Dynamic Weather and a Busy Weekend

This evening I got out for about an hour after the rain. I birded the flood plain property and nearby T&C playing fields hoping to find some migrants grounded by the weather. I love getting out right after a rain like this. The light was beautiful. The air was cool and clear. Here's a picture of the playing fields with the sun at my back and the rain clouds beyond. The bird of the day was a Great Horned Owl that came to perch on a dead tree at the edge of the flood plain property.

On the flood plain property I got this shot of the trailing edge of the rain clouds.

And here's a bit of sunset upstream on Lake Creek. You can just see the Broadmeade bridge.

Last weekend was busy for me -- full of birding away from the neighborhood. Saturday morning I helped out with the monthly bird survey at Hornsby Bend. Located on the Colorado River and with a variety of habitats, this is the best place to see birds in the Austin area. Sunday morning a friend and I did a survey for endangered Golden Cheeked Warblers on the Nature Conservancy's Barton Creek Habitat Preserve. It was a cold and clear morning and was lots of fun. We heard several Golden-cheeks and had a great look at one singing male. The part of the preserve we surveyed is adjacent to the Austin Zoo. So at about 8:15 in the morning we had the surreal experience of hearing a lion roar while hiking in the Texas Hill Country!