Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge

One of my fellow birder whom I had met during birding walks over the spring had been mentioning about "Hagerman Wildlife Refuge". I had read that this beautiful place is wonderful for the wintering fowls and other shore birds. Since this place was about 70miles from my home I was a little hesitant to drive alone all the way to this place for birding. But it was always there in my "To Visit" checklist along with "John Bunker Sands Wetlans Center".

Last week I read a report in Audobon forum that the shore birds might show up at Hagerman this week and since I have seen very few shore birds in US till now, I decided to checkout the refuge. It did turn out to be great time to see the migrating shore birds. The birds were in huge numbers and most of them were lifers.

I headed to the refuge at 5:15AM without much expectation. I thought it would be good to see few shore birds but did not expect anything much. Wanted to checkout the place first before the water fowl start coming here for winter. I plan to visit this place more during the winter season to look for waterfowl. Reached the Visitor center at around 6:40AM. It was still dark when I reached the place and I saw there were no cars in the parking lot. Then I thought of heading directly towards the "Haller's Haven trail" instead of waiting in the parking lot. There are lot of sign boards on the way. One could easily drive around here without getting lost :-) My mobile GPS was bad and these sign boards helped me to find my way. I reached the parking lot of the trail without much difficulty. When I reached the place I could see there were 3 cars in the lot already. They were getting ready to head out towards the "Dead Woman's Pond"

On Friday I had ready a report of the bird walk that was done on 13'th October and they had reported sighting of all the 7 woodpeckers from there. I did see couple of people who had come just to see these woodpeckers. I started the trail and first saw the "Picnic Pond". There was not much happening at this pond and probably being so early in the morning did not help. Then decided to head towards the "Dead Woman's Pond". I saw few people were waiting for the sunlight to come out. I could hear some woodpecker sounds and they were far from lens reach. But I was able to see the "Red Headed Woodpecker" cleanly. There were couple of them when I saw and they were fighting with couple of "Northern Flickers". Since there was not much light I decided to go along the trails for sometime. On the way I could see couple of Lincoln sparrows near the pond's edge making lot of noise. And once the wooded area started I saw few "Downy woodpeckers", "Yellow-bellied Sapsucker", "Tufted Titmouse", "Cardinals" and "Carolina Chickadee's". I walked the trail for about 30min and decided to head back towards the "Dead Woman's Pond". Near the pond I saw one juvenile "Red Headed woodpecker". Along with that I saw "Carolina Wren", "Nashville Warbler", "Ruby Crowned Kinglet" and "Lincoln Sparrow". It was interesting to see the warbler and Kinglet. I'm not sure of the migration patterns but I thought the warblers would be heading out towards south by now. And Kinglets seem to be returning now for the winter.

Brown Thrasher

Lincoln Sparrow

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Northern Flicker

Orange Crowned Warbler

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Carolina Wren

Near the pond I could still see the commotion with the woodpeckers and the flickers. There were at least 4 "Northern Flickers" that I could see and couple of adult "Red Headed Woodpeckers". There were few killdeers on the pond shore along with few Least Sandpipers. The other interesting birds That I saw near the pond were "Dickcissel" and"House Wren". I did see few Great Egrets and Great Blue Herons near the pond and heard the Great Egrets call for the first time here.

Savannah Sparrow

Dickcissel

House Wren

It was almost 9:30 when I decided to check the other trails on the refuge. On my drive back I saw few "Yellow Rumped Warblers" and near the small bridge I could "Greater Yellow legs" along with "Killdeers" and "Sandpipers".

And in the open fields near the Oil pads I saw my first Shrike species in US. It was a "Loggerhead Shrike". I also a "Eastern Meadow Lark" in the open fields. I kept seeing these "Meadow Larks" through out the day. I thought only 1 type of Meadow Lark is seen here in Dallas but later read the bird guide and notice that both kind of Meadow Larks can be seen here. Probably I missed a "Western Meadow Lark" assuming it to be a "Eastern Meadow Lark". Next time I need to pay more attention to each bird I see when I'm on the field.

Yellow-reumped Warbler

Eastern Meadowlark

Loggerhead Shrike

In the oil pads I could see lot of "Greater Yellow legs", "Least Sandpipers" and "Dowitchers". But among them some other birds were seen. In one of the places I could see a "Dunlin". There was a lone "Dunlin" feeding among a group of Least Sandpipers. I also saw a lone "Wilson's Snipe" feeding along with Dowitchers and Yellow legs. I also saw a lone Lesser Yellowleg near these Avocets. I also saw a "Wilson's Phalarope" in one of the ponds.

Least Sandpipers

Dunlin

Pied-billed Grebe

Lesser Yellowlegs

Wilson's Phalarope

While I was watching these shorebirds I saw a group of Ibis flew by. And one of the Ibis landed among the shorebirds. It was my first sighting of an Ibis in the wild in US. While I was trying to take a photo of this Ibis a Northern Marsh Harrier appeared and seemed scare away the birds. There was a frenzy on each oil pad when this Harrier tried to scan them for a meal. I did scoop down couple of times to catch a prey but it failed both times. This was the first time I got to see a Harrier so closely even if it was just in the flight.

Near one of the Oil Pads I saw a group of "American Avocets" feeding in the waters. I had seen Avocets in breeding plumage earlier in White Rock Lake. But seeing them now in white plumage was good. Avocets were seen at multiple ponds. .

Wilson's Snipe

Eastern Meadowlark

White-faced Ibis

Black Vulture

American Avocet

Greater Yellowlegs

American White Pelican

Forster's Terns

Red Winged Blackbird

Greater Yellowlegs

Long billed Dowitcher

Couple of people mentioned the sighting of a Bald Eagle just the day before but on this day there were no signs of this big eagle which is on my Checklist before I head back to India. Another bird that I would like to see is the Road Runner which is sighted often here in Hagerman Refuge. I hope to see one during my next few travels to this refuge.

I saw few other ducks on the lake and Pintails and a Redhead were first timers for me. I also saw a long Horned Grebe. There were few Shovelers along with Mallards. And just before I returned I scanned the lake to find a group of Forster's terns.

Pintail

Redhead

Horned Grebe

It was a great birding trip. And many thanks to the Audobon Dallas forum for helping me with the ID's of the birds.

ebird : http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S25473456

1. Canada Goose  
2. Mallard  
3. Blue-winged Teal  
4. Northern Shoveler 
5. Northern Pintail  
6. Redhead  
7. Pied-billed Grebe  
8. Horned Grebe  
9. Double-crested Cormorant  
10. American White Pelican  
11. Great Blue Heron  
12. Great Egret  
13. Snowy Egret  
14. White-faced Ibis  
15. Black Vulture  
16. Northern Harrier  
17. American Coot  
18. American Avocet  
19. Killdeer  
20. Greater Yellowlegs  
21. Lesser Yellowlegs  
22. Dunlin  
23. Least Sandpiper  
24. Long-billed Dowitcher  
25. Wilson's Snipe  
26. Wilson's Phalarope  
27. Forster's Tern  
28. Mourning Dove  
29. Red-headed Woodpecker  
30. Red-bellied Woodpecker  
31. Yellow-bellied Sapsucker  
32. Downy Woodpecker  
33. Northern Flicker  
34. American Kestrel  
35. Eastern Phoebe  
36. Loggerhead Shrike  
37. Blue Jay  
38. American Crow  
39. Barn Swallow  
40. Carolina Chickadee  
41. Tufted Titmouse  
42. House Wren  
43. Carolina Wren
44. Ruby-crowned Kinglet  
45. Eastern Bluebird  
46. Brown Thrasher  
47. Northern Mockingbird  
48. European Starling  
49. Nashville Warbler  
50. Savannah Sparrow  
51. Lincoln's Sparrow  
52. Dickcissel  
53. Red-winged Blackbird  
54. Eastern Meadowlark  

White Rock Lake(Sunset Bay Area)

Last few days I have been reading JR Compton's blog in which he mentioned the sightings of Belted Kingfisher in White Rock Lake sunset bay area. This is the only Kingfisher seen across US and not so common too. Have been wondering if I would ever get a chance to look at this bird before I head back to India. But today I got lucky.

I thought I would try the Sunset bay area this week to try my luck with Belted Kingfisher, Green Heron and the Mandarin duck. But I did get lucky with 2 of those birds from the list.

I reached the lake around 6:20 and it was still dark. But by 6:40 lot of ducks started flying in and most of the ducks in the group were Wood Ducks. I had never seen so many wood ducks before. It was crazy. Lot of the local geese were a little inside lake so these wood ducks did venture into the land for a while to feast on the food which was placed carefully at different places near the shore. You could see Wood ducks, Coots, Mallards and Pigeons try to feast on this food.

Wood Duck

But by 7:30 most of these wood ducks retreated into the streams bar few. After this I joined other birders who were watching the pelicans and other ducks on the lake. We saw 5 pelicans try to play round robin for a place on the log. It was interesting to see the birds taking turns to get a seat on the log and that involved a little fighting too.

American White Pelican

Close to the shore we saw few geese trying to find food and there couple of Great egrets and Snowy Egrets trying to find their Breakfast. There were couple of Killdeers who were calling throughout the morning. We also got to saw a Green Heron close by. My first sighting of this fellow was last year May during my first bird walk in US. Since then he had been evading me :-)

Green Heron

Another interesting observation of the morning was the hunting pattern of Great Egret and Snowy Egret. They both have complete different approaches for catching the prey. The Great Egret is a little more patient and doesn't take too many dips whereas the Snowy Egret kept running around the water and kept trying to catch the fish. Most of its tries were unsuccessful but the Great Egret's success rate was much much higher. He had his fill very soon and did take some rest once the sun came out. It was an interesting behavior which I never got a chance to observe. It would be interesting to observe Little Egrets approach for catching it's prey once I go back to India.

Great Egret

Snowy Egret

Apart from this I did see few Great Blue Herons. And one of the Heron was walking with its wing open. I don't if it was a courtship display or if it was trick to catch the fish which is usually seen with tri-colored herons. It was another interesting observation for the morning.

Great Blue Heron

And during the day I started hearing King fishers call and I was hoping he would come out in the open. And he did come out after sometime. He flew right over us, did hover for few seconds and flew away. I could not get any photos of the bird but thankfully some of the co-birders did manage to get some photos. On one side I was happy to have seen the bird but on the other I was hoping to get atleast a record photograph of this bird. I thought I still had lot of time before I head back to India to get a record photograph of this bird. But after a while we got lucky and one more kingfisher did come out and sat on a branch far away from us. Could not believe my luck :-) And atlast managed to get some record shots of this hovering bird :-)

Belted Kingfisher

Kill Deer

Coot

Since it was getting hot I decided to make a quick stop at the fish hatchery area and head back home. Near the fish hatchery area I did see lot of least sandpipers and spotted sandpipers. There were egrets and Killdeer too along with few Mallards. Apart from that I saw few Red Eared slider turtles. But did get lucky with a sighting of  Pallid spiny Softshell Turtle :-) There are always surprises. I ended the day on a happy note :-)

Red Eared Slider

Spiny softshell Turtle

WRL is indeed a very god birding area with so many different habitats :-)

ebird : http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S25198466

1. Wood Duck  
2. Mallard  
3. Mallard (Domestic type)  
4. American White Pelican  
5. Great Blue Heron  
6. Great Egret  
7. Snowy Egret  
8. Green Heron  
9. American Coot  
10. Killdeer  
11. Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon)  
12. Mourning Dove  
13. Belted Kingfisher  
14. Red-bellied Woodpecker  
15. Downy Woodpecker  
16. Blue Jay  
17. European Starling 
18. Northern Cardinal  
19. Great-tailed Grackle