Nalle Bunny Run Group Walk 2016-07-16

Only three folks joined me for the monthly group walk on Hill Country Conservancy's . We spent about 2.5 hours slowly walking 1.6 miles of trails on the preserve and we ended up finding 26 species of birds and a few other interesting things. Here are some highlights.

Just before our 8:00 AM start time a male Painted Bunting was singing and just visible in the treetops downhill from the gate:

We were lucky to find two "herps" today, a frog and a lizard. I have very few reptile and amphibian observations on the preserve. When we opened up the spring box we found this Rio Grande Leopard Frog:

And near the waterfall we found this Texas Spiny Lizard that stayed uncharacteristically still as we walked almost right on top of it:

My favorite moment was when some fledgling Eastern Phoebe's hunted insect right beside us. (Young birds often will get closer to you than adults since they haven't learned to be wary of humans yet.) Here's one looking around for insects:

On the large dead cottonwood near the northeast corner, we found both species of cowbird, perched right next to each other. I've never seen this before and was pleased that my photo shows both well enough to be identified. Look at the red eye of the Bronzed Cowbird on the left and the brown head of the Brown-headed Cowbird on the right:

We got to see a few neat insects, including our largest damselfly, a Great Spreadwing, and a tiny blue butterfly called a Reakirt's Blue.

What a fun morning!
Here's our complete bird list.
Here are a few more photos.
And the same photos are attached as observations.

Posted on 16 de julho de 2016, 07:11 PM by mikaelb