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Texas Spring Migration 2012
April 20 - Austin Area |
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The target species in the Austin area is the Golden-cheeked Warbler. We settled on The Baker Sanctuary, managed by the Travis Audubon Society as the area most likely to give us the species. After gettting lost a couple of times, we arrived at Baker in mid-morning under threatening skies. We walked the Baker Springs Trail to its junction with the Hatfield Trail. Just past the junction, we found some Black-crested Titmice, a small, dramatically crested cousin to the Black-capped Chickadee. Sure enough, we found a Golden-cheeked Warbler defending its territory against the Titmice, exactly as advertised. The bird didn't come close enough for a photo, but in binoculars was easily confirmed.
From there, we tried a couple of other likely areas around Austin. We found some good species, but nothing else new.
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Purple Martin
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Least Sandpiper, moving to breeding plumage
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| It was a treat to spend some time with Nancy's niece, Hailey and her husband, Justin. |
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Bewick's Wren
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Nancy and Hailey
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| If you haven't been to Austin, it's quite a nice town; unfortunately it's surrounded by Texas. They sell t-shirts at the airport saying, "Keep Austin Weird." But among the cool features are the immense bat colony under the Congress Avenue Bridge. If you're there when the bats are, March to October, make a point of watching the million bats head out for a night of foraging. |
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