Corpus Christi CBC 2015-2016

I participated in the Corpus Christi Christmas Bird Count on Saturday, December 19. I birded by myself all day on the Nueces River Delta Preserve. The weather was near perfect: low 40s in the morning and high 60s in the afternoon with partly cloudy skies and a southeast breeze that finally picked up to about 15 mph by late afternoon. I've had great luck with weather for my CBCs this year! I didn't realize until the end of the day that the preserve only offers public access through scheduled guided events, so being able to tromp around on the place by myself was a real privilege. I spent the day driving about 5 miles of truck trail through the grasslands and wetlands, spending most of my time on foot on short excursions from my SUV.

Truck Trail and Truck

This preserve is great for wildlife tracking! All the exposed sandy soil was covered with tracks, mostly from coyotes and White-tailed Deer. I also found tracks from raccoons, jackrabbits, cottontails, and even a few bobcats. Here's one of the bobcat tracks I was excited to find:

Birding highlights included large numbers of Sandhill Cranes and geese. There was another team strategically placed on the preserve to count geese, ducks, and cranes in flight until 9:00 AM, so my eBird list did not include these birds in flight before then. But it sure was fun seeing and hearing them! Here's a large group of Sandhills that I did count, which flew in late afternoon:

Sandhill Cranes

Other favorite birding moments included a hovering White-tailed Kite, finding a Cassin's Sparrow, watching a group of 8 or 9 Hooded Mergansers feeding, and seeing a Long-billed Thrasher. Here the images I captured:

White-tailed Kite Hovering - 3

Cassin's Sparrow - 2

Hooded Mergansers

Long-billed Thrasher - 2

I found two of these Horse Crippler cacti (Echinocactus texensis), one by stepping on it. I was wearing heavy rubber boots and a little later I started feeling something under my heel. One of the spines from the cactus I stepped on had worked its way through heel of my boot. I hope it's still waterproof! Here's the one I didn't step on:

Horse Crippler Cactus (Echinocactus texensis) - 2

Just as much fun as the birding was experiencing the landscape:

My Start of the Corpus CBC

Lake Pano

Washed Out Trail

Wind Generators and Birds

On the north edge of my area I reached a quite definite end of the road here, where oil workers were digging a trench:

The End of the Road

Here's my complete eBird checklist.

Here are most of these photos and a few more on Flickr.

And attached are all my iNaturalist observations which have a few more things.

由使用者 mikaelb mikaelb2015年12月24日 22:13 所貼文

觀察

照片/聲音

什麼

美國山貓 (Lynx rufus)

觀察者

mikaelb

日期

12月 19, 2015 09:19 CST

照片/聲音

什麼

郊狼 (Canis latrans)

觀察者

mikaelb

日期

12月 19, 2015 09:26 CST

照片/聲音

什麼

白尾鹿 (Odocoileus virginianus)

觀察者

mikaelb

日期

12月 19, 2015 09:27 CST

照片/聲音

什麼

浣熊 (Procyon lotor)

觀察者

mikaelb

日期

12月 19, 2015 10:20 CST

照片/聲音

什麼

兔科 ( Leporidae)

觀察者

mikaelb

日期

12月 19, 2015 10:29 CST

照片/聲音

觀察者

mikaelb

日期

12月 19, 2015 11:55 CST

描述

Taken during the 2015 Corpus Christi Christmas Bird Count. I covered section 3 of the Nueces River Delta Preserve.

I found two of these distincive cactus plants. I only photographed the first because the second I discovered by stepping on it. Later I felt what I thought was a burr under my heal, inside my heavy rubber boot. On further inspection, a spine from the second Horse Crippler had penetrated the heel of my boot and was finally protruding on the inside!

照片/聲音

觀察者

mikaelb

日期

12月 19, 2015 13:39 CST

照片/聲音

什麼

沙丘鶴 (Antigone canadensis)

觀察者

mikaelb

日期

12月 19, 2015 08:57 CST

描述

Taken during the 2015 Corpus Christi Christmas Bird Count. I covered section 3 of the Nueces River Delta Preserve.

照片/聲音

觀察者

mikaelb

日期

12月 19, 2015 09:28 CST

描述

Taken during the 2015 Corpus Christi Christmas Bird Count. I covered section 3 of the Nueces River Delta Preserve.

照片/聲音

觀察者

mikaelb

日期

12月 19, 2015 09:37 CST

描述

Taken during the 2015 Corpus Christi Christmas Bird Count. I covered section 3 of the Nueces River Delta Preserve.

照片/聲音

觀察者

mikaelb

日期

12月 19, 2015 09:41 CST

描述

Taken during the 2015 Corpus Christi Christmas Bird Count. I covered section 3 of the Nueces River Delta Preserve.

照片/聲音

觀察者

mikaelb

日期

12月 19, 2015 09:46 CST

描述

Taken during the 2015 Corpus Christi Christmas Bird Count. I covered section 3 of the Nueces River Delta Preserve.

照片/聲音

什麼

棕脇秋沙鴨 (Lophodytes cucullatus)

觀察者

mikaelb

日期

12月 19, 2015 09:59 CST

描述

Taken during the 2015 Corpus Christi Christmas Bird Count. I covered section 3 of the Nueces River Delta Preserve.

These are just a few of a group of about 8 actively feeding Hooded Mergansers I was able to digi-scope.

照片/聲音

觀察者

mikaelb

日期

12月 19, 2015 10:01 CST

描述

Taken during the 2015 Corpus Christi Christmas Bird Count. I covered section 3 of the Nueces River Delta Preserve.

照片/聲音

什麼

北美沼澤鷦鷯 (Cistothorus stellaris)

觀察者

mikaelb

日期

12月 19, 2015 10:23 CST

描述

Taken during the 2015 Corpus Christi Christmas Bird Count. I covered section 3 of the Nueces River Delta Preserve.

照片/聲音

觀察者

mikaelb

日期

12月 19, 2015 10:53 CST

描述

Taken during the 2015 Corpus Christi Christmas Bird Count. I covered section 3 of the Nueces River Delta Preserve.

照片/聲音

什麼

雪雁 (Anser caerulescens)

觀察者

mikaelb

日期

12月 19, 2015 10:57 CST

描述

Taken during the 2015 Corpus Christi Christmas Bird Count. I covered section 3 of the Nueces River Delta Preserve.

照片/聲音

什麼

美洲鵐科 ( Passerellidae)

觀察者

mikaelb

日期

12月 19, 2015 11:43 CST

描述

Taken during the 2015 Corpus Christi Christmas Bird Count. I covered section 3 of the Nueces River Delta Preserve.

These photos are probably not good enough, but I thought I'd post them just in case anyone is able to identify this sparrow.

照片/聲音

什麼

白尾鹿 (Odocoileus virginianus)

觀察者

mikaelb

日期

12月 19, 2015 14:29 CST

描述

Taken during the 2015 Corpus Christi Christmas Bird Count. I covered section 3 of the Nueces River Delta Preserve.

照片/聲音

什麼

沙丘鶴 (Antigone canadensis)

觀察者

mikaelb

日期

12月 19, 2015 14:49 CST

描述

Taken during the 2015 Corpus Christi Christmas Bird Count. I covered section 3 of the Nueces River Delta Preserve.

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