American Robin: There’s No Place Like Home

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.