Balcones Canyonlands NWR and Cow Creek

I decided to try birding in a different location on my second day of birding and found Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Reserve online.  It is a breeding grounds for the Golden Cheeked Warbler and Black Capped Vireo, which are both endangered.  It was only about half an hour away from my daughters home and I thought that I would give it a try.  So I leave early but not as early as I did yesterday.  I drive typical flat drive on the way and think  what a typical arid environment, maybe even dryer nthan what I have been looking at all weekend.  I then turn the corner and the environment changes drastically!  All of the sudden, I am in the Hill Country without any warning.  It was an amazing change of scenery. I was on a two lane country road curving around the hills and it was definitely a nice surprise.  I get to the NWR, after trying to follow the directions from online, by using my navigator on my Cell Phone.   That has been a great advantage to me on my birding trips.  The only problem is that I need to plug in the phone while using it so I don't have a dead battery.

So I pull into the NWR and I have to drive up a grade on a gravel road.  The main center as it were is  a bit up the road towards the top of the hill.  Here is a map of the trail system.

The first thing I noticed when I was getting out of the car was a bird singing.  I did not get a good chance to listen to the two endangered species but I did not believe that the bird singing was one of these two.  It turns out that it was a lifer bird for me though.  It was a Rufous-crowned Sparrow.  I had to make sure that it was not a Chipping Sparrow at first, but I was happy with the ID when I had a chance to double check it. 

It turns out that I saw many more of these birds throughout the day.   I walked out on the trails and everything was really nice, a little closed in for the big camera, but nice.  I will definitely come back when this place is birdier.

The trails led around the hills filled with juniper trees and oak trees  of different types.  There were several Carolina Wrens throughout the walk.  A number of Black Vultures and Turkey Vultures could also be seen.

I saw the potential here and did get a lifer but there were not many birds otherwise so I decided to explore the surrounding areas.  I drove down the road and pulled into a state park on Lake Travis to see what I could find.  I saw a few Black Vultures on the ground at waters edge. Speaking of waters edge check out how low the water is.  The lake was way down because of the drought!

I then stopped at a bridge over a place called Cow Creek.  The water was just trickling downstream.  That is bad unless you are a birder.  It concentrates the birds and lead me to my second lifer of the day:  A Lessor Goldfinch!  I came across a group of four of these birds bathing in the stream.  I had no idea what they were at first and thought that they might originally be American Goldfinches.  I knew that wasn't the case but had not thought of lessor until I looked in my guide.

Walking up the road, I saw a Green Heron

And what I eventually IDed as a Least Flycatcher

Returning to my original site, I saw more of the Goldfinches, end eventually a full color male.  Unfortunately, I was on the wrong side of a barbed wire fence and no trespassing signs so everything was long distance.

I saw a couple other birds fly in that turned out to be Lark Sparrow.  I wish that I had the chance to get a little closer.  My pictures are horrendous.  Sorry for the poor quality.

2:26 PM - August 12, 2009 - post comment

Untitled Comment

sounds like a great place to visit even if the birding is not completely going off. I suppose that is one of the great things about birding - it takes us to wonderful places!

http://alpinebirds.blogspot.com

Dale - 3:50 AM - August 31, 2009