats emerge from the Frio Bat Cave nearby. Shortly after everybody got back we went to bed because we had the earliest morning of the trip the next morning.
We woke up and got packed up bright and early the next morning to leave in time to make it up to where we were going to meet Tony our leader for Sunday. We meet Tony at Garner Store near Kerr Wildlife Management Agency and he took us over to Kerr WMA to look for the Black-capped Vireo. On the way in to where we parked our cars Tony heard six Black-capped Vireos. Shortly after getting out of our cars we heard one of the Black-capped Vireos but it was not real close so we decided to let it go and continued to walk down the entrance road listening for a closer one. After hearing three of them we finally heard one close to the road and we stopped near the shrub it was calling from to give it time to emerge. After waiting for about five minutes we finally saw it moving around in the middle part of the shrub affording us some some what descent looks. After following its movements for a while it flew out of the shrub and into the crown of a tree a little ways back from the shrub. It did eventually work its way out to the left side of the tree in full view and perched there for several minutes singing away giving us great looks. It was my best ever look at a Black-capped Vireo. We wound up getting looks at four Black-capped Vireos while we were there. It was quite an experience. Other then the vireos we heard several Rufous-crowned Sparrows but again never managed to see one. Since it was such a nice day the birding was a bit slow. I believe the butterflies and dragonflies stole the show at Kerr WMA. However, we had a very nice morning there and all of us were sad when it was time to start the trek back to Houston.
This was truly a great trip and one of the best that I have planned. The leaders and accommodations were great. The accommodations were better then what most of the participants were expecting. Overall for the trip we saw or heard 107 birds getting everything that you should get on most trips during this time of year to this area. However, we did not do so well on the harder to find birds and had a few notable misses like Zone-tailed Hawk, not seeing a Rufous-crowned Sparrow, Olive Sparrow, Scott’s Oriole, Bushtit, Varied Bunting, Pyrrhuloxia, Black-tailed Gnatcatcher, Western Scrub Jay (probably the most notable miss), Brown-crested Flycatcher and ringed Kingfisher Most importantly we did get great looks at both the Black-capped Vireo and the Golden-cheeked Warbler. One final thought It had been about six years since I was last in this area and I was surprised to see how green it was. I had forgotten how pretty this region of Texas is and am planning on not waiting another six years before returning again. A big thanks goes out to Mike Overton and Tony Gallucci for doing such a wonderful job in showing us what the area has to offer. It truly made this trip a great one. A list of birds and other critters seen during trip is below.
Locations: Frio Country Resort (FC), Chalk Park Bluff (CPB), Uvalde Fish Hatchery (FH), Lost Maples State Park (LMSP), Neal's Lodges (NL) and Kerr Wildlife Management Area (KWMA)
Observation date: 5/10-13/07
Participants: Cindy Douglass, Claire Moore, Marcy Brown, Nancy Hannan, Patsy Lawrence, Sally Rigg, Bill Godley, Janet Rathjen, Karen Vargas, Liz Zivley, Bonnie Bailey, Susan Severance and Adam Wood
Number of species: 107
Birds in bold were target birds for the trip and birds in bold and italicized are rare birds for the area or season they were seen in or endangered. Birds with * in front of them were seen either before the trip on Thursday or after the trip on Sunday afternoon.
Black-bellied Whistling Duck FH
Blue-winged Teal FH
Ruddy Duck (1) FH
Wild Turkey (3) KWMA
Pied-billed Grebe (1) FH
Neotropic Cormorant (1) CBP
Double-crested Cormorant (1) CBP
Great Blue Heron CBP
Great Egret (1) CBP
Cattle Egret Enroute
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Harris’s Hawk
Red-shouldered Hawk (3) CBP, KWMA
Red-tailed Hawk (2) CBP
Common Moorhen (1) FH
American Coot FH
Killdeer (1) CBP
Spotted Sandpiper (1) CBP
Rock Pigeon (5) Uvalde
Eurasian Collared-Dove (1) KWMA
White-winged Dove (5) CBP
Mourning Dove
Inca Dove (1) KWMA
Common Ground-Dove (5) CBP
Yellow-billed Cuckoo (Heard) CBP, FC
Greater Roadrunner (2) CBP
Chuck-will’s-widow (Heard) FC
Chimney Swift
Ruby-throated Hummingbird (2) CBP
Black-chinned Hummingbird (25) CBP, LMSP, FC
*Ringed Kingfisher (1) Bill Godley enroute CBP
Green Kingfisher (2) CBP
Golden-fronted Woodpecker (5) CBP
Ladder-backed Woodpecker (4) CBP, LMSP, NL
Eastern Wood-Pewee CBP, LMSP
Acadian Flycatcher (2) LMSP
*Black Phoebe (1) FC
Eastern Phoebe
Vermillion Flycatcher (8) FC, CBP
Ash-throated Flycatcher (4) CBP, LMSP
Couch’s Kingbird (5) CBP
Western Kingbird (5) CBP, FH
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher (10) CBP, FH, FC
White-eyed Vireo (5) CBP
Bell’s Vireo (5) CBP
Yellow-throated Vireo (5) CBP, LMSP
Black-capped Vireo (4) KWMA
Blue-headed Vireo (1) CBP
Red-eyed Vireo (5) CBP, LMSP
Chihuahuan Raven (1) CBP
Common Raven (1) CBP
Purple Martin NL
Northern Rough-winged Swallow (10) CBP, LMSP
Cliff Swallow KWMA
Cave Swallow KWMA
Barn Swallow CBP, FH, FC, NL, KWMA
Carolina Chickadee (5) LMSP
Black-crested Titmouse (5) CBP, LMSP, KWMA
Verdin (1) NL
Bushtit (Heard) NL
Cactus Wren (1) CBP
Canyon Wren (2) CBP, LMSP, KWMA
Carolina Wren
Bewick’s Wren (1) NL, KWMA
Marsh Wren (1) FH
Ruby-crowned Kinglet (1) CBP
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher CBP, LMSP, KWWMA
Black-tailed Gnatcatcher (Heard) CBP
Eastern Bluebird
Northern Mockingbird
Long-billed Thrasher (1) CBP
European Starling Yellow Warbler (4) CBP, FH
Golden-cheeked Warbler (2-male and female) LMSP
Yellow-throated Warbler (2) CBP
Black-and-White Warbler (2) LMSP
Common Yellowthroat (1) FH
Wilson’s Warbler (1-female) FH
Yellow-breasted Chat CBP, KWMA
Summer Tanager (4) CBP, LMSP
Canyon Towhee (2) FC
Cassin’s Sparrow (2) CBP
Rufous-crowned Sparrow (Heard) NL, KWMA
Clay-colored Sparrow (4) CBP
Filed Sparrow (Heard) KWMA
Chipping Sparrow (2) LMSP
Lark Sparrow (6) CBP, FC, NL, KWMA
Black-throated Sparrow (4) CBP, NL
Grasshopper Sparrow (2) CBP
Northern Cardinal
Blue Grosbeak (3)
Indigo Bunting (2) LMSP
Painted Bunting (5) CBP, NL, LMSP
Dickcissel CBP
Red-winged Blackbird
Yellow-headed Blackbird (1) FH
Great-tailed Grackle
Bronzed Cowbird CBP, FC, KWMA
Brown-headed Cowbird
Hooded Oriole (6) FC, CBP
Bullock’s Oriole (2) CBP, FH
Baltimore Oriole
House Finch
Lesser Goldfinch
House Sparrow
Nighthawk sp.
Meadowlark sp.
Kerr WMA (click link for list of animals and plants seen at Kerr Wildlife Management Area)
~ Adam Wood, OG Field Trip Coordinator, birdman_570@yahoo.com, 713-515-1692
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