Texas 17 - Day 2

The whole day was spent in the Guadalupe Mnts area. Very impressed...

 

 

I decided to start near Dell City for Sage birds, namely Sparrow and Thrasher in a truly amazing desert landscape. Unfortunately we couldn’t see much of it !

 

 

The temperature was 38F. We waited until 9am for it to clear. It didn’t, so we headed for the Park itself.

 

We pulled in at the Pine Springs visitor centre and collected the park map. As we were leaving Louise spotted a couple of Scaled Quail which quickly disappeared before I could take their picture. First stop was Frijole Ranch. A lovely spot with some impressive oaks which the Acorn Woodpeckers were loving…

 

 

Dexterity

What a great bird!

Also present were the Jays. The Steller’s is a dandy…

 

 

Two west Texas specialities. The rich blue is simply stunning…it was sunny here! The temperature climbed and the rest of the day was spent at a pleasant sunny 70F. Apologies to everyone back home!!

After a chat with two very friendly volunteers who gave me some great bird info’ we headed for Manzanita Spring in the hope that I would finally get my ABA RED  CROSSBILL. One of the volunteers had sneaked ahead and had his scope trained on some conifers. I reckon he’d gone ahead to try and help me. I like to find my own but in this case I couldn’t really refuse when he exclaimed I’ve got some Crossbills in the ‘scope!!! There you go…after 17 years I’d finally got my only remaining Code 1 bird and in Texas to boot (ABA 685, Texas 464).

We spent the next two hours in the immediate area before returning to the car park for lunch. I returned after we’d eaten, leaving Louise to read. I had great if brief views of Cassin’s Finches, (Texas 465) another Texas tick. I also saw two cracking Northern Harriers which came in the bathe at the spring...

 

 

as well as a Cedar Waxwing…

 

 

Other birds included Yellow-rumped Warbler, Hermit Thrush, Curve-billed Thrasher and Northern Flicker…

 

 

It was 3pm now and I decided to return to the Dell City area to try for the Sage birds. It took an hour to reach the area but we eventually found the road out onto the salt pan. The sage was well spread and viewing was good. Various groups of birds were seen perched at different distances. The Sagebrush Sparrow was my number 1 target…and eventually…I found it...Texas (466)...

REALLY chuffed to finally see this species in Texas. I've put a lot of time in over the years.

 

Then some 20 minutes later I had a brief but conclusive view of a Sage Thrasher (Texas 467) A very successful day.

The other highlight…for both of us, was a double figure count of Roadrunners…

We’ll be back again tomorrow…

Trip count - no idea. Too tired!

 

Stay tuned…