Daily Archives: December 30, 2011

What?? Not Another Birding Trip??

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Okay, I confess.  My name is Bob Zeller and I am a hopeless birding addict.  I tried to stop, but the withdrawal pains are too severe.  When I see a bird that I don’t recognize, I frantically dive into my thirty-some bird guides, tearing pages to make that elusive identification.  To add to my habit, I am also fanatic about wanting to photograph every bird I see.  I wade in the muck, crawl in the weeds, get tick-bit, all so I collect those photos.

So, to satisfy our cravings (Ann is addicted, too), we invited the Johnsons from Eldorado to join us.  We wanted to see if we could see more species this day than the day before, which I believe was 40.  We again set out for Middle Concho and Spring Creek parks.  Both parks in the same area, one on one side of the river, and the other park on the other side.  So the habitats for both are quite similar.  I have a few photo highlight for you.  Click photos to see beautiful enlargements.

Portrait of a Northern Mockingbird

Ladder-backed Woodpecker

Belted Kingfisher

Great Blue Heron

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Horned Grebe (photographed previous day)

Here is the total species of 42 that we spotted.

  1.  Northern Mockingbird
  2.  Great-tailed Grackle
  3.  American White Pelican
  4.  Great Egret
  5.  Great Blue Heron
  6.  Northern Shoveler
  7.  Double-crested Cormorant
  8.  Ring-billed Gull
  9.  American Goldfinch
  10.  White-crowned Sparrow
  11.  American Coots
  12.  Pied-billed Grebe
  13.  Golden-fronted Woodpecker
  14.  House Finch
  15.  Lesser Goldfinch
  16.  Gadwall
  17.  Black Vulture
  18.  Eastern Phoebe
  19.  Yellow-rumped Warbler
  20.  Black-crested Titmouse
  21.  Bufflehead
  22.  Turkey Vulture
  23.  Red-winged Blackbird
  24.  European Starling
  25.  Western Meadowlark
  26.  Northern Cardinal
  27.  Cinnamon Teal
  28.  Ladder-backed Woodpecker
  29.  Vermilion Flycatcher
  30.  Eastern Bluebird
  31. Wild Turkey
  32.  American Robin
  33.  Green-winged Teal
  34.  Common Raven
  35.  White-winged Dove
  36.  Northern Flicker
  37.  Cedar Waxwing
  38.  Common Grackle
  39.  Belted Kingfisher
  40.  Clay-colored Sparrow
  41.  Blue Jay
  42.  Northern Harrier

As you can see we did break our previous day record.  These were seen during an approximate four hour period.  Click on any image and you can see beautiful enlargements.

Click my Flickr Logo at the right side of this page to view more of my photos.

I’d like to wish everyone a very Happy New Year!