Birding on Broadmeade Walk

Yesterday morning 12 folks met me at the Parmer Village pond for the monthly bird walk. We greatly enjoyed cool temperatures and we ultimately recording 42 species of birds. There wasn't much to see by the pond, but we ended up spending almost half of our time in the tall grass between the pond and the first dam on the creek. This area was beautiful -- many plants are blooming right now and everything was wet and sparkly from Saturday night's rain. Here's some of the blooming Poverty Weed in the morning light.

Near one patch of Poverty Weed we found a mixed flock of migrating songbirds.
They weren't easy to observe in the tall grass and dense brush, but we eventually got brief looks at Nashville Warblers, a Wilson's Warbler, Blue Grosbeaks, and a few Clay-colored Sparrows. Some of the birds moved on to a beautiful patch of Maximilian Sunflowers that also included a couple Lesser Goldfinches.

After this group of birds, things were kind of slow until we entered the small patch of woods between the creek and the hike and bike trail. We saw most of these same migrating songbirds, and I was excited to find a few Ruby-crowned Kinglets -- the first I've seen this season. These tiny greenish birds are one of my favorite symbols of winter in central Texas. I got this photo of one as it foraged almost right over our heads:

And here's one of the Nashville Warblers we saw in the same patch of woods:

Other highlights included a very briefly seen Brown Thrasher, a cooperatively perched Cooper's Hawk, and this Penguin floating on its back!

Here's our complete list of birds.