Total Species seen by Month's end: 473
Number of species added during month: 32
Miles Driven: 4397
Review Species Added: 3
-
Broad-billed Hummingbird - 1 May - Kelly Bryan's, Fort Davis, Jeff
Davis Co.
-
Buff-breasted Flycatcher - 2 May - Road Canyon, DMP, Jeff Davis
Co.
-
Green Violet-Ear - 23 May - Vahn Adams', Blanco Co.
Summary & Highlights:
1 May (446 species)
Thursday morning and early afternoon May 1st, I traveled to Fort Davis. Right as I got to Kelly Bryan's
house, Kelly
showed up and he very quickly got me on his Broad-billed Hummingbird,
that has returned
for its fifth or sixth year. I birded around Fort Davis the rest of the
afternoon and
added 4 more year birds: Cassin's Kingbird, Western Tanager, Common Black
Hawk (along
Limpia Creek) and Montezuma Quail (one pair coming into the feeding
station at the state
park around 6pm).
2 May (456 species)
Friday morning 2 May, I birded the Davis Mountains Preserve with Kelly
Bryan and Mark
Adams. Kelly & Mark
quickly found 2 male Buff-breasted Flycatchers, returning for the fifth
year in Road
Canyon. From there, we hiked parts of Tobe Canyon where Kelly found the
surprise bird of
the trip - 3 Red Crossbills. Besides the crossbills and the
Buff-breasted Flycatchers, I
had had 7 other year birds that morning in the area: several Western
Wood Pewees,
Plumbeous Vireos, Gray Flycatchers, Grace's Warblers, Virginia's
Warblers, 1 Dusky
Flycatcher, and 1 Cassin's Vireo. I then headed over to Big Bend
National Park and
eventually made it over
to Rio Grande Village in the late afternoon. I spent over an hour & a
half walking the
area near Daniel's Ranch and was also able to add a female Lazuli
Bunting.
3 May (459 species)
Saturday morning May 3rd, before it got light out, I started walking around
the Lost Mines trail area in the Chisos Mountains at Big Bend. There I heard several Whip-poor-wills, one of
whom's eye shine I was
able to get my spotlight on. I also had a Common Poorwill very close-by that
I was lucky to
get flying/hovering briefly. As it got light out, I joined Mark Adams
and Mark Lockwood
on a hike up to Boot Canyon. We had a very good hike - no new birds for
the year but
some very exciting birds nonetheless. In the canyon, we had a Tennessee
Warbler, 2 pairs
of Painted Redstarts, 1 (possibly 2) Dusky-capped Flycatchers, and two Cassin's
Vireos. The most exciting bird was a Slate-throated Redstart (discovered
the previous
day by others, including Mike Austin & Charlie Lyon). Another birder went out of his way
to alert us to
this bird and after a quick jaunt to where others had the bird, we were
able to get very
good photos and tape recordings of it as it sang virtually non-stop
along the trail.
Still another birder we ran into told us about a Golden-crowned Sparrow
he had seen in
the Chisos Basin Campground the previous evening. When we got back
down to the Basin, we spent
some time looking for the sparrow, but could not relocate the bird. Along with
some other
birders, I ended the evening (thanks to a suggestion from Mark Adams) at
the research
house at K-Bar, where we saw at least 2 groups of Elf Owls emerge from
their holes in
telephone poles as dusk/nightfall approached.
4-5 May (463 species)
Sunday 4 May, still in Big
Bend, I started out in Blue Creek Canyon and was joined by the birders
who had alerted
us to the Slate-throated Redstart the previous day. Hiking the first 2 miles or so of the
canyon, we saw
several Varied Buntings on our way to a spot where Lucifer's
Hummingbirds were being
seen the past week. After a short period where we waited quietly, we all got excellent
looks at 2
male Lucifer's as they foraged around the plants and also perched in some
small trees. I
then made my way back and over to Cottonwood Campground where I was able
to see and hear
a Tropical Kingbird as it rested high in one of the cottonwood trees. I
was still
lacking Hammond's Flycatcher for the year and I had only encountered a
few empidonax flycatchers (all
Duskies) the previous 2 days. I decided to give Pine Canyon a try and it
turned out to
be the right choice! The canyon wasn't very birdy though it was full of
empids - I had 7
or 8 Dusky Flycatchers plus (finally!) 2 Hammond's Flycatchers, 1 of
which was calling
frequently and proved to be a nice bird to study. I was pretty exhausted
and so I called
it a early evening. I slept in a bit the next morning and then started
the long drive
back home to Austin.
6-15 May (463
species)
The early part of May (May
6th thru the 15th) was primarily devoted to rest. My lack of sleep
accumulated over the year finally came to a head after my return from
Big Bend as I was very nearly completely worn-out - both physically and
mentally. I did nothing but sleep the weekend of 10-11 May.
Though I really needed the rest, strategically, this may have been a
mistake. During this weekend and the next few days afterwards, one
of the woodlots on South Padre Island hosted a male Black-throated Blue
Warbler, a male Cape May Warbler, and a Yellow-green Vireo. I
would hear later that these birds stuck around for a few days and were
quite easy to see. By the end of my year, I would catch up with
both a Black-throated Blue Warbler and a Yellow-green Vireo, but would
not have any luck with locating a Cape May Warbler.
16 May (465 species)
The pelagic trip out of Port Isabel on Friday May 16th was unfortunately cancelled due to high
seas. Instead, I
decided to try for a long shot - a couple (Joe and Shirley Hamm) in
Elkhart (near
Palestine) had reported a possible Plain-capped Starthroat coming to
their feeder the
afternoon prior. I talked to them on Thursday evening and they were very
gracious in
allowing both myself and Martin Reid to watch their hummingbird feeders
the next morning
for several hours - although the bird did not return. I drove back to
Austin and stopped
by Webberville Park where I met up with Brush Freeman. It was the heat
of the day and
there were very few birds around, though I did get my first
Brown-crested Flycatcher of
the year. From there, I stopped at Hornsby Bend. There were lots of
shorebirds around,
including numerous White-rumped Sandpipers, Wilson's Phalaropes and
Stilt Sandpipers. I
spent over an hour in the woods and finally got a calling Willow
Flycatcher (my first of the year), but little
else other than an Ovenbird that sang for practically the whole time I
was there.
17-18 May (467 species)
Saturday morning May 17th, I started out at Pollywog Pond outside Corpus Christi,
which was
not very birdy, though I did add my first Olive-sided Flycatcher of the
year. I headed
south and my next stop was the road going east out of Sarita. Less than
half-way down
that road, I heard my first Botteri's Sparrow of the year and in a few
minutes, had nice
looks at him in my scope. My next stop was to be South Padre Island. At
11.45am, about
15 minutes short of reaching the island, I got a call from Brush Freeman
that Mark
Lockwood had found a Thick-billed Kingbird in Madera Canyon in the Davis
Mountains a few
hours prior. I didn't like it, but I knew what I had to do - I turned
around and started
heading west, knowing the kingbird was going to a long shot. To save you
the exciting
details of the long and hot drive, it is about 635 miles from Port
Isabel to Madera
Canyon. I stayed in Alpine that evening and made the rest of the drive
Sunday morning.
I spent a few hours that morning looking for the bird but I fear that it
had already
moved on. I made the leisurely "short" drive (just around 420 or so
miles) back to
Austin, birding some along the way in the heat of the day. At one break at
a rest stop on
I-10, I had a MacGillivray's Warbler and I also had an adult Bald Eagle
along the Llano
River, east of Llano.
22 May (470
species)
I did some birding during the week
before work in an effort to knock out some of my missing migrants. Thursday morning
22 May, I spent a couple hours at
Webberville Park with
Brush Freeman and some other birders and was able to get Yellow-bellied
Flycatcher, Canada Warbler, and Mourning Warbler.
23 May (471
species)
I was fortunate to hear Thursday 22 May, via Willie Sekula
about a pair of
Green Violet-Ears near Johnson City. I contacted the landowner, Vahn
Adams, who allowed
me to come out the following morning - 23 May. In very short
order, I got good looks at one, and
possibly both,
birds.
24-25 May (472
species)
Saturday the 24th, I started out at McKinney Roughs, trying to follow up
on a probable
Yellow-Green Vireo, first glimpsed by Chris Merkord a few weeks ago, and
then possibly
re-heard on Friday by Chris and Brush Freeman. When I was there, I heard what
is likely the
suspect bird, but it stayed across the river and out of reach. Chris
would later find the bird again and determined it was actually a
Red-eyed Vireo. Sunday
morning, I started
out at Anahuac NWR, hoping for a King Rail but settling for seven
(unusually high numbers for so late in the spring)
American Bitterns. I headed
over to High
Island were I spent about an hour looking for migrants but seeing very
few. I made it to
Liberty Municipal Park a little after 10am and, 25 minutes later, my
target bird -
Swallow-tailed Kite, made its appearance, a single bird gliding over
that soared high in
the sky and quickly disappeared from view.
26 May (473
species)
Monday May 26th, I spent time
again at Webberville Park before work and finally got
my first Least Flycatcher of the year.