Location: Austin Colony – Webberville, Travis County, US-TX
Observation date: July 6, 2013 – 9:30 AM to 3:00 PM
Number of species: 41 (+ 1 other taxa)
EPISODE 86: Clumps of Weeds
The LCRA has been releasing water from the Longhorn Dam in pulses. Today we saw numerous huge clumps of Duckweed and other vegetation floating down river. I wonder if the pulses are ripping the vegetation from the river and floating it downstream. I have a couple of photos that may illustrate the clumps but the clumps did not lend themselves to good photos. Hyacinth is starting to build up.
42 species of birds were listed. Nothing really stood out as unusual but a couple of the better ones include Dickcissel and Prothonotary Warbler. I expected a large number of Green Herons and was not disappointed. We also got plenty of Eastern Kingbirds, White-winged doves and Yellow-billed Cuckoos. Surprisingly we found no Killdeer or Spotted Sandpipers
We found lots of the typical summer species of all the other critters too. I wish I were better at identifying dragonflies. There was a huge variety and they were everywhere. Photographing a dragonfly from a moving kayak is nearly impossible.
There were plenty of turtles and John had a count of at least 8 Soft-shelled Turtles at one point. I don’t know how many he ended up with. For butterflies I saw Eastern Tiger Swallowtails and the black variety of the Swallowtail but did not get the species.
We also found a Diamond-backed Water Snake.
We had a good group of surveyors today. Two special helpers were Alex Weaver and Sierra Weaver. I want to thank them for coming all the way from Arizona to help. Also receiving thanks are Kelly Smith, Julie Bollman, Ruth Jansa, Joan Bishop, Lee Charlton, Duncan Charlton, Darius Weaver, Bob
West, and John Barr.
Photos of turtles, Great Egret and Dragonfly are Bob West’s.
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. I also post more photos than I send with the email.
Also, these surveys are posted on the Travis Audubon web site.
(Click any image below to view larger. Photos by Claude Morris and Bob West.)
Number of species: 48 (+ 2 other taxa)
duck sp. 1
Great Blue Heron 6
Great Egret 5
Snowy Egret 3
Little Blue Heron 2
Cattle Egret 36
Green Heron 17
Black Vulture 35
Turkey Vulture 17
Red-shouldered Hawk 8
Eurasian Collared-Dove 3
White-winged Dove 64
Mourning Dove 18
Yellow-billed Cuckoo 10
Barred Owl 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 6
Ladder-backed Woodpecker 1
Downy Woodpecker 2
Crested Caracara 5
Eastern Phoebe 4
Great Crested Flycatcher 1
Eastern Kingbird 12
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher 1
White-eyed Vireo 16
Red-eyed Vireo 1
American Crow 18
Purple Martin 8
Barn Swallow 12
Cliff Swallow 54
Carolina Chickadee 8
Carolina Wren 12
Northern Mockingbird 1
Prothonotary Warbler 1
Summer Tanager 3
Northern Cardinal 43
Painted Bunting 18
Dickcissel 2
Red-winged Blackbird 32
Great-tailed Grackle 78
Brown-headed Cowbird 3
Orchard Oriole 1
House Finch 3
