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| Northern Cardinal |
As we made entered the park yesterday, we had to pay to get into this Nature Center, ten dollar. We decided to keep a tally of the cost of our Big Year. To the right you will see the counter of the cost as well as our birding count. If you are a birder and ever looked into doing a Big Year you probably have found out two things~ you either have to be rich or do into debit if you really commit to a big year. Well for us it's a little different my husband drives for a company so we don't have to pay for any fuel but we do have to stick to the route they give us. Sometimes that's the part that sucks! We want to make it down to the Rio Grande Valley this year and we never go down there in the semi. That part of our Big Year will be time we take off of work and cost us.
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| Red-bellied Woodpecker |
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| Cedarr Waxwing |
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| Black Vulture |
Getting back to our birding day I did a little research on this refuge and decided I wanted to go check out the Greer Island and Marsh Boardwalk for sure. First we made our way carefully to the Greer Island, there was a couple low branches and was scraping on the top of the roof, parking the semi in the tiny parking lot we step out in to nature and hear the most beautiful bird call. Looking around we could not see any birds. We figured out the direction of the call and then I looked up in a tree and saw a bright red Northern Cardinal. My favorite bird! I do not know this for certain but I believe he was passionately calling out for his mate. We got some pictures of him and made our way down the path to Greer Island. Once we got to the island we made our was down the path and spotted a Red-bellied Woodpecker pecking away at a tree. There was a piece of the island that went out on the water there we saw a Northern Mockingbird, Black Vulture and some sparrows; that we already have. Following the trail through Greer Island we came to another location where we could look out onto the water. We spot some Forster's Tern flying over head and some Double-crested Cormorants swimming in the lake.
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| American Goldfinch bathing |
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| Hermit Thrush |
Hoping for more bird action we move on down the trail then I spot an Ovenbird! It's perched perfectly on a log and I signal for Simon to be quiet as I point out the Ovenbird. We get some pictures and high-five each other on a new lifer! So so far that's two big year birds. We are starting to think we are not going to get as many birds as we had originally thought when we take a curve on the trail as see all kind of activity! Groups of Cedar Waxwings in the trees, an American Goldfinch bathing in a swallow pond, chickadees and titmice singing and jumping from branch to branch, ruby-crowned Kinglet and Golden-crowned Kinglet perched on the branches, some American Robins frolicking on the ground and finally a Northern Harrier soaring overhead searching for lunch. We pretty much had all day at this place so we were in no hurry to leave so we enjoyed the birds for a while. Once we left there we found the head of the trail rather quickly and made our way back to the truck. Along the way we saw some sparrows; Lincoln's and Song and a Sedge Wren.
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| Snowy Egret |
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| Great Blue Heron |
Once we got back to the truck we made our way to Marsh Boardwalk but along the way we stopped off at Crosstimbers Trail but only got a little ways since the trail was washed out. There we saw Great Egret and a snowy Egret down by the water and then we saw a Great Blue Heron that was perched on the tree, very beautiful. We made our way to Marsh Boardwalk there we saw pretty much the same sparrows and some ducks that were a little too far away to identify. This was a very nice refuge and would love to go back there if we get a chance again. Our list is now up to 112 and growing!! Happy Birding!
EDIT: The Ovenbird had been misidentified and is really a Hermit Thrush.
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