Calliope Hummingbird - male, Lost Maples State Park, Bandera Co., TX. April 15th, 2011. Beautiful bird coming into the feeders with Black-chinned and Ruby-throated Hummingbirds. Seen by the restrooms right at the main entrance to Lost Maples.This year's Texas tour with Birdfinders produced three new additions to our tour loop list, no small achievement considering the tour has run every year since 1995! The additions were all complete surprises ( I like surprises!) since the timing of our trip tends to miss the potential for lingering wintering species (such as the Lark Bunting) and goes out a bit too early for the later passage warblers (such as the Mourning Warbler at Sabine Woods). The highlight was a dazzling male Calliope Hummingbird, a species which we most frequently encounter on our Arizona and Colorado/Wyoming trips. This bird simply wasn't on the 'radar' for a spring tour to Texas.
Calliope Hummingbird - male, Lost Maples State Park, Bandera Co., TX. April 15th, 2011. 
Lark Bunting - Neal's Lodges, Uvalde Co., TX. April 16th, 2011. Found by the cattle troughs along the bird trail at Neal's Lodges and hanging out with Lark, Vesper, Clay-colored and Chipping Sparrows.
Mourning Warbler - male, Sabine Woods, Jefferson Co., TX. April 18th, 2011. Another unexpected find and something of a skulker as might have been expected. We were astonished to find out a little later that a male MacGillivray's Warbler had been photographed at the drinking pool in Sabine Woods roughly around the same time that we were watching this bird! JPS
1 comment:
Some great Texas birds.
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