January 11 Bahia Grande

Great tour on Saturday morning with 4 visitors and 1 refuge volunteer. Our tours are the only means of seeing Bahia Grande and West Lake Road so we do have several volunteers when space allows.

Many things catch our attention other than birds...

Cat Track

Habitat suggests bobcat...

We tallied bird 33 species with a couple of UFO's... lots of desert birds which is usual for Bahia Grande. Habitat is so different from the Laguna Atascosa Unit. Coastal Prairie punctuated with prickly pear cactus and yucca, with a few "lomas" covered with thornscrub. The monster machine from Georgia has cleared 1500 acres of mesquite and huisache to restore the prairie while managing habitat for Aplomado Falcon. 

I missed photos of Curve-billed Thrasher and Pyrrhuloxia, but managed to snag the Cassin's Sparrow...

Snapped a photo of the Verdin, but through the cracked and dinged up windshield of the van it was too fuzzy to use. Would have been a great action shot, too, with lots of wing action. 

This big bull was herding his harem across the prairie

 A big thrill of every tour is a stampede of the Nilgai herd... we counted 40+ this trip

This young male seemed to say, "How about a little privacy"

The Nilgai was imported into South Texas by King Ranch in the 1920's for exotic hunting. Native to India and Pakistan, the first animals were obtained from the San Diego Zoo. The unique mammals adapted well to the climate while their immense size made fences totally useless.Without tigers, no natural predators exist for these massive animals. Hunting and an occasional automobile collision are their only worries. The big males reach a weight of 600-700 pounds.