Birding on Broadmeade Walk

The first few days in May are usually the peak of spring songbird migration through the Austin area, so I always have high hopes for our May group walk to see species of birds we won't see at any other time of year. To see the most migrants the weather has to cooperate too. Storms force the north-bound birds to stop traveling and wait for better weather in patches of good habitat. Last week we had storms late in the week, and between rains birders were reporting amazing varieties of birds. Saturday and Sunday were clear, but there were still migrating birds around and we had a fun Sunday morning finding them on Lake Creek Trail. Here was the view near the trail head on Braes Valley:



The birding was tough. We could see small birds moving through the tree canopy but we got only brief glimpses of them in the dense leaves. The first cooperative migrating bird for a photo we found was this brilliant male Summer Tanager:





One by one throughout the morning we got brief looks at Nashville Warbler, Tennessee Warbler, Yellow Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Warbling Vireo, Blue-headed Vireo, Least Flycatcher, Eastern Wood-Pewee, and Wilson's Warbler. The star of the morning was a female Golden-winged Warbler, a declining species I've only seen a handful of times on the trail. Here's the poor photo I managed to get:



A couple non-birding highlights were these Texas Dandelions, all pointed at the sun:



And this young male Roseate Skimmer dragonfly was great to see:



Here are a few more photos on Flickr.

And here's our complete bird list on eBird.