Nalle Bunny Run 2019-02-16

Twelve people joined me this morning for the monthly group walk on Hill Country Conservancy's Nalle Bunny Run wildlife preserve. Despite record-setting high temperatures in the low 90s yesterday, this morning it was 42 degrees with a light north wind blowing when I arrived at around 8:15 AM, and it did not warm up much more all morning.

The group was lucky to see two very short-lived seasonal events on the preserve. The first was the presence of hundreds (maybe thousands) of American Robins and Cedar Waxwings in the air and in the trees. This time of year (late winter or early spring) robins and waxwings that have been wintering further south than central Texas have started moving north and join the robins and waxwings who were already here for the winter, creating huge flocks of these two species. We could almost constantly hear the robins, and large numbers flew overhead almost continuously. For my eBird list I estimated 1000 robins and 500 cedar waxwings but this could have been low. Photos really couldn't capture this phenomenon, but here's a shot of one robin and one waxwing perched together I took before the group arrived:

The second event was the blooming of Agarita, one of the most common shrubs on the preserve. This prevalent native species is popular among people and wildlife for the sweet berries it produces. (Some people create jam out of them.) But its yellow flowers only bloom for a week or two once a year. We were lucky to catch the tail-end of this year's bloom!

Near the lake we spotted probably the same Merlin I've seen previously this winter, perched in a partially dead cottonwood it's been in before. As we gradually got closer to it I stared hearing Common Ravens, and then we saw the ravens chasing a Red-tailed Hawk. These three birds passed close by the Merlin which flew away from them and towards us, letting us walk almost right under its new perch where I got this photo:

Near the same spot we found a pile of feathers from a Ring-billed Gull, probably killed by a predator. And soon afterwards we saw about a dozen Ring-billed Gulls fly over us in a loose V formation.

Here's our complete bird list on eBird.

And here are a few more photos on Flickr.

See the attached observations or the photos on Flickr for photos of the gulls.

Publicado el 16 de febrero de 2019 a las 10:47 PM por mikaelb