Birding on Broadmeade Walk

Yesterday nearly 20 people joined me for the one-week-delayed monthly bird walk. We met at the Lake Creek Trail trail head at the end of Braes Valley at 8 AM. Early May is usually when spring bird migration peaks in central Texas and we were hoping to see some birds that we don't get to see at other times of the year. We had a promising start with 3 Mississippi Kites overhead on their way north. Here's a distant photo of one of them:

The rest of the morning was full of lots of bird sounds, but mostly fleeting glimpses of the birds making them. Some of the migrating warblers we briefly spotted in the lush trees and low brush along the trail included Common Yellowthroat, Yellow Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, American Redstart, Canada Warbler, and Wilson's Warbler. A couple birds we only heard were Yellow-breasted Chat and Willow Flycatcher. I was excited to hear the flycatcher because it's almost impossible to identify without hearing it.

As often happens during these walks, many folks left early. So nearly two hours later, there were only about five of us back at the trail head. And that's when we spotted the most exciting bird of the morning: a male Cerulean Warbler. Keeping consistent with the rest of the morning, we only got quick glimpses of this bird, but I managed to get an identifiable photo:

This was my 228th bird species on Lake Creek Trail. I reported it on the local rare bird alert network and a few more folks saw it that afternoon. They even reported it was singing!

Here's our complete bird list.