[leasbirds] White River Lake and Crosby Co. 3/12/14
- From: Cameron Carver <c.o.carver@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "leasbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <leasbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, TexBirds <texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 12 Mar 2014 16:20:44 -0500
Greetings,
I spent the morning birding White River Lake. I am not much of a fan of
this lake. Others speak highly of it, but I have never had great luck.
Today was no different, but birds were seen.
On the way out, I stopped by a pond because I saw it had water. It had some
Northern Shoveler, Mallards and 2 yellowleg sp. Turns out I have never seen
shoveler in Crosby Co.
A few Mountain Bluebirds near the escarpment. Three turkeys strutting
around near the bluebirds.
I thought the WRL was going to be good when I got out of my truck. An
Eastern Phoebe was calling and sallying out right next to the office. The
person in the office told me they had pelicans. Went out back and saw 9
American White Pelicans in the middle of the lake. They must have flown off
at some point as they weren't on the lake later in the day.
At a resident's feeder there were 3 Pine Siskins, a handful of
White-crowned Sparrows and a couple of Dark-eyed Junco.
The lake is incredibly low. In trying to get a good vantage point, I
essentially drove all the way to the far northeast end of the lake. There
is an overlook at this point. It overlooks the receding lake; great
mudflats. I spent 25 minutes scanning this area: 17 Greater Yellowlegs, 1
Lesser Yellowlegs, 14 Long-billed Dowitchers, 22 Killdeer and at least 35
Chestnut-collared Longspur (there may have been a few McCown's coming in to
the water, but I never could verify that). I was hoping for some other
shorebirds, but no luck. This location will be extraordinary for shorebirds
if conditions continue.
I walked the north woods for a while and had nothing.
At the dam there were 12 Common Merganser, 1 Hooded Merganser and 1 female
Red-breasted Merganser.
I spent a lot of time with the ravens in the area. I only saw one that
looked like it could possibly be turned into a Common and even then I
didn't feel confident that it was one. All others were the much more common
Chihuahuan. Reports of Common are on the uptick in this area, but
photographic proof (or specimens or any sort of hard evidence) is seemingly
non-existent.
On the way back home I stopped by a spot with a little bit of water and
some trees. Big flock of American Robin and few Cedar Waxwing. One Spotted
Towhee calling was a bit exciting. Only Golden-fronted Woodpecker of the
day was found here.
Don't worry, bird happy.
Cameron Carver
Lubbock, TX
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