Partnering with Travis Audubon, the City of Austin Wildlands Division offers a series of Friday morning birding hikes on Balcones Canyonlands Preserves (BCP) and Water Quality Protection Lands. These hikes will be held on properties not usually accessible to the public.
Each trip will be led by Jim O’Donnell, wildlife biologist with the Austin BCP, and Black-capped Vireo expert. Additional support will be provided by Mark Wilson, Austin Wildlands volunteer and Travis Audubon member. Hikes will be held on one Friday of each month, in the morning, currently scheduled through February, 2017. Hikes are free, limited to 15 participants, and require registration. You will be sent specific location informant, maps, etc, the week before the hike.
This will be a chance to improve your birding knowledge and see the birds change through the seasons. Hikes will variously pass through the rich shrublands and canyons of the Balcones Preserves, or the grassy hillsides and oak mottes of the Water Quality lands. Most of these properties are rarely hiked, and trails may be rough to non-existent. The properties are not “birding hotspots”, but are chosen for the overall habitat and time of the season.
The Double J&T (JJ&T) BCP tract is on Lake Austin just below Mansfield Dam, and includes grasslands, brush and shorline habitat. The terrain is relatively level though the hike will include some bushwacking through high grass and brush. We can expect to see a good variety of birds in multiple habitat types. Wear clothes appropriate to the weather and hiking “off trail”.
