Bird of the Day: April 2011

Welcome to Bird of the Day!

You might notice some recent changes to the blog. For one, the banner image above has changed from Mustang Island on the Gulf coast to a picture of a local birding spot near my house. Likewise, I plan to focus many of the upcoming posts on birding that area. On the right hand side of the page you will also see the addition of a new gadget that lists what birds have been seen in that area in the last 30 days. Further below, there is a link to ebird for more historic information about the birds seen at Bella Vista Creek. Feel free and contact me on the blog about what you think. Click on images to enlarge. (All photos by gbmcclure)

Apr 29, 2011

A Quick Trip

The weekend before Easter we drove out to Palmetto State Park to meet some friends that had invited us to go camping for the night. A bonus is that the state park, which is just south of Luling, in a hot spot on the Texas Birding trail. I figured I would be able to literally roll out of my sleeping bag and be on the trail at sun up. We arrived the night before, and after getting camp set up and dinner made (and eaten) I had just a few minutes to scout the area for the next morning. I couldn't resist taking this picture of this male Northern Cardinal singing on top of this nearby tree.

It appeared as though a small .5 mile trail around the oxbow lake might be promising as I heading back to the campsite. Unfortunately, as I approached our spot my wife told me that our son was having a severe asthma attack and that we needed to head home. I'll have to return another time as more than 200 species have been spotted at that state park.

Apr 6, 2011

Tantalizingly Close

Over the weekend I was out near Smithville, TX (between Bastop and La Grange) for a trail running race. This is an area that is relatively close to where I live and a place that I had wanted to bird for some time. Unfortunately, the short of it is that while I was out there nothing ever quite came together for me to bird. Although I was seeing tons of bird activity from the car (Crested Caracara, Crow, Kestrels, Swallows, etc.) by the time I got to where I was going the sun was going down.

Sunday morning, on the way home, I did stop quickly at a public boat ramp on the Colorado just off the highway. I got a good look at this Red-shouldered Hawk and about 15 cattle Egrets in a nearby tree.

Unfortunately, my feet hurt so bad from blisters and bruised toes that I was unable to much more than parking lot birding. The next morning, I joined Mikael Behrens group for a walk through a local neighborhood trail where he sees some excellent birds. My hopes were high but my feet couldn't match them. On the way back to the car, however, there was this male and female Brown-headed Cowbird.