President's Day Weekend

Three days of birding tours, 52 and 55 species on Saturday and Sunday at Laguna Atascosa Unit. Saturday the fog was so dense, we couldn't even see the lake until 10:30.

Ducks, Geese, and Cranes really help beef up the counts. Spring is definitely in the air as the Sandhills were yodeling and dancing to the delight of us all. Monday's tour to Bahia Grande produced fewer species, only 30, due to the wind gusting in excess of 25 mph. The Cassin's Sparrow are beginning to sing, but no skylarking yet.

This beautiful White-tailed Kite found on Gator Pond Road had caught a large rat. I'm surprised he could lift it.

 We need lots more rat catchers! Other raptors on this weekend were Harrier, Harris's, Red-tailed and White-tailed Hawk, Kestrel, Merlin, Osprey, Caracara, and Black and Turkey Vulture.

This large raft of Coots in the Laguna was just a fraction of the 400+ counted on Sunday. Every fresh water pond on West Lake Road hosted more coot than any other waterfowl.





We added Anhinga and Zone-tailed Hawk to our species list. Ducks included Redhead, Bufflehead, Ruddy Duck, Lesser  Scaup, Northern Shoveler, Hooded Merganser, Green-winged Teal, American Wigeon, Northern Pintail, Ring-necked Duck, Gadwall, and Mottled Duck.

After lunch we conduct bird walks around the visitor center. The Gator Trough bird bath was the hot spot on Sunday... Black-and-white Warbler, Orange-crown, Yellow-rump, and Olive Sparrow were all bathing, with Blue-headed Vireo looking on. The big Indigo Snake visited water feature #1.

Hard to believe we only have 6 weeks left.