Sunday

 

But I’m home now, writing about Saturday.

 

Loved the birding at Kickapoo Cavern.  I added two birds I had missed at two other places.

 

Del Rio to Kickapoo to Home

 

There is a bird blind with a water feature.  There are trails through good scrub and oak/juniper habitat.  Spent five hours there.  Found a bunch of good birds.  Surprisingly, I got the bird there that I tried for and missed at Blue Creek Trail the morning before.  Gray Vireo.  It came to the water feature at Kickapoo instead of me trying to chase him down through a gravel streambed for a mile.  Number 397.

 

The next bird, the Golden-cheeked Warbler, I missed the first day of this trip at South Llano River State Park.  Most of my looks at year-birds this trip have been fleeting, or have been heard-only like the Band-tailed Pigeon.  I got the pigeon very early in the morning on the first-light hike I made out of Chisos Basin in Big Bend.  I was stopped by the sound of a distant Great Horned Owl, calling even though it was a little light for that.  As I listen though, I realized the cadence was wrong.  A couple more hoots and I recognized the sound of a pigeon; kind of a moaning sound they make.  I played a tape of the Band-tailed Pigeon’s call and it matched exactly!  That was my one and only contact with that bird this trip.

 

Anyway, the Golden-cheeked Warbler not only finally appeared for me but posed for as many photos I wanted to take.

 

 

 

Golden-cheeked Warbler.  Bird Number 398 for the year!  A very satisfying trip.  I don’t know what the next two birds will be; there aren’t any new birds in my immediate vicinity.  Wait.  Wood Stork.  That would be good.  I haven’t seen one of them yet this year.  I know where to find them up near Corpus in the middle of summer.  Shouldn’t be hard to find one more after bird that.  I’ve got six months to put together a plan…

 

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