Vcdb 5-2

[lulubelle]

I ended up being on call today and I took a chance on going birding - hoping they wouldn't call me!! Saw some familiar faces - nice to see Colby and Earl again - always a pleasure!

I ended up having a really good afternoon, although it didn't include any warblers or lifers!! I spotted 6 - great close up views!! - Upland Sandpipers!!! The most I have ever seen so far and I found them on my own - I was soooo excited! I spotted 13 Am. Avocet - if you stop at the east pump station and then face east, pond 12, right in front of you is hosting a large number of Wilson's Phlaropes (I counted 53, they are swimming and tucked in among the ducks & shorebirds on the grassy areas), along with the Avocet. The Avocet were on the 2nd grassy "bank" (between ponds 11 & 10) if you are looking east east. There were dowitchers, Stilt Sandpipers, Leasts, Pectorals, a Baird's, Lesser Yellow Legs (lots) mixed in with Shovelers, Coots and Blue-winged Teal. That pond is a busy area!! I spotted a Dickcissel - FOS for me and a Lark Sparrow, which is my first for Tarrant county!!
Western Kingbirds were plentiful and I got my FOS E. Kingbirds as well!

The odd ducks - literally - were a male & female Redhead pair in between beds 40 & 41. I spotted a lone female Ring-neck as well. Still some Ruddy Ducks around and I finally got my FOS Wood Ducks - 9 of them!A lone Eared Grebe was sharing pond 1 with 2 Canada Geese. My treat driving out was a lone male Common Grackle.

I walked down Trammel-Davis Rd after talking to Cody , hoping that I might find some orioles & grosbeaks...maybe a Painted or Indigo Bunting...no go. However, I did get a FOS Yellow-billed Cuckoo - great view! Wish I had a $10 bill for every W. Kingbird I saw or heard - I'de be a little richer! Aside from the cuckoo, nothing great - Cliff Swallows harrassing the daylights out of a Cooper's Hawk!

Still hoping for warblers! Mayvebe they will be waiting for us at Prairie Creek Park this comming weekend!

[Y Cymry]

Hi Laura,

I must have just missed you. I left about 1 or 2pm. I saw all the birds you mentioned except the Upland Sandpipers and Lark Sparrows. It's been many years since I've seen a Lark Sparrow in the city. Ed Wetzel saw the sparrow, too, and also has seen the first Mississippi Kites of the season in the northeast corner of the drying beds. I missed those too, though I was keeping an eye out for them. Also, FOS White-rumped Sandpiper was seen by Ed.

Laura said: "I ended up having a really good afternoon, although it didn't include any warblers or lifers!!"

What's a "lifer"? ;) I now measure in decades since the last time I found a life bird in North Central Texas, and even finding a "new" bird for the NCT area is a rare event. Enjoy them while you can, as you advance life birds become harder and harder to come by, at least locally. But of course the joy of seeing the old familiar birds and measuring the passing of the seasons with the changes in birdlife never goes away.

I guess I did see one lifer today. I photographed my first Variegated Meadowhawk and maybe a new damselfly or two. I haven't keyed them out yet. It's pathetic how we old birders have to branch out into dragonflies or butterflies or what not to get a new tick on the list, any list....:(

Ken

[lulubelle]

Hi Cyn!

I was surprised & totally tickled pink to find the Uplands & especially the Lark Sparrow. I was hoping for some Mississippi Kites, but except for the Red-tail & a few vultures, the sky was empty. Nice to know someone has seen them! I was hoping for a White-rumped as well - last year I spotted them on the vegetative mats along the front edges of the ponds. A lot of the ponds are really weedy so I didn't have a good view. i will have to look harder now that I know someone has seen one!

Were you able to get any good shots while you were out there? I had thought about bringing my camera and decided not to - I regretted it the moment I saw the Uplands!!

As far as lifers, I certainly have many birds to go, but even at 358, I have found that getting a local lifer is a bit hard!! One of the benefits of living in Texas is the amazing amount of migrants that pass through, so I am appreciative of the interesting birds that show up here! I think if you bird, you automatically start watching the butterflies & dragons & damsels - gives me another reason to buy another bin!

Hope to see you soon - take care!

[jwconnie]

I was excited to see a Mississippi Kite late yesterday over a smalll wooded area near my house. It was high in the sky and just kept going.

[marissa]

Jealous! I've been hoping to see Upland sandpipers, but no go for me - sometimes I stare really REALLY hard at some yellowlegs, trying to make them into Upland, but it doesn't seem to work. What sort of habitat are they in? Should I be looking near the water or in the fields?

Well, really I don't see most of the sandpipers. If anybody ever feels like adopting me for a day & pointing them out, please do. I'm shorebird-blind.

[Y Cymry]

Marissa,

Upland Sandpipers are definitely a field bird. Watch for them in the large grassy fields at the center of drying beds or in any other pasture-like habitat during migration periods. Sometimes when the grass is high, as it has been recently at the drying beds, all you can see is their little tan heads poking up to look around. Be patient and keep scanning the fields, you'll see one eventually. I saw some once along the edge of one of the ponds but they seemed out of place at the waters edge, I'm so used to seeing them in the grass.

They have a habit of perching on fence posts or other objects that get them above the grass so watch for that too. Two or three weeks ago I had three or four perch on the dirt piles at the dugout area at the center of the beds.

They have a weird kind of yodelling whistle call that often draws attention to them as they fly. Once learned you can sometimes detect them as they migrate at night.

Ken