Along the Creek

I had the day off today, so I spent a couple hours birding Lake Creek Trail this morning. When I got there a little after 9:00 I recognized Barry Noret's truck. He had gotten there earlier and found another Golden-winged Warbler and a Blackburnian Warbler, two spectacular colorful migrating songbirds. I was too late to find these but there were also some interesting birds along the creek. Wilson's Phalarope are one of many species of shorebirds moving north through the area right now, and they are one of the most striking. There were two in the creek bed along with Least Sandpipers, Pectoral Sandpipers, and Lesser Yellowlegs. They were both brightly colored females. Here's one:

One interesting thing about phalaropes is that they have reversed sex roles. The male tends the nest and has dull plumage. The female has much brighter showy plumage. If you get a chance in the next few days, try to find one on the creek where it goes through the playing fields. You won't regret seeing these stunning birds.

Two other shorebird species I found this morning were Semipalmated and Baird's Sandpipers.

Spring Migration Excitement

I spent both mornings this weekend on Lake Creek Trail. Saturday morning was one of the few mornings birders hope for during the year. We're approaching the peak of spring migration and the trail was loaded with migrating songbirds! I got a late start, but finally got to the trail at about 9:00 after Barry Noret texted me that he and Stephen McDonald found a Golden-winged Warbler. We later estimated there were at least two on the trail. Other birds included Blue-winged Warbler, Bay-breasted Warbler, and Philadelphia Vireo (all species with very few observations in the neighborhood). Here are some photos from Saturday and Sunday.

Great Horned Owl Nest

Despite it being the most exciting time of the year to see birds, I haven't gotten out to bird the neighborhood much lately. But about a month ago Libby Griffin emailed me about a Great Horned Owl nest at Chester Forest and Stillforest. For several years Red-shouldered Hawks have nested here. (Here's my blog post showing hawk nestlings in the same nest back in 2010. To see more of my records of this nest, look through these posts.) Great Horned Owls are known to take over nests built by other birds, and that's what happened this year. It's a great nest site, very high in a cedar elm tree without many direct vantage points. It's high enough that they birds don't seem disturbed by people walking by. I got this photo last week one evening after work:

That white fluff ball just below the owls face is a nestling. Observing this nest during the coming weeks should be very fun since the nestlings will be growing rapidly and becoming more mobile.

Birding on Broadmeade Walk

Last Sunday morning 11 folks met at the Parmer Village pond for the April group walk. Here are the highlights. We were treated to some neat shorebirds including many Least Sandpipers and a single Pectoral Sandpiper around the shallow edges of the pond. Most of these birds were migrants. Nearby we watched a Killdeer feign a broken wing to distract us from what must have been a nearby nest on the ground. And further upstream in the creek bed we were treated to seeing all three similar shorebirds of the Tringa genus side by side: Greater Yellowlegs, Lesser Yellowlegs, and Solitary Sandpipers. Greaters are winter residents but the other two were north-bound migrants.

The only migrating songbirds we encountered were White-eyed Vireo, a few Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, and this Bronzed Cowbird, an early returning summer resident. We found it on the Town and Country playing fields near the large baseball field. Interestingly, this is where I find this species most frequently every summer. I got this poor photo showing the distinctive red eye and puffed-out neck feathers:

On our way back we were treated to a tree full of about a dozen Snowy Egrets on their way north, and thistle plants full of these Leaf-footed Bugs:

Golden-cheeked Warbler and Nesting Cooper's Hawks

Bird activity sometimes lasts later into the morning in overcast conditions, so I let myself sleep in this morning and finally got out to Lake Creek Trail at about 10am. I ran into Barry Noret who was pretty sure that earlier he'd heard and briefly seen a Golden-cheeked Warbler, so we returned to the general area and were lucky to find the bird in the cedar elms that grow over the trail where the power lines cross. This was the 217th species of bird for my neighborhood list! Despite the bad lighting, Barry got this great photo:

A locally famous endangered species, Golden-cheeked Warblers are returning to the area right now to find breeding territories in the mixed oak-juniper woods of the Texas Hill Country. So this bird won't be staying in our neighborhood. It's on its way to some place like Travis Audubon's Baker Sanctuary where it can find its Hill Country habitat, the only place they breed in the world. Black-throated Green Warblers are a very similar and much more common species that will also be moving north through the area soon. You can tell them apart by the Golden-cheek's black back (nicely shown in Barry's photo) and darker eye-line and crown.

Barry had also verified that Cooper's Hawks are nesting nearby.

Birding on Broadmeade Walk

About 15 folks met at the Lake Creek Trail parking lot at the end of Braes Valley this morning for the monthly group bird walk. It was cold and clear with a brisk wind, and the birds were quite active. An early highlight was a Hermit Thrush that didn't seem to mind the group and came out into the open quite close to us. Everyone got great looks and it was a good opportunity to learn the field marks of this winter resident bird that often stays hidden in the low dense underbrush. Here's a photo I got:

A little further down the trail we saw lots of Yellow-rumped Warblers, an Eastern Phoebe, American and Lesser Goldfinches, and an Orange-crowned Warbler.

Golden-crowned Kinglet

I encountered this male Golden-crowned Kinglet this morning on Stillforest near where it meets Meadowheath. And I got the two best photos I've ever gotten of this species. This first photo shows where it gets its common name. Females have a yellow crest on top of their heads, and males have a yellow and orange crest.

These are tiny birds that are just here in the winter, and their presence in the winter in the Austin area is sporadic. Some years we see them and some years we don't. This year has been a good year to find Golden-crowned Kinglets in central Texas, as well as other sporadic winter birds like Red-breasted Nuthatches and Brown Creepers.

In spite of their bright crests, Golden-crowned Kinglets are rather inconspicuous.