CENTRAL TEXAS, 24-27 April 2023
A bit over four hours of serious driving from the Trinity River bottoms got me to Plano, Texas, and the home of Merrick and Lorraine Darley, my local hosts for two nights. I was there to give a talk to the Prairie and Timbers Audubon Society membership.
The next morning, Plano’s best birders, including Merrick Darley, Mike Cameron, Linda Ergonis, Candy Anandagoda, and her husband Vas Anadagoda, took me out to Bob Woodruff Park, a favorite birding venue in spring for migrant songbirds.
In four leisurely hours we tallied fifty-four species, a nice list for a somewhat cool and dreary morning. There was no evidence of a big migrant arrival, but stuff was around. Woodruff Park is a Plano town park that protects Rowlett Creek, whose banks are nicely wooded, forming a riverine strip of forest. Walking a stream-side trail in the forest, we came upon a pair of fledgling Great Horned Owls and also an adult Barred Owl. Here we also heard singing Blue-headed and Red-eyed Vireos.
Warblers were few: Northern Waterthrush, and Myrtle, Nashville,
Orange-crowned, and Black-and-white Warblers. What was nice was the wide range
of species seen: Brown Thrasher, Black-chinned Hummingbird, Painted Bunting, Yellow-breasted
Chat, and Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, among others.
It’s always fun going out with local birders who know their stuff, which our group did. I was able to query them about local and Texas-wide birding opportunities, which prepared me for my upcoming travels to West Texas. Several in our group were headed out for a weekend birding trek to New Mexico in the afternoon. So they were getting a jump on me!
From Plano, I drove five hours south to San Antonio to visit my friends Patsy and Tom Inglet, and to give a talk to the Bexar Audubon Society. I took the “back way” to San Antonio, in order avoid the unpleasant traffic in Austin. I took route 281 through Lampasas and Johnson City, which is quite picturesque. I stopped for a picnic lunch at Longhorn Cavern State Park, a few miles west of Burnet. Getting a park map, I saw that there was a “warbler trail” on it. Since I was on the eastern edge of the Edwards Plateau, I surmised this was a trail to see the endemic breeder, the Golden-cheeked Warbler.
Longhorn Cavern State Park is small, and features a cave. I passed on the cave and lingered on the Warbler Trail until I heard the bright and buzzy song of a territorial male Golden-cheeked Warbler. Bingo!
This rare warbler is a bird I had seen only once before, at
Dinosaur Valley State Park near Glen Rose, more famous for its dinosaurian
footprint impressions visible in the mudstones of the stream bottom. Merrick
Darley had taken me there from Plano on a Texas visit about a decade earlier.
This male Golden-cheek was quite confiding and allowed close approach in the thicket of Ashe Junipers, the warbler’s favored nesting tree.
Little Joshua Creek, near Welfare, Texas
After a nap at my host’s home in San Antonio, I went out with the Inglets to bird Joshua Springs Park, a bit northwest of Boerne (pronounced “BURN-ee”), and near the towns of Waring and Welfare (along the Little Joshua Creek). It was breezy and sunny so the afternoon birding was a bit challenging, but the Inglets showed me a lifer (Ash-throated Flycatcher), and we also enjoyed a Ladder-backed Woodpecker, Crested Caracara, and Vermilion Flycatcher—a blazing red male.
The next morning I followed the Inglets to Mitchell Lake Audubon Center, where they had to teach a class. I spent the morning there, mainly trying to photograph some of the local Texas birds. This is a good spot for bird photography because of the many feeders and plantings that attract an array of birds.
I did shoot birds, but also lizards and butterflies and some plants as well. It is nice to spend some time in one place, just hunkering down, and letting nature come to you…
In the late morning I said my goodbyes to the Inglets and drove north to Austin, to visit Jane Tillman and her husband Mark, and to give a talk to the Travis Audubon Society.
The morning after the talk Jane took me to Lake Travis and Bob Wentz Park for a bird walk to Windy Point along the shore of the reservoir. This netted me another lifer (Egyptian Goose), plus some nifty shorebirds (Baird’s Sandpiper, Spotted Sandpiper, American Golden-Plover), and some songbirds (e.g., Lark Sparrow). This is beautiful spot for a good walk and some good birds.
By late morning I had said farewell to Jane and I was driving south and west, headed to the
Davis Mountains of West Texas. Wanting to see some new country and avoid the
monotony of I-10, I made my way down to Highway 90, taking me through Uvalde, Brackettville,
Del Rio, Langtry, Comstock, and Alpine (longer but more scenic, taking me up along the north bank of the the Rio Grande valley).
Alicia's Kitchen, in Bracketville, Texas (on Highway 90)
Seven hours of driving got me to Fort Davis. I was now in the Trans-Pecos, desert country with clusters of dry mountains capped with conifers. This is the land of wide-open spaces…
My next blog will feature the Davis Mountains and some
specialty birds of West Texas.
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