Texas Winter trip 16...the story so far

We arrived in McAllen rather late...2.30am! It's 551 miles from Fort Stockton. We shared the driving, thankfully! Louise as always was a star.

 

Some thoughts from the journey...

 

1/12

One of my “most hoped for” for Texas has always been Lewis’s Woodpecker, so yesterday was a VERY special day indeed!

Yet again eBird came up trumps. We arrived at Hogan Park, Midland around 10.30 after a 2 hour drive from Fort Stockton. After convincing myself I was in the right area with the help of my new GPS (always a good idea), I set Louise up with her Walmart chair and sunshade and started to search the area.

 

After about 15 minutes I noticed a couple of Birders emerging form the information centre. I guessed they had the same reason for being there that I had. After introducing myself I joined them in the search.

 

Fortunately the park was very open with only isolated trees, many of which were deciduous and a few were dead...always helpful when searching for a Woodpecker.

 

 

After around 20 minutes the Birder from Michigan, whose name I’ve forgotten, reckoned he might have had a glimpse of our target…he was right!

 

An extremely distant flight view...

 

 

 Then a pole, but still distant...

 

 ...and then a floodlight at least 200ft high...

 

 

We saw 2 birds (at one time) although 3 had been reported? Their flight was languid, nothing like “our” birds. They had to move on as they were heading to Big Bend. I was prepared to stay as long as it took to fully appreciate this wonderful species. The fact that they had arrived in west Texas during my 3 day "window" was VERY fortunate indeed and I was going to make the most of it.

 

We had lunch by a picnic area and I had further fleeting views as they flew from tree to tree.

 

Into the sun...

 

 

I decided to hang around the largest dead tree in the centre of the park. Eventually I managed a better image...

 

 

Texas 453

 

The latter part of the day was spent at Big Spring S.P. in search of a Sage Thrasher. I didn't mange to find this elusive winterer but I did see a beautiful Mountain Bluebird...

 

 

2/12

 

I drove to Balmorhea from Fort Stockton before dawn to try for Sagebrush Sparrow and Common Merganser. The site for SASP was unsurpisingly the sage on the road to the Cemetery (pic) . I didn’t connect but there was some avian entertainment including Northern Harrier, White-crowned Sparrow, Audubon’s Warbler (lots) and Bewick’s Wren. I gave it 2 hours.

Then it was onto the lake. A superb setting with plenty of birds but not the species I was after. I did get cracking views of Belted Kingfisher...

 

 

and Pied-billed Grebe...

 

 

After checking out of the MOTEL we headed back to Sanderson as I wanted to try and photograph some Hummingbirds. Within 5 minutes both species were seen.

 

The Allen's was showing on the feeder at the front of the house as we arrived, if only briefly...

 

 

Eventually I managed a shot of the Anna's high in a tree. It was overcast now but you can see some colour...

 

 

Amazing little things and very tough. Especially Anna's which is the only species that always remains

throughout the winter apparently. Great to be able to add it to my Texas list.

 

Our last stop before we left for our epic journey South was the Prairie dog colony north of Marathon on the 385. This is a site for Golden Eagle (if your VERY lucky). I wasn't but I saw a good number of Swainson's Hawks on the deck amongst these cuties...

 

 

Also present were a number of Loggerhead Shrikes...

 

 

That's better!

 

Not sure on today's plan yet. Still recovering...