Nalle Bunny Run Group Walk 2016-09-17

This morning 11 folks joined me for the monthly group walk on Hill Country Conservancy's Nalle Bunny Run Wildlife Preserve. 5 of those folks were girls aged 9-11, and they were interested in seeing and identifying everything they could! It sure was fun showing them birds and plants and insects and one turtle this morning.

Our summer resident birds are on their way south, but there were still a few Summer Tanagers on the property. This one was singing in the early morning light before anyone arrived:

In general the birding was a little slow, and we heard more birds than we saw. But a few nice looks we got at songbirds were at a White-eyed Vireo that responded to a recorded song I played, and a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. Both are summer residents that are probably on their way south. And by the water we were lucky to see an Osprey leave its perch across the lake, fly around a bit, and take a fish!

Some neat insects we saw were a couple Great Spreadwing damselflies and a pretty good-sized praying mantis. Here's one of two Great Spreadings:

And here's the mantis:

Probably our most fun observation was of a newly hatched tiny Texas Map Turtle that Camile Knight found on the gravel road by the houses. Several of us got to hold it and photograph it, and then the girls took it down by the water and released it.

Here's our complete eBird list.
Here are a few more photos on Flickr.
And attached are our iNaturalist observations.
What a fun morning!

Posted on 17 de setembro de 2016, 08:25 PM by mikaelb