Total Species seen by Month's end: 500
Number of species added during month: 2
Miles Driven: 5818
Review Species Added:
Summary & Highlights:
1-2 November (498
species)
November 1st & 2nd
found me still out in west Texas. I spent time at the 3 far
west Texas reservoirs (McNary,
Tornillo, and Ft. Hancock), Red Bluff, Imperial Reservoir as well as
birding in some marginal grassland
areas, hoping for Baird's Sparrow. Nothing new for the year,
but some interesting birds
include a group of late
Cassin's Kingbirds at Sierra Blanca, Sprague's Pipits in two locations, and a single
Chestnut-collared Longspur at Red Bluff.
8 November
(498 species)
Saturday morning
November 8th, I traveled up to Ft Worth and spent several hours
looking for a Common Pochard that had
been found by Martin Reid on 5 November and seen again the
following day. I searched
the duck flock on Lake Worth where the bird had been seen and I
also checked out near-by Cement
Creek Pond but had no luck on refinding this bird.
15-16 November
(499 species)
I ventured up to the
Panhandle Friday night, November 14th to hopefully see an adult
Trumpeter Swan that had been
reported (with an adult Tundra Swan and a juvenile swan) at Lake
Marvin. I found myself by the
lake right at dawn and had the group of 3 swans right away.
Still not very light, I could
discern the yellow oval on the black bill of one of the adult
swans (the Tundra) but could not make out
much color on the bill of the other adult. I did study the
birds for a bit and decided that the 2
adult birds were of roughly the same build, had the same neck
size and both of them showed the sharp
bill curve at the gape (between the eye and the base of the
mouth) that is more
characteristic of Tundra than Trumpeter. The birds were
spooked off the lake by a jumpy group of Canada
Geese but then returned an hour later in very good light were I
was able to study the swans
for over an hour. In the end, I felt confident that both
adults were Tundras. Under close study,
the adult with no obvious yellow spot did have a pale oval on
its bill, perhaps a first-year bird.
I ended up birding other areas of the Panhandle the rest of the
day, stopping at Palo Duro Lake,
combing the area north of Gruver for possible magpies and then
finally ending up at Cactus Playa
where a Red Phalarope had been 7 days earlier but was no longer
present.
I stayed in Dalhart
that evening and I received an e-mail about a Black-headed Gull
discovered earlier that day on a
lake a bit northeast of Dallas. The person that found the bird
is not able to accommodate access for
others (details will not be made public) but had heard about my
Big Year adventuring and was
willing to take me to where the bird had been seen...if I could
meet up with him the next day
sometime. This was around 9pm...and I decided to go for it. I
ended up leaving Dalhart 4 hours later
at 1am and driving thru the night, taking a small nap and a
couple of birding stops along the way.
The long hours and lack of sleep was well worth it though as I
was able to see the Black-headed
Gull for a few minutes in amongst a large group of other gulls.
I ended up spending the rest of
the day checking out some of the other lakes in the area and
finally made it home by 10.30pm, my
car having a mere 890 miles more on the odometer than when I
had left Dalhart that morning.
22-27 November
(500 species)
On vacation from work
the entire week of Thanksgiving, I traveled out to west Texas with
no specific plans but
guessing that I would be out there for at least 4 days.
Saturday and Sunday were spent with Fred Land, who happened to be
birding in the Trans-Peocs as well, and
we were able to bird some
of the reservoirs together. The most interesting birds these first
two days was a Pacific Loon at Imperial Reservoir and then nine
(!) Surf Scoters at Balmorhea Lake.
The next 2 days were
spent primarily in Big Bend country by myself, though I did return to
Imperial Reservoir first thing
Monday with Lynn Barber and we were able to relocate the Pacific
Loon for her own Texas Big Year
list (which was hovering near 480). Passerine numbers in Big
Bend country were not
terribly impressive though I did run across some interesting birds
these two days, including a Gray
Hawk at Cottonwood Campground, a
Gray Flycatcher at Santa Elena Crossing and a banded
Aplomado Falcon (not countable) near the town of Marfa.
Wednesday and Thursday,
26 & 27 November,
I decided to revisit the reservoirs that I had checked out on
Saturday and Sunday. It
was at McNary Reservoir on Wednesday morning (26 November) that I ran
across #500 for the year - an
unexpected first-winter Mew Gull amongst a large group of
Ring-billed Gulls. I returned to Balmorhea Lake that afternoon to find at least 2 of the Surf
Scoters still present.
Thursday morning, I
visited both Red Bluff Lake and Imperial Reservoir again but the
winds were howling out of the
north and the birding was perhaps hampered by this. I
debated going up to the Panhandle but
since I had been feeling especially tired and worn down the last
couple of days, I opted to return
home and try to catch up on rest the remainder of the holiday
week.