The Austin Area Rare Bird Alert is a service of the Travis Audubon Society. This update is as of 9:40 on May 2, 2013. Send interesting sightings–complete with species name, LOCATION, and contact information–to Kenny Anderson at kennya290@gmail.com.

Rarities Found This Week:

• A Pacific Loon was digiscoped on Lake Travis on 4/28. This is most likely the second record for Travis County. The bird was next to a Common Loon for side by side comparison/pictures.
• 2 Piping Plovers were photographed on the Hornsby Bend levee on 5/2. It takes a strong north wind and cold front to knock these birds out of their flight, an excellent find.
• A Swallow-tailed Kite was photographed on 4/21 above the San Gabriel River at Granger in Williamson County.
• Bobolink(s) were detected by flight call above a Bastrop County home on 4/28.
• A Wood Thrush was at Devine Lake on 4/27 in Williamson County.
• Golden-winged Warblers were in the area with reports coming from Eastwoods Park in Austin on 4/28 (Travis), Warbler Woods on 4/27,28 (Guadalupe), St. Edward’s Park on 4/28 (Travis), and Lake Creek Trail had both a Golden-winged a Blue-winged on 4/30 (WilCo).
• Blue-winged Warblers were reported from Nicholas Dawson Park in Austin on 4/30 and West Bouldin Greenbelt in Austin on 4/28.
• Warbler Woods in Guadalupe County also had a Worm-eating Warbler on 4/28 and a Kentucky Warbler on 4/27.
• A Peregrine Falcon was at the University of Texas Tower on 4/27,28 in Travis County.
• A Red-breasted Merganser at Decker Lake was a nice find on 4/26 in Travis County.
• A Black-headed Grosbeak was reported at St.Edward’s Park in Travis County on 5/2.
• A Common Loon was reported at Laguna Gloria on 5/2 in Travis County.
• Red-breasted Nuthatches were a lot of fun in the Austin Area Checklist circle this winter, some still linger with reports on 4/28 from Richard Moya Park and a Bastrop County home on May 1.

Reports for the Austin area RBA cover a 60 mile radius, centered from the Capitol in downtown Austin. Bird sightings mentioned here have been filtered and scrutinized by the compiler and are believed to be genuine. When documentation or photographs were provided that is mentioned, along with the other information about the bird(s) being seen. For questions or updates about birds mentioned here or to report rare or unusual bird sightings in the Austin area, please send an e-mail to kennya290@gmail.com

-Kenny Anderson, Rare Bird Alert Compiler, Travis Audubon Society

To view our archive of previous RBA reports, click here.