Location: Big Weberville to Howard Lane, Bastrop, US-TX

Observation date: February 2, 2013

Number of species: 47 (+ 2 other taxa)

EPISODE 81:  A Mid-winters Dream

Whenever you can kayak and bird in swim trunks and a t-shirt in the middle of the winter it is absolutely a dream.  By noon we had gotten out the sun screen.  That is when we started to see butterflies and dragonflies. Sulfur and Tiger Swallowtail were the two types I could identify. There were more.

Woodpeckers seem to be the predominant birds of the day.  We listed four species but they were very plentiful, active and vociferous.  Also plentiful today were the Titmouse.  Usually we do not get very many but I heard them all the way downstream.  Early in the morning we saw a Bald Eagle.  Two Green Kingfisher are always nice.

I also want to say something about the ducks we saw.  They seemed to take flight long before we could identify them.  Maybe it is still too close to hunting season and they are still skittish.  I have listed several species but the count listed is way low.  We say hundreds of ducks but only got identification on several.

Our list for the day was 49 species.

Kudos go to Julie Bollman, Peg Gavin, Frita Celucci, Mark Celucci, Ron Armbruster, Stuart Bailey, and John Barr.

Don’t forget to like the Austin Bastrop River Corridor Partnership Facebook page.  Here you will find more information about the river and water issues in central Texas.

Also, these surveys are posted on the Travis Audubon web site.

(Click any image below to view larger. Photos by Claude Morris.)

Number of species: 58 (+ 1 other taxa)

Gadwall  25
American Wigeon  2
Green-winged Teal  12
Ring-necked Duck  2
Lesser Scaup  7
Pied-billed Grebe  2
Double-crested Cormorant  15
Great Blue Heron  7
Great Egret  9
Black Vulture  45
Turkey Vulture  14
Osprey  3
Cooper’s Hawk  1
Bald Eagle  1
Red-shouldered Hawk  7
Red-tailed Hawk  3
American Coot  10
Killdeer  3
Spotted Sandpiper  17
Greater Yellowlegs  18
Least Sandpiper  7
Wilson’s Snipe  6
White-winged Dove  26
Mourning Dove  18

Belted Kingfisher  10
Green Kingfisher  2
Red-bellied Woodpecker  18
Downy Woodpecker  4
Northern Flicker  2
Pileated Woodpecker  5
Crested Caracara  5
Eastern Phoebe  3
Blue Jay  14
American Crow  22
Carolina Chickadee  28
Tufted x Black-crested Titmouse (hybrid)  22
Carolina Wren  8
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  4
Eastern Bluebird  5
Northern Mockingbird  3
Yellow-rumped Warbler  38
Savannah Sparrow  15
Lincoln’s Sparrow  6
White-crowned Sparrow  6
Northern Cardinal  26
Red-winged Blackbird  200
Eastern/Western Meadowlark  26
Common Grackle  7
Great-tailed Grackle  100

 
View this checklist online.

Click here for previous episodes of Claude’s River Survey!