K B Srinivas

Tuesday, September 8, 2020

Birding trip to Big Bend National Park

There were some places that I wanted to cover in Texas for birding. One was High Island which is close enough for me to visit every spring season. The other was to do the birding trip to Rio Grande Valley and the last one being Big Bend National Park. I was lucky to cover both Rio Grande Valley and Big Bend National park in the same year of 2018.

Atlast planned a camping trip to Big Bend National Park. This was our first camping trip in US. I took my family there just to experience the vastness of the National park. I don't think there is any other park like this one. The national park itself is almost 120,000 acres. It's unbelievably big. A must visit place for anyone in Texas.

We made all the preparations and drove almost 550 miles. The drive was excellent. We made sure we reached the park by 5AM to make sure we get the camp site. The plan was to camp at Chisos Basin Mountain campground. The recommendation was to reach early to get a campsite. Thankfully we got a very campsite. We setup the tent, prepared some breakfast and finished all our morning rituals. Right at the campsite I was able to get some lifers. There were Cactus Wrens, Black-crested titmouse and Say's Pheobe. There were lot of Yellow-rumped Warblers around and House Finches too along with a Lone Summer Tanager. Also got to see my first Lark Bunting here.

Campsite

Black-crested Titmouse

Pine Siskin

Western Tanager

House Finch

Lark Bunting

Black-headed Grosbeak

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Inca Dove

Cactus Wren

By 8PM we were ready and headed towards the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive. We first stopped at the Sam Neil Ranch. I was told that if the windmill works and water is pumping then we will be lucky to see some birds here. I was not disappointed. I saw my first Pyrrhuloxia and Varied Bunting here. The later being the unexpected one. I was planning to see that on the second day but got lucky here.

Clay-colored Sparrow

Varied Bunting

Pyrrhuloxia

After this we headed towards the Blue Creek Canyon. The heat was too much and we could not walk the trail here since it was very hot and not much cover to walk the Canyon. Here I got to see my first Northern rough-winged Swallow. There were some Black Pheobe on the river bank. The Rio-Grande river had carved out a nice big canyon here. Now the river was more of trickle but looking at the canyon one can wonder how big the river would have been once upon a time. After this we decided to take a break for our lunch. We stopped at one of the viewpoints for the lunch break.

Inca Dove

Northern Rough-winged Swallow

After this we went to Cottonwood campground. We were told this campground had very good birds around. Initially I wanted to camp here but there were some reports about the bear sightings here. Hence decided to camp at Chisos. The Chisos is busier than Cottonwood campground. This campground was big and there were not many people at the campground. But there was good variety of birds here. I could see lot of Yellow-rumped Warblers, Vermilion Flycatchers and Flycatchers. I got to see my first Gold-fronted Woodpecker here. There was a Ladder-backed Woodpecker here too which was busy catching the bugs. Saw a big group of Black-throated Sparrows. Also saw my first Lucy's Warbler. There were quite a few Clay-colored Sparrows around. There were some Blue Grosbeaks and Painted Buntings too. Saw my first Black-tailed Gnatcher too here. We had a surprise visit from Wild Hogs which was followed by Greater Roadrunner.

Vermilion Flycatcher

Vermilion Flycatcher(Female)

Black-throated Sparrow

Golden-fronted Woodpecker

Blue-grey Gnatcher

Brown Crested Flycatcher

Ladder-backed Woodpecker

Chipping Sparrow

Painted Bunting

Summer Tanager

Blue Grosbeak

Lucy's Warbler

Ladder-backed Woodpecker(Male)

After a while I heard some commotion and when I checked out I saw there were some birds trying to harass another bird. Immediately I thought about owl. But this bird which was being harassed was very small. I just took couple of pictures before it flew away. It turned out to be Elf Owl which was on my trip wishlist. I was told to keep an eye out for this bird in this campground and I did get lucky with this bird. It was amazing to see the bird. After this headed back to the campsite before it got dark. It was an amazing start to the trip.

Elf Owl

Yellow-headed Blackbird

Greater Roadrunner

In the night wanted to take some star trail pictures but because of the weather conditions could not take any. This is the best place to get some star trail pictures since there is no Light pollution here. I have seen some of the best star trail pictures from this National park.

It was an excellent way to wrap up our first day of the trip. Couldn't wait for the next day.

ebird :

Chisos Basin Campground : https://ebird.org/checklist/S45709078

Cottonwood Campground : https://ebird.org/checklist/S45708112

Sam Neil Ranch : https://ebird.org/checklist/S45709638

Birds seen during the day:

American Redstart
Ash-throated Flycatcher
Black Phoebe
Black Vulture
Black-crested Titmouse
Black-headed Grosbeak
Black-tailed Gnatcatcher
Black-throated Sparrow
Blue Grosbeak
Brown-crested Flycatcher
Cactus Wren
Canyon Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Clay-colored Sparrow
Collared Dove
Common Yellowthroat
Couch's Kingbird
Elf Owl
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Greater Roadrunner
House Finch
Inca Dove
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Lark Bunting
Lucy's Warbler
Mourning Dove
Northern Mockingbird
Olive-sided Flycatcher
Orchard Oriole
Painted Bunting
Pyrrhuloxia
Red-tailed Hawk
Savannah Sparrow
Summer Tanager
Swainson's Hawk
Turkey Vulture
Varied Bunting
Vermilion Flycatcher
Western Wood-Pewee
White-winged Dove
Wilson's Warbler
Yellow Warbler
Yellow-breasted Chat
Yellow-headed Blackbird
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Audubon's)
Zone-tailed Hawk

Monday, September 7, 2020

Return to White Rock Lake

After a very long time went back to White Rock Lake. Just to get out of the hosue and to check if there would be any interesting sightings. The plan was to spend some good time outside and make use of the time to get some pictures of our regular birds. There were usual suspectes with loads of Mallards, Wood Ducks and American Coots. There were couple of Green Herons chasing each other. A Belted Kingfisher gave a brief visit. Also saw a Kestrel which seemed like it was munching on a Caterpillar. There were some groups of Yellow Warblers flying around too. It felt good to just step out of the house and start going out for some birding after a long time. Hope to be a little more busy this winter and see some good number of ducks in these parks.

Wood Duck

Mallard

Belted Kingfisher

American Kestrel

Yellow Warbler

Pallid Spiny Softshell Turtle

ebird : https://ebird.org/checklist/S73288778

Birds seen during the day :

Wood Duck
Mallard
Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon)
Mourning Dove
Ruby-throated/Black-chinned Hummingbird
American Coot
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Green Heron
Belted Kingfisher
American Kestrel
Carolina Chickadee
Northern Mockingbird
Great-tailed Grackle
Yellow Warbler
Northern Cardinal

Tuesday, May 26, 2020

Birding at Bob Woodruff Park

It's been almost an year since I went for any kind of birding. Missed the complete warbler season this year thanks to house arrest to avoid catching the corona virus. We did see some warblers around our apartment complex. We had Black and White warblers, Yellow warbler and Common Yellow throat right in our backyard. My elder one used to make lists of the birds we would see around our walks. We had good number of Wrens, Waxwings and Robins this spring. We even rescued a baby Robin which was exciting for my son. This was his first foray into birding. Hoping for many more.

This weekend since everything opened couple of weeks back I decided to visit one of our local parks which is my favorite birding spots around. Usually this is a warbler magnet during the spring migration season which just passed. I still saw folks reporting sighting of some warblers in ebird and I thought will try my luck to see any late migrants.

I reached the park by the time sun came out. To my surprise the park was busy. There were lot of people doing their morning walks/running. As the temperature got warmer the park got little more busy with lot of people doing their biking and running. It was good to see so many people out after a long time.

The pond in the park was not very busy. It had mallards and some flyover swallows but nothing else in the pond. There was a lone Great-blue Heron trying to get its morning meal. Saw some Red-winged Blackbirds along with Brown-headed cowbirds. The bridge near the pond was busy with lot of the swallows flying in and out of their nests. The Chickadees and Wrens were among the loudest in the morning. The first interesting sighting of the day was Great Crested Glycatcher. There were some Black Pheobes and Flycatchers going back and forth in the thickets. I met one of the birder who said he saw a Blue Grosbeak earlier but I wasn't lucky.

Near the parula bridge it was busy. I saw lot of cardinals and some other interesting sightings were of Red-headed woodpecker, Olive-sided Flycatcher and Summer Tanager. I also saw the Red-headed woodpecker, Downy woodpeckers and Blue birds. In the trails inside the forest it was quite. The only interesting sightings were Easter-wood Pewee.