12-9-21
Sue
and Mary Lou’s remaining “wish birds” prompted an all-day perusal of “Sparrow
Road”, which actually covers parts of Jara Chinas, West 7 Mile, and County Line
Roads. They had asked about Mountain
Plovers, and while none had been reported yet this winter, Jara Chinas
historically is a great place to look, so we headed west on FM 490 towards
McCook and started on the north end, crawling along and checking for
movement. A pair of Caracaras greeted us
immediately, along with a couple of Savannah Sparrows and tons of Mourning
Doves. A distant raptor perched on a gas
pipe turned out to be a Merlin, and a bunch of Lark Sparrows hid in one of the
trees at the windbreak. Past that spot,
the really barren fields finally produced a small flock of Horned Larks
fairly close to the road, giving us great looks at both sex’s plumage! But just before we got to Mile 16 Road (about
2.6 miles south of FM 490) Mary Lou spotted something white in the field to the
west, and sure enough, it was a Mountain Plover! We got to laughing because it was kind of
like the night heron game at Estero: the
more you look, the more just pop up! There
were at least ten all told, and by turning onto Mile 16 we were able to get
fairly close to them in the car, where Sue was able to get wonderful pictures!
The barren fields of North Jara Chinas Road
Merlin
Lark Sparrow
Female Horned Lark
Everything was definitely anticlimactic after that, but continuing on, we had fabulous looks at Vesper Sparrows in the field near the intersection with Mile 14! Sue never really got a look at the Olive Sparrow at Estero, so when we heard one tipping next to the road, we tried calling it out, and eventually a pair came out in the open, giving both girls great looks! A nice White-tailed Hawk wheeled overhead before we turned south on Jara Chinas. Things were quite slow (the wind was picking up as well), but we did hear some unseen Long-billed Thrashers and a House Wren, but the big target was the Pyrrhuloxia, which had been giving us the slip all week! One did briefly sit up, but right in the sun, so it wasn’t a satisfying look (a Bewick’s Wren was more cooperative). We tried trolling for Cassin’s Sparrow down by the big ranch with the big fence, but that was a no-go as well… L
Turning right on West Mile 7 at the four way stop (I pointed out the “real” Sparrow Road to them, aka FM 2221, which I never bird anymore because the traffic has gotten so bad), we crawled along there as well, stopping for a flock of something that dove into a bush that we hoped were Lark Buntings but turned out to be Red-winged Blackbirds… A flock of American Pipits flew over, and here and there a Cooper’s Hawk would shake things up. We also got a close but in-the-sun look at a perched White-tailed Hawk, and several Redtails were around as well; a couple looked like the creamy-bellied Fuertes’ race, with no (or little) belly band. It was so quiet that we didn’t even pick up any birds at the Yturrias Cattle Ranch, the homestead I always feel awkward about stopping in front of because that’s usually where all the birds are!
Once we made the right turn onto County Line Road, things actually picked up a bit: three White-crowned Sparrows popped up to pishing at one point, and we were thrilled to pick up another Say’s Phoebe flopping around (although the girls agreed that nothing beat the look we had at Falcon)! They were harvesting sorghum in one field pretty close to the road, and while the girls were watching them, a Roadrunner darted across the road and almost got nailed by an oncoming car! Of course the girls missed him and were sorely disappointed (the look along the Dump Road Tuesday was definitely a Better View Desired look), so I was hoping another would pop up.
We
passed the beautiful ranch with the mural of what I assume are the “patrons” of
the place on a tank, where several Green Jays were flying around their
oaks. Several shrikes gave good views,
and at one point a nice Scissor-tailed Flycatcher posed and then flew, showing off that nice "ball-ended" tail! We then spotted a Texas Spiny Lizard posing on a fence post, and after the next jog left we passed a farmer checking out his field, and as we passed
what we assumed was his home/headquarters, what should pop up and stay
up but a male Pyrrhuloxia! (He was
actually next to the trunk of a tree, but very visible and very
beautiful!) While we were looking and
taking pictures, we could see the guy in his truck coming up behind us, and we
expected him to ask us what we were doing, but he just went in his property the
back way and let us be – we figured he must have seen the cameras hanging out
the car window (and not towards his house J)!
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
Continuing on, we added a Sharp-shinned Hawk batting overhead, and just before making the hard left towards the final leg, there was our Roadrunner on the left side of the road! Thankfully he lingered for everyone to get prolonged looks, but at the same time about four Bobwhite ran across the open area in front of us! The girls’ interests were definitely divided!
About
the only thing we added on the way to Pipeline was a couple of Black Vultures,
but about that time I got a text from Keith saying that one of our neighbors at
Alamo Country Club, Yvonne Kautsch, had a Woodcock in her backyard! The girls definitely wanted to add that to
their trip list, so we blasted down to Sullivan City and braved the freeway
traffic to get up there! My friends Pat
and Anne were already there, and they along with Yvonne pointed the bird out to
us, sitting contentedly next to a tree!
Keith eventually made it over so he could enjoy this rare bird as well!
Black Vulture
Dropped them off after that and kissed goodbye; quantity was low with only 41 species, but the quality couldn’t be beat! Bird list:
Northern
Bobwhite
Eurasian
Collared-Dove
Mourning
Dove
Greater
Roadrunner
Killdeer
Mountain
Plover
American
Woodcock
Black
Vulture
Turkey
Vulture
Northern
Harrier
Sharp-shinned
Hawk
Cooper's
Hawk
Harris's
Hawk
White-tailed
Hawk
Red-tailed
Hawk
Golden-fronted
Woodpecker
Crested
Caracara
American
Kestrel
Merlin
Say's
Phoebe
Scissor-tailed
Flycatcher
Loggerhead
Shrike
Green
Jay
Horned
Lark
House
Wren
Bewick's
Wren
Long-billed
Thrasher
Northern
Mockingbird
House
Sparrow
American
Pipit
Olive
Sparrow
Lark
Sparrow
White-crowned
Sparrow
Vesper
Sparrow
Savannah
Sparrow
Eastern
Meadowlark
Red-winged
Blackbird
Great-tailed
Grackle
Orange-crowned
Warbler
Northern
Cardinal
Pyrrhuloxia
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