There were 3 of us for the July NASWC bird walk this morning and we had a surprisingly fun time. Through the first half of the walk the temperature stayed bearable and we had a nice breeze and a little bit of cloud cover. There was lots of bird activity and we found 41 species, including some south-bound migrating shorebirds on the creek. Can you believe that some birds are already heading south again? Here are the highlights:
- Many Western Kingbirds were along the creek actively defending their territories. (I got the above picture of one of them.) We even saw one chase a Belted Kingfisher upstream. Surprisingly, we did not see any Scissor-tailed Flycatchers.
- We also got good looks at a couple Great Crested Flycatchers, a summer resident that I have had trouble seeing this year.
- Newly fledged birds were out in force. We saw dozens of juvenile Northern Mockingbirds and American Robins on the T&C playing fields and along the creek. And on our way back we watched parent Barn Swallows feed younger birds in mid-air.
- On one small patch of the creek we saw 4 species of south-bound migrating shorebirds: 4 Least Sandpipers, 1 Semipalmated Sandpiper, 1 Spotted Sandpiper, and 2 Solitary Sandpipers.
3 comments:
Hi Mikael,
I think the butterfly is a Tawny Emperor. And the vine is probably Spanish Grape. Spanish Grape and Mustang Grape are the 2 most common grapevines in the hill country. The Mustang has woolly white hairs on the underside of the leaf. I can't really see the underside of any leaves in the photo, but the general appearance is that of the Spanish Grape.
Bill
Thanks Bill! The vine leaves did not have the hairs. I thought it looked similar to Mustang Grape but the leaves did not look quite the same.
Hi,
That is a wild grape and is very invasive once it gets started. It will smother anything within reach in no time. I have a big bunch of it growing between my fence in the back yard. You can have it for free but you have to dig it out yourself :-)
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