By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Last weekend, Michael G. visited from San Antonio, and we spent several hours out in the field, birding along the San Felipe Creek in the morning and at the Amistad National Recreation Area in the afternoon.
At the creek, we started in the Rincon Del Diablo and worked our way upstream to the city’s FEMA property along Barron Street. We hadn’t really found anything to that point, so we were both very excited when we heard Green Jays calling from the carrizo brakes along the creek across from the FEMA property.
I pulled up a recording of Green Jay calls from the Audubon Society’s web site and played a few of them. Within a minute, a small flock of about six Green Jays had surrounded our location, peering down at us from the trees, trying to spy the intruders in their territory.
The strident calls – both the recorded ones and those of the incoming jays – rousted a House Wren from deep in the brush, and it posed for several photos before dropping back down out of sight. Mike also flushed an eight-point whitetail buck from a stand of bamboo along the creek.
We didn’t want to bother the Green Jays too much in their morning foraging, so we soon moved on.
In the afternoon, we drove out to the Amistad National Recreation Area to see if we could find any water birds. Lake Amistad attracts thousands of migrating waterfowl from the central U.S. every fall, so you never know what you’ll find.
Mike and I started at the U.S. Highway 277 north campground and picnic area of the ANRA and walked down the old roadway toward the lake. The water is very low now, and the old 277 roadway and bridge are almost completely out of the water.
There is only a small finger of the lake still extending into this area, close to the south campground access.
As we approached the water, Mike stopped and said he heard Sandhill Cranes calling. We continued on and sure enough, a flock of about 70 or so Sandhills lifted up from where they had been foraging along the water and flew slowly past us. It was a pretty amazing sight.
Sandhill Cranes breed in far northern parts of the U.S. and into Canada. On their way to their wintering grounds here in Texas, they will stop over to rest and forage in great numbers in parts of the central plains. We were excited that some of them decided to stop here.
Field Notes: Thanks, Robin Worley, for letting me know about seeing Green Jays outside your home in south Del Rio! Also, I love your parrot!
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Contact the author at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com
