Benbrook Ranch Park

This is a relatively thin green zone in Leander. Lake Devine empties into the north fork of Brushy Creek and this zone runs from Bagdad Rd down to 183 and perhaps beyond. There is a freesby golf course and several ponds with running fountains along the way and several bridges and crossings over the creek.

Here are the images from the outing. The one image of the Barn Swallow was the best out of 185 images. I held down the shutter and tried to keep the bird in the view finder hoping the camera would focus at some point. But I had two major settings wrong. I'm not sure if it would have made any difference. They flow so fast and eratically.

I hope you enjoy the images. Take care!

New bird: Great Crested Flycatcher and a better photo of a Cooper's Hawk

A friend mentioned Mills Pond to me a few days ago where I've never been. So I decided to check it out. The skies are still gloomy but the park was really nice ... although part of it was under construction / repair. A lot of people out birding. I probably saw close to a dozen people out with their binoculars and cameras.

In the process, I got a new lifer for me. A Great Creasted Flycatcher. The photo is pretty horrible but it is good enough to id the bird.

The other capture was a Cooper's Hawk. I have some not so good photos of Cooper's Hawk but this guy was sitting up in clear view. It isn't my best camera but it is still a reasonable good shot.

I hope you enjoy the images.

Happy Easter

Eastern Screech Owl and friends

This is a new bird for me. The Eastern Screech Owl. A local park has a bird blind set up. It is a pretty nice set up with solor powered water and a little house to sit in stuck in a small thicket of trees. Up one of the trees is a nesting box. Poking out of the hole of the nesting box was this little fellow. And I've added in some photos of his friends that came by to visit him.

Note to self: Chipping Sparrows have a grey, non-streaked breast, Field Sparrows have a pink beak, and Lincoln’s Sparrow have thin pale eye ring, bright buffy breast that contrasts with white throat and belly … got it!?!?!? NO!!!! 😊

Home with new bird feeder

I bought a bird feeder and put it up a few weeks ago. There has not been much activity until the last three or four days. One visitor was a Red-bellied Woodpecker. I decided to make a little video of the visitors today. I didn't get a video of the woodpecker though.

Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Brown-headed Cowbird (and friends)

I've seen cowbirds throughout my life and I have photos of Bronzed Cowbirds taken at various places: Costa Rica, Corpus Christy, and Fort Davis. But not the Brown-headed Cowbird which is fairly common here in the Austin area. But I finally saw a flock today. I went to a bird blind they have at River Ranch County Park which is in Leander and a flock came to visit me along with various other friends.

Two New Birds!! Weee!!!

I currently have mixed feelings. The eBird report from a particular person and location had several birds that I've never seen before so I went out to the spot. It was fairly quiet. Mostly a bunch of Turkey Vultures. But I did find two new birds.

The first was the Canyon Wren. Two of them were hoping of the rocks that make up the dam for Lake Georgetown. But they were tiny and kept hoping around so I had a really hard time finding them in my camera or binoculars. With patience, I finally got a few pictures. I had no idea what they were but I strongly suspected that it was a new bird.

Then, while walking back to the car, I scared up three or four more birds. These were Vesper Sparrows. Again... I can't tell all of the sparrows apart and even Google and eBird disagree but the Vesper Sparrow has a white eye ring while the Savannah Sparrow had a yellow eye brow. Thus, this is a Vesper Sparrow. Weee!!!