Location: Tarcoola to Fisherman’s Park, Bastrop, US-TX
Observation date: May 4, 2013 – 9:30 AM to 2:00 PM
Number of species: 48 (+ 2 other taxa)
EPISODE 84: Mayday Mayday – Water Hyacinth Everywhere
I think we may be in for a summer with lots of Water Hyacinth. We were seeing some from start to end today. Under every low hanging branch and in every pool of calm water was new growth. There were little new ones floating everywhere. It will be interesting to see how much it takes over this summer.
From the bird point of view we did very well. We listed 50 species with local residents, winter and summer visitors and some very obvious misses. Since the migrations are going on I will mention the Mississippi Kites and Ovenbird. We also got lots of summer species. A couple of the better ones include Painted Bunting and Summer Tanager. Of course we have those year-round residents like Pileated Woodpecker.
One of the obvious misses includes Great Blue Heron. I heard Dickcissel driving out and back but got none on the survey.
When it had warmed up after record breaking low temperatures we saw lots of various snakes and turtles. There was Map Turtles, Red-eared sliders, Diamond-backed Watersnake and Blotched Watersnake. We also found Swallowtail and White butterflies.
It was a beautiful day on the river. I want to thank four new Master Naturalists for their help and a host of regulars. Today we had Anne Birlin, Linda Siebert, Michelle Poudrette, Ivey Kaiser, Peg Gavin, Ron Armbruster, Bob West, Denis Breining, John Barr, and Ananda Debnath.
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. The photo of Linda with the Hackberry Emperor and the Blotched Watersnake are Bob West’s. Other photos by Claude Morris.)
Number of species: 48 (+ 2 other taxa)
Blue-winged Teal 36
Pied-billed Grebe 2
Great Egret 4
Snowy Egret 8
Little Blue Heron 4
Green Heron 2
Black Vulture 28
Turkey Vulture 12
Mississippi Kite 3
Cooper’s Hawk 1
Red-shouldered Hawk 5
Swainson’s Hawk 4
Red-tailed Hawk 8
American Coot 7
Spotted Sandpiper 9
Eurasian Collared-Dove 4
White-winged Dove 2
Mourning Dove 8
Inca Dove 1
Yellow-billed Cuckoo 4
Chimney Swift 3
hummingbird sp. 2
Belted Kingfisher 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 7
Downy Woodpecker 3
Pileated Woodpecker 2
Crested Caracara 3
Great Crested Flycatcher 2
Western Kingbird 1
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher 2
White-eyed Vireo 14
Red-eyed Vireo 1
American Crow 33
Purple Martin 8
Barn Swallow 6
Cliff Swallow 44
Carolina Chickadee 26
Tufted x Black-crested Titmouse (hybrid) 14
Carolina Wren 18
Northern Mockingbird 2
European Starling 4
Ovenbird 1
Northern Parula 2
Yellow-rumped Warbler 4
Summer Tanager 1
Northern Cardinal 44
Painted Bunting 3
Red-winged Blackbird 16
Great-tailed Grackle 18
Orchard Oriole 6
