Thursday, March 12, 2009

Bentsen State Park March 12

I went into the park for an hour this wet and windy morning. The winter flocks are really difficult to find in the wind. We saw a few Blue-gray Gnatcatchers and Orange-crowned Warblers out in the wind, but not many. My friends were looking for Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet, so we spent most of our time in the north end of the trailer loop. We walked around, and on the way back we went onto the concrete platform that marks the old lift station on the NW corner of the Acacia Loop. I almost immediately saw a Tyrannulet! Of course I couldn't get anyone else on it. Then the male started calling a single peeping note and we were able to locate the pair for good looks at this drab, enigmatic and much desired bird. The feeding station by the Kiskadee Trail had numbers of molting Indigo Buntings and a Clay-colored Thrush, the thrush coming to a peanut butter log. The Gray Hawks in the area were calling off and on but never came by. My friends went off in search of other birds, and I went off to work.