New River Park/North San Gabriel Park

On Saturday, March 4, Terri and I took Dobbie (our dog) for a walk in the North San Gabriel River Park. This park is relatively new, and is comprised of several trails along the North San Gabriel River. The trails have been joined together to create a 5 mile one way trip, from Georgetown City Park, up to the dam below Lake Georgetown. We walked the 10 miles and birded along the way. It was great, and we saw over 25 birds including redhead duck, American Coot, pied billed grebe, belted kingfisher, cedar waxwing, house finch, yellow rumped warbler, yellow crowned kinglet, ruby crowned kinglet, eastern phoebe, great blue heron, yellow crowned night heron, black vulture, turkey vulture, northern cardinal, northern mocking bird, red bellied woodpecker, downy woodpecker, blue jay, american crow, Carolina chickadee, black-crested titmouse, hermit thrush, chipping sparrow and starling.

If you want more information about the park - http://www.georgetown.org/citynews/pressrelease.php?id=297

Yellow-Crowned Night Heron

I've been looking for this bird for a long time. This breeding adult (see the long white occipital plumes) was feeding along the river above the golf course, but before the weir dam. It allowed us to get pretty close. This bird made the trip for me. 

Great Blue Heron

The San Gabriel is a good place to find blue herons. The ornate black feather plumes on the head tells you this is a breeding adult. 

Hermit Thrush

Another first for me. Despite the name, these birds aren't very shy. They are supposed to have one of the most beautiful songs of the American songbirds, but I didn't hear the song today. 

Northern Cardinal

Dozens of cardinals were singing along the trail. Maybe it's because they are so easy to spot, but I think they are the most common bird in the park. 

Viewing Platform

There is a small lake just off the trail, just west of I35. At the top of the lake, there is a small viewing platform. 

American Coot, Redhead Duck and Pied Grebe

Today, the lake only had 3 birds, but it was interesting to see the redhead duck, a first for me. 

Downy Woodpecker

We saw quite a few woodpeckers along the trail, but they didn't really cooperate for pictures. In addition to this downy, we also saw a red bellied. 

Northern Mocking Bird

Here is the state bird of Texas. It's very common in both rural and urban areas. We saw quite a few today. There birds mimic other birds and may know 200 plus songs. This bird was singing a chickadee song. 

Wild Basin Wilderness Preserve

On Sunday, Feb 26, I went to the Wild Basin Wilderness Preserve with Terri, Alex and Lesley. This 227 acre preserve in SW Austin was set aside to retain a piece of typical cedar, oak and elm hillcountry landscape. There are several miles of trails and "reported" good birding areas. Instead of a morning trip, bad weather forced us to go in the afternoon. While we did see some birds, they were difficult to find, and even harder to get close to........kids on the trails may have had a lot to do with this. Even without the birds, the trails were nice and we enjoyed the walks. Maybe we will try this area again, later in the spring when the golden cheeked warblers are nesting. Sorry, no pics from this outing.

Here's a link if you want to know more - http://www.wildbasin.org/index.lasso

Hornsby Bend

On Saturday, Feb 4th, I made my first visit to Hornsby Bend with Terri and a couple of friends. Hornsby is one of the most popular birding spots in Austin. It's a water treatment plant with 4 large containment ponds. It sits on the Colorado River in SE Austin. We arrived early and spent most of the time on the river trail. In all, we identified about 20 different birds. Pictures were hard to come by, but I managed a few. A word of warning....... depending on how the wind is blowing, it can smell pretty nasty around the ponds.

If you want more information about Hornsby, check out this link - http://http://www.hornsbybend.org/

Black Vulture

We found this vulture sunning himself on a low perch. He didn't seem bothered by the 4 of us taking lots of pictures. 

Northern Shoveler

One of thousands of nothern shovelers in the 4 containment ponds. There were also quite a few grebes and scaups. 

Snowy Egret

We found this egret wading the shallows of the Colorado River. The river runs right next to Hornsby Bend. The snowy egrets are the only egrets with black legs and yellow feet, so they are aren't too difficult to identify.