Birding at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge

I have been wanting to go for Tuesdays Bird Walk at Hagerman for a long time. I wasn't aware of this bird walk till Chuck informed me in the Audobon Forum. After I got to know about this bird walk which is led most of the times by Jack Charles is the best way to explore Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge. I had been to this place for birding in October but birding with people like Jack really helps to know and understand the birds better. Since its tough to attend these Tuesday Bird walks because of weekday work I planned to attend on Dec 29'th which was kind of a holiday for me :-) Took half day off from work and went for birding. Chuck Carlson was also there.

The walk starts at 8AM, I had gone a little early to see Geese near the Refuge Center but I did not get to see any birds near the center except for some sparrows. We were 9 of us and 7 of us seated in Chuck's van and Jean and her husband followed us in their truck.

The refuge is completely flooded with no access to the usual roads we drive on the refuge. And the water level is still increasing and it is expected to crest on Sunday. So the number of water fowl was very low in the lake. Also since most of the grass is submerged we did not get to see the Snow/Ross's Geese which were seen in thousands till last week.

We saw lot of sparrows during the entire drive. We saw White-throated, White-crowned, Harris and Nelson's sparrow. We also saw Fox's sparrow near the Meadow Pond trail gate.  Jean wanted to see this bird which was on her wish list for the year bird. And in the lake near the trail we saw lot of Pintails, Gadwalls and Wigeons. There were 2 Ruddy ducks too along with lot of American Coots. Through out our drive we saw lot of Red-winged Blackbirds and Starlings. At one place we saw Brewers Blackbird too. And in one of the ponds we saw Ring-necked duck and few Lesser Scaups. Jack did spot a Common Yellowthroat but I did not get to see the same. We also saw about 3 Road runners during the drive. Such an amazing bird.

Road Runner

Pintails

Lincoln's Sparrow

Red-winged Blackbird(Female)

Pintail

Ruddy Ducks along with coots

We started driving through the Meadow Pond trail and Deavers pond and the Meadow pond were full. Infact the Deaver's pond had a frozen layer at the top. The temperature had dropped drastically in last couple of days. On the trail we saw Bewick's Wren, Winter Wren, Golden crowned Kinglet, Mallards, Pintails and Gadwalls. Wayne did get to see 3 Rusty Birds which we all missed.  We also saw couple of Inca Doves. We also spotted few Goldfinches flock which had Pine Siskins too. I tried to find them but failed to see any :-(

Fox Sparrow

Bewick's Wren

Winter Wren

Golden Crowned Kinglet

At the end of 5 hrs drive, Jack had compiled a list of 83 birds. I missed about 15 species in that list. But it still it was great seeing so many birds and learning the birding skills from all the experienced folks who were in the group.

After this birding walk I decided to follow Chuck and Mike to checkout the Dead Womans pond. On the way we saw a Belted Kingfisher and my first sighting of a Coyote. In the Dead Woman's pond we saw few Green Winged Teals, Ring-necked Ducks and Mallards. And on the lake we saw some Gadwalls, Ring necked Ducks and Mallards. The other sightings were of some sparrows and Gold Finches. And from the parking lot we observed a soaring raptor which Jack helped identifying it as a Northern Harrier.

Ring-necked Ducks

Red-headed Woodpecker

American Goldfinch

Northern Harrier

Northern Shoveller

After leaving the Dead Woman's pond I stopped at the Wildlife drive to see some Waterfowl. I only saw few Mallards, Pintails, Gadwalls and American Wigeons. And on the way saw few Kestrels, Loggerhead Shrike, Goldfinch, Cowbird, Canvasback, Gadwalls and Pintails.

Northern Flicker

American Goldfinch

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Canvasback

American Kestrel

Harris Sparrow

Red-tailed Hawk

Great Blue Heron

Loggerhead Shrike

Cowbirds

Meadowlark

American Kestrel

Hope to join the Tuesday birding group again sometime soon. Thanks to Chuck for informing me about this great birding walk and also helping me with identifying so many birds.

Lake Tawakoni Christmas Bird count

I have been planning to participate in Christmas Bird Count from last year. Last year I could not attend any of the CBC. But this year I did not want to miss out. So planned to do atleast 2 CBC this year, one was Lake Tawkoni and other being Audobon Trinity Count. Lake Tawakoni count was on Dec 26'th. The trinity count is on Jan 2'nd.

Richard Kinney was the group leader heading the Lake Tawakoni CBC. There were about 11 of us. doing the CBC around the lake. I joined Chuck Carlson and Vance to cover the area around Edgewood. We drove around in Vance's car. We started birding at around 7 and started from the town itself. There is some good birding habitat around the town and we saw lot of birds. The first place where we stopped had good mixed flock of birds foraging. There were White-Throated Sparrows, White-Crowned Sparrows, Pine Siskins, Red -Bellied Woodpecker, Eastern Bluebird and Yellow-Rumped Warblers.

Red-bellied Woodpeckere

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

White-winged Dove

Song Sparrow?

White-Crowned Sparrow

House Finch

Pine Warbler

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Savannah Sparrow

Song Sparrow

Field Sparrow

During the day we saw other sparrows Field-Sparrow, Nelson's Sparrow and Song Sparrows. The number of Duck sightings for the day was very less. We only saw few Mallards and Geese and only other duck we saw a lone Ring Necked Duck. We also saw couple of Red-Shouldered Hawks, red-Tailed Hawk and few Kestrels. The Black/Turkey Vultures were see throughout the day.

Red-shouldered Hawk

Loggerhead Shrike

Downy Woodpecker

White-throated Sparrow

And at one place our car got stuck in the mud. Thank's to chuck's idea we were able to get out of it. But during this time we saw lot of bird activity near a cemetery close by. We decided to check the birds around the area and again we saw a mixed flock of birds which had Goldfinches, Pine Warblers, Ruby-Crowned Kinglet, American Robins and few sparrows. Also heard Red-Bellied woodpeckers from close by trees.

Pine Warbler

Eastern Bluebird

Pine Warbler

Dark Eyed Junco

Chipping Sparrow?

White-crowned Sparrow

Hermit Thrush

American Robin

Right before we ended the day we saw few Harris Sparrows and Fox sparrows which were my first sighting of these species along with Ring Necked Duck.

Harris Sparrow

Red Tailed Hawk

Fox Sparrow

I'm yet to go through the final CBC count from Richard.

I left early and could not join the group for final tally since the weather had been bad and the tornadoes warnings kept coming. I started home around 5:10 and reached home by 6:30 before the heavy rains started. Unfortunately we did have 3 tornadoes touch down in Dallas and few lives were lost which was really sad. The weather was really scary till about 10PM that day.