VDB Birding Friday July 24

[DrBirdie]

Hello All,
I have a meeting in Fort Worth the weekend of July 24 - 26. I plan to arrive Thursday night so that I have most of the day Friday to bird. I plan to spend the morning birding VDB and Legacy Parks, focusing on shorebirds, waders and lingering riparian breeders. Least Grebe would be nice! I'd be happy for any local birders to join me to help me find my way around, as this will be my first trip to VDB and Legacy Parks. I'd also be interested in hearing suggestions for other good birding locations nearby at this hot time of year.
I will stay in Arlington Thursday night, then to FW Friday and Saturday.
Saturday afternoon the 25th I hope to hit the rookery at the med school in Dallas.
Thanks in advance for any assistance.
Byron Stone, Austin

[DrBirdie]

Hello All,
I traveled to Fort Worth last weekend for a business meeting, and took most of a day off Friday to bird Village Creek Drying Beds and environs with Susan Thrower from Irving. Many thanks to Susan for showing me around the beds, and to other Fort Worth Audubon Society members who shared helpful suggestions on these FWAS Forums.

Highlights of our birding Friday included lots of singing Blue Grosbeaks and Indigo Buntings, swarms of swallows which included a couple of Bank Swallows, a Common Moorhen and tons of Little Blue Herons in all stages of plumage development, 11 species of shorebirds, a young Orchard Oriole and an adult Warbling Vireo seen well by me at close range. We dipped on the Least Bittern and Least Grebe. The other highlight was the relatively cool temperature, with some cloud cover all morning, a brief rain shower at mid-day and an afternoon high that did not exceed the mid-90's. All things are relative, huh?!

A species list follows.

Black-bellied Whistling-Duck - 25
Wood Duck - 35
Mallard - 45
Pied-billed Grebe - 2
Great Blue Heron - 3
Great Egret - 2
Snowy Egret - 45
Little Blue Heron - 40
Green Heron - 30
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron - 4 - 2 adults, 2 juvies.
Black Vulture - 1
Turkey Vulture - 1
Cooper's Hawk - 3
Red-tailed Hawk - 2
Common Moorhen - 1
Killdeer - 50
Black-necked Stilt - 15
Spotted Sandpiper - 13
Solitary Sandpiper - 10
Lesser Yellowlegs - 1
Semipalmated Sandpiper - 3
Western Sandpiper - 4
Least Sandpiper - 60
Pectoral Sandpiper - 1 - Adult in alternate plumage
Stilt Sandpiper - 1 - Adult in alternate plumage
Wilson's Phalarope - 1 - male
White-winged Dove - 1 - Seen only by Susan, but I picked this species up later in the day.
Mourning Dove - 15
Chimney Swift - 30
Archilochus Hummingbird sp. - 1
Downy Woodpecker - 3
Eastern Phoebe - 7
Western Kingbird - 12
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher - 3
Loggerhead Shrike - 1
Warbling Vireo - 1 - Adult seen well by me.
Blue Jay - 1 - Heard-only.
Purple Martin - 400+ - Interestingly, I saw few in other locales.
Bank Swallow - 2 - Hanging out near telephone wires near paved entry road.
Barn Swallow - 100+
Carolina Wren - 1
Northern Mockingbird - 1
European Starling - 30
Northern Cardinal - 4
Blue Grosbeak - 3 - Males, singing along road west of ponds.
Indigo Bunting - 10 - 8 different males singing along road west of ponds.
Painted Bunting - 8
Red-winged Blackbird - 150+
Common Grackle - 1 - Flyover.
Great-tailed Grackle - 20+
Orchard Oriole - 1 - First-year male.
House Finch - 8
House Sparrow - 10+

Number of Species: 53

In addition to the above, I walked a small portion of River Legacy Park, along the Trinity River from the North Collins Street entrance just after dawn. I found the following species there. Susan and I revisited this area after lunch and added Red-tailed Hawk and Great-crested Flycatcher.
What a marvelous urban park this is, with extensive riparian habitat and wide, paved trails! A veritable Central Park of the (mid-) West!

Birdlist for River Legacy Park:

Great Blue Heron 1
Great Egret 1
White-faced Ibis 5 Presumed this species; in flight toward River Legacy East.
Rock Pigeon 14
Mourning Dove 6
hummingbird sp. 1
Downy Woodpecker 1
Great Crested Flycatcher 1 (the only bird which I saw in the afternoon, but not in the morning here)
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher 1
White-eyed Vireo 1 Singing.
Barn Swallow 6
Carolina Chickadee 2
Tufted Titmouse 2
Carolina Wren 2
American Robin 1
Northern Mockingbird 1
Summer Tanager 1 Singing.
Northern Cardinal 3
Painted Bunting 2 Singing.

Number of species: 19

Between the two sites, I think we had 61 species.

Later in the afternoon, I visited Fort Worth Nature Center for a couple of hours.
There I added the following:

Cattle Egret
White-winged Dove (which I missed at the beds)
Eurasian Collared-Dove (en route)
Yellow-billed Cuckoo and
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

Was hoping for Prothonotary Warbler, but didn't see or hear any.

Finally, in downtown Fort Worth I added Common Nighthawk, for 67 total species for the day.
Thanks again to Susan for her guidance and good company.
It was a good day to be birding.
Sincerely,
Byron Stone, Austin