Daily Archives: November 16, 2012

American Robin: There’s No Place Like Home

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As much as I love the Big Bend, it is always great to get back home.  We spent four great days in the Big Bend area, just taking in the sights, getting a few photos, and just laying back.  Unfortunately, we picked the wrong time of year to see a great many birds.  Over the years, our visits there had always been in spring or early fall.  Never had we ever went there during the month of November.  That’s not to say that we didn’t see any of the avian variety, it is just that there weren’t as many as we were used to.

So as it turned out we returned home last Monday, empty-handed so to speak.  But things are really picking up around here again.  Yesterday, Ann and I, along with a close friend decided to go birding at our usual haunts, Middle Concho and Spring Creek Parks.  From 9:30AM until 2:00PM, a space of four and a half hours we saw 41 species.  I think that may be more than we saw in entirely in our 4-day trip.

I got these photos of an American Robin.

American Robin

American Robin

American Robin

Here is a complete list of our sighting of the birds that were seen yesterday:

  1. Great Egret
  2. Northern Mockingbird
  3. Killdeer
  4. European Starling
  5. Eastern Bluebird
  6. House Wren
  7. White-crowned Sparrow
  8. Great Blue Heron
  9. American Coot
  10. Double-crested Cormorant
  11. Bewick’s Wren
  12. White-winged Dove
  13. Vermilion Flycatcher
  14. Pied-billed Grebe
  15. Black-crested Titmouse
  16. House Finch
  17. Great-tailed Grackle
  18. Eastern Phoebe
  19. Black Vulture
  20. Yellow-rumped Warbler
  21. Golden-fronted Woodpecker
  22. Western Meadowlark
  23. Cooper’s Hawk
  24. Northern Harrier
  25. Osprey
  26. Mallard
  27. Ring-billed Gull
  28. Great Horned Owl
  29. American Robin
  30. Ruby-crowned Kinglet
  31. Red-winged Blackbird
  32. Northern Cardinal
  33. Wild Turkey
  34. Red-tailed Hawk
  35. Orange-crowned Warbler
  36. Chipping Sparrow
  37. American Goldfinch
  38. Mute Sway
  39. Great Blue Heron
  40. American Pelican *
  41. Northern Pintail  *

*Note:  The Pelicans and Pintail were seen at O. C. Fisher Reservoir.

Note:  My book, “Birds, Beasts and Buttes”, makes a great Christmas gift.  Contact me for a signed copy at bobzeller1@aol.com.  or buy one from the publisher by clicking on this link:  BLURB.  It is available in hard-copy or soft-cover.