Forget about all that talk yesterday about my age, and birthdays and all that stuff. Today it is back to normal for me.
We got a call from Sid and Suzanne Johnson. They wanted to come to San Angelo to go birding. You don’t think that I am going to say no to a proposition like that, do you. Ann says let’s do it.
After they arrived we headed to San Angelo State Park and the bird blind.
MacGillivray's Warbler
We put the usual feed out as we like to help out there on week-ends. Not much activity there for awhile, mostly because there was a hawk shadowing the area for awhile. After he was gone things picked up a bit. House Finches, Black-crested Titmice, House Sparrows, Red-winged Blackbirds, but not much else until………….. there was movement in an area of some standing water and some reeds. We spotted three MacGillivray’s Warblers. They are a specie that is seldom seen in the area. I managed to get a few photos but the birds were flighty in amongst the grass. The one shown here is the best of the lot, then not the greatest. I was using my 100-400mm hand-held.
I went back to the van for my 500mm but by the time I got it set up, the moment and warblers were gone. Next time I will have my 500mm set up first and be ready as soon as I walk into the blind. Nevertheless, it was a lifer for me.
Later, after leaving the blind, we drove down towards the lake shore. The American White Pelicans, and the American Avocets were still hanging around. Also some Blue Herons, Egrets, Sandpipers, and I think I spotted some American Coots.
Then we drove out the the Nasworthy Dam. There they had the outlet flowing pretty heavily so that gushing torrent did nothing for any bird watching. So we decided to call it a day, but for one last stop over the Twin Buttes Reservoir Equalization Channel. There we spotted three Ospreys. So all in all, not a bad day considering it was pretty much cool, cloudy and windy.
Happy Birding!!
More photos at www.zellertexasphotos.com
Texas Tweeties by Bob Zeller 