Jon’s Bird Blog

We started walking, then by a pond, I heard a Painted Bunting. I followed the sound with my dad armed with his “Gun Lens”, that’s what I called it, and he took some wonderful pictures. While walking on a ’round-the-perimeter-of-the-preserve-detour we heard the Painted and followed it’s sound, then, it flew away. As we were waiting for it to sing, we heard the Indigo Bunting. But we were to tired to trudge through knee-high weed to find a bird who can fly through the sky with the greatest of ease, so we didn’t. But we did see (and hear) other birds. Towards the end of our energy-consuming exploration, we saw a Turkey Vulture fly over our heads while we were awestruck as it glided, only flapping once. Just as this bird was about to glide out of sight two others came and joined it as we watched for ten minuets. They probably wanted lunch but we couldn’t smell anything. Italicized birds are bird heard only.

Painted Bunting

Indigo Bunting

Northern Cardinal

European Starling

Blue Jay

Northern Mockingbird

Turkey Vulture

Curve-billed Thrasher ?

Posted in Outings

I had hardily ever been to White Rock Lake so didn’t know what to expect. At the time we were at the lake there was a festival going on, so I thought birds wouldn’t be around to much. After wandering away from the people we saw some Blackbirds, Doves and Flycatchers. When we went to the water’s edge we saw Coots, Mallards and the Baird’s Sandpiper, which was SO cute. The Sandpiper was about as long as my palm (beak to tail), and the way it scuttled along as I a tried get closer was hysterical. Just as we were about to leave White Rock we saw the Great Crested Flycatcher. Any way, here is a list of what I saw.

Red-winged Blackbird

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

Great Crested Flycatcher

Mourning Dove

Great-tailed Grackle

Mallard

Baird’s Sandpiper