Bird News Archive XIII January 1 2010 - June 30 2010

Some commonly used abbreviations used are: "in town" - means in Utopia LM - Lost Maples SNA; GSP - Garner St. Pk. SRV - Sabinal River Valley FOS - "First of Season" (usually used for 1st spring or fall migrant to show up locally) SR - Seco Ridge a couple miles west of Utopia in Uvalde County. Ode - Odonata (dragonfly or damselfly) Lep - butterfly ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Here, we have January 1 to May 30, 2010. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ May summary ~ It was a very weak spring (going back to April) for migrant landbirds overall, probably due to extensive greenery due to a badly needed wet winter.  Bad for us to see them is probably good for them to find food and cover on their journey.  The flower show on the other hand has many saying it is the best they ever saw, as it is for me here in this area.  Dragonflies have been slow to get going and I think like butterflies are in recovery mode from the two years of drought preceeding this spring season. I saw 48 species of butterflies locally in May, up from 40 in April, only a Mexican Yellow being a significant find. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ May 31 ~ The bird of the day was at 11 p.m. when I heard a BARN OWL, so surely that represents a locally nesting bird. I still count 25 species of wildflowers in bloom around the yard. May 29 ~ At the north end of town there are a few Dickcissels on territory right at the UvCo 356 x 187 junction.  At UR (Utopia on the River) there was a Little Wood Satyr, the first I've seen this year, and at UP there was a female Mourning Warbler, the second of that species this spring, no MacGillivray's this year. The mccallii Screech-Owl song I timed at 3 seconds.  Just a straight barely trilled on same pitch "toad call." May 28 ~ A cool wasp has been around that looks fairly close to Gnamptopelta obsidianator, an ichneumon, all black with orange anntenae.  Lots lots fewer hummingbirds around as the first batch of young produced have dispersed.  Major difference in a few days, doesn't bother me a bit not having to fight keeping feeders with fluid.  A male Widow Skimmer was patrolling the yard here at SR for a while. May 27 ~ Flushed a Chuck-wills-widow at Utopia Park, my first for the park, since I don't hang out there at night enough obviously. also there was a male Green Kingfisher, and a Macromia (River Cruiser) dragonfly, plus a Roseate Skimmer and still Springtime Darner. At SR there were the usual Poor-will, Chucks, and 6 Common Nighthawk. May 25 ~ One Blue-gray Gnatcatcher adult male was a post-breeding wanderer, probably did a couple clutches or broods (or attempts) and is done for the season already.  The Hutton's Vireo continues singing out front here at SR.  The first summer male Scott's Oriole (AHY or SY) now has no tail, just a series of black spots where the new rectrices are just peeking out. The black of the face and chest is now solid without olive, but crown and back still have olive.  Underparts have worn yellower but still far from ASY bright yellow.  Then a Hooded Oriole in female plumage was hanging on a window and singing at its reflection.  This is an AHY bird with very worn dull brown rectrices and remiges, no black in throat, and I got a couple poor pix through the dirty double window. A few butterflies were about, best was maybe my first May record yet of a MEXICAN YELLOW!  Also Nysa Roadside-Skipper, Red Satyr, Reakirt's Blue, Fiery Skipper, numbers of Buckeye, and after dark the Couch's Spadefoot Toad was serenading me again, probably due to another 1/2" of rain today, just before dark. May 24 ~ About an inch of rain in the p.m. was a needed treat. May 23 ~ We checked a couple tree patches around town for migrants despite the wind.  Nothing at UR or the 354 pecans (besides breeders), but across the field from the park on Cypress St. by the Mulberries besides 30 Waxwings there was a singing (male) AHY (after hatch year) American Redstart, the first I've seen this spring.  Nice yellow tail squares, but salmon on breast, and salt and pepper charcol on throat, some little black on head and back. Then further down the hackberry row I found a FOS Willow Flycatcher.  Over in Utopia Park (UP) at the north end there was a Mourning Warbler, finally an Oporornis this year! There was also a Least Flycatcher there, for an outstanding and impressive grand total of 4 passerine migrants at UP and on the street out front of it, 3 of them, the only ones of season so far.  Another first and only locally I've seen this spring migrant was a Cattle Egret standing on the dam. We've had lots in Uvalde, but none up here in the hills. Also had numbers of Blue Dasher and a couple Springtime Darner dragonflies at UP. May 22 ~ Lost Maples for a half day walk up Can Creek. At least 4, more likely 5 Yellow-billed Cuckoo migrants were seen or heard, knocked down by the fog/mist.  Even better was a YELLOW-BELLIED FLYCATCHER seen, which besides the FOS for me this year, may be a first for the park.  It is not on the list.  Of course little late May migrant hunting takes place there, most are myopically looking for a certain warbler or vireo.  Check out the Lost Maples Reports page for a more full report, but Golden-cheeked and Black-and-white Warbler are feeding young along the trail, and a just about ready to fledge Mexican (Eastern) Screech-Owl trying to dry out was great. Tex-Mex Screech-Owl (Otis asio mccallii) Flowers are phenomenal both at the park and along 187 between town and there.  Some huge areas of Skeleton-Flower. In the afternoon here at SR in broad daylight I was struck how long it took me to figure out it was a Chuck-wills-widow zig-zagging over the junipers, with a Cooper's Hawk behind it looking like it was going to run out of steam long before the Chuck, which despite the rakish ungainly look was making deceptively fast progress, with seemingly little effort. May 21 ~ There was a Catbird at UP, and single Yellow Warblers at UP, UR, and 354.  A pair of Yellow-billed Cuckoo seem to be back at UR.  Migrants are passing through of this latest of migrants too with one calling for an hour here in the junipers on SR.  About 27 Cedar Waxwing at SR. May 20 ~ It was a heavy fog/mist day almost all day, and I bet there were some migrants knocked down, but I couldn't get out to look.  Dang work. May 19 ~ Well I have to face facts, the bulldozing we've been hearing across the road for a week or so took out the Painted Bunting nest site.  They're gone.  They were back, singing all day every day, eating millet every morning and afternoon, drinking if not bathing daily, and I haven't heard hide nor hair, or seen them in days, after about the second day of WMD (dozer).  After the last five years of having them as daily fare late April to August, yes, there is a great big hole in my heart, since they surely had a nest, likely with eggs at this point.  Fortunately so far, apparently it hasn't affected our Blue Grosbeak pair, or the Summer Tanager pair that are in the yard daily. But we lost our Painted Buntings to one of modern man's greatest weapons of mass destruction, the bulldozer. Which reminds me, have you seen Clayton Grade lately? Probably TX DOT contractors have surely "fixed" the drainage on the east side of the road now.  You'll recall a year ago they dozed the biggest public access Eupatorium/Mejorana patch in the valley, covered it with gravel, for "drainage control" on the west side of the grade. I guess someone saw some flowers survived on the east side of the road so the contractor has scraped it to the bone. It had Eups too, and was equally great in fall especially. There were days you could spend HOURS working the butterflies in the bushes right at the incline, going south out of the valley, and in just two short years, at taxpayer expense this wonderful unique habitat has been reduced to rubble. It was a natural native butterfly garden, and as such had larger numbers of some species than our artificial man-made gardens do.  It's gone.  But we now alledgedly have better drainage.  By removing the plants that held the ground and replacing them with rocks. May 18 ~ A Swainson's Thrush was singing down in the draw out front here at SR.  Couldn't get out and check the trees in town though.  Did have a few Buckeye, and a Julia's Skipper, besides lots of the expected butterflies. Hutton's Vireo still singing outside.  That big male Eastern Fence Lizard is coloring up out back, but the highlight today was what I'm fairly certain was a RIBBON SNAKE that after getting it in binocs out the window, then getting the camera and running outside, it shot across the hill at the sight of me so I didn't get a picture.  VERY neat yard beast! May 17 ~ Spotted Sandpiper at UP on the dam was about it for migrants.  A hundred Cedar Waxwing in town, and 30 at SR. Few Queen (butterfly) starting to show up, and a couple Stream Bluet (damselfly) were at UP.  Field Sparrow bathed late in the p.m., and a pair of Chimney Swifts were circling and calling at dusk over SR.  The real highlight of the day was finding my first Purple Dalea (Dalea lasiathera) locally, one in spectacular full bloom along 355, just outside town. May 16 ~ a big severe cell was bearing down on us most of the morning but we only got a bit of spitting out of it for the most part, besides keeping us from going out for birds.  Got a little tape of the boring Hutton's Vireo song, but it was raining just hard enough to make that not work very well. Lots of Navajo Tea blooming now, acres of it on the back section of 360.  The chiggers have been remarkably few in number so far this spring, considering how wet it has been.  Some locals say a two-year drought puts a hurt on them.  I thought I'd mention it, as I was reminded by one that is driving me nuts presently.  :) May 15 ~ Another predawn MCS came over another inch or so of rain, and cool air.  We ran for supplies in Uvalde since it looked like a break for the day.  The flowers south along 187 from Utopia to Sabinal are still overwhelmingly specatacular. At the least, astounding.  We stopped a few times and it was clear some things had gone off and were over and done, in the three weeks since our last drive down the road, so missed photos of some things.  The Basket-Flower stands were very extensive in places, a big showy flower of incredible delicate beauty. Some places had a mile of Firewheel (Indian Blanket) along the road, and hundreds of acres of Coreopsis, the horses must be happy. Lots of 3'+ Purple Horsemint is open and the 3' Standing Winecup is still going strong.  You could spend hours checking the road from here to Sabinal for birds, flowers, and the bugs or butterflies on them.  Besides Mockingbird, one of the most common birds singing along this strip (except in the juniper hills around Clayton Grade) was Dickcissel. Dozens in the Sabinal Valley part, and dozens down in the flatlands, like Red-winged Blackbirds. A good migrant was an Eastern Kingbird on a fence down in the flatlands once you hit the ag section a few miles N. of Sabinal. A pair of Shrikes was near the 127/187 junction where I have suspected possible breeding before.  Then at the pond on the 127/90 cutoff was 5 Blue-winged Teal, a Spotted Sandpiper, and a female Wilson's Phalarope in high alternate plumage. On the way home, near dusk, on the 187/127 cutoff, I couldn't believe hearing a Couch's Spadefoot Toad right next to the road. We jogged across 90 to Old Sabinal Rd. to take an enjoyable ride to Uvalde, if you like driving 45 with the windows down so you can hear birds.  Once we got past the section that was mowed (too soon) it was quite nicely flower lined still. There are some pure red Firewheel along it, without the yellow tips it usually has, and quite nice looking (photos).  The road was fairly lined with singing Dickcissel, several dozens more. Along the way heard Olive Sparrow, saw Curve-billed Thrasher, Cactus Wren, Long-billed Thrasher, Verdin, Golden-fronted Woodpecker, heard several singing Cassin's Sparrow, saw one singing Pyrrhuloxia, few Vermilion and one Brown-crested Flycatcher, Bullock's Oriole, all of these species are nesting along this little traveled gem of a backroad.  Mockingbirds are at least very abundant, the whole way from Utopia to Uvalde. We took a quick look at the fish hatchery, but just after we started for the main pond, a crop duster came in and strafed the sunflower field adjacent to the west, which puts him doing the pull up and hard bank right over the main best shorebird pond, so we got to watch almost all the few shorebirds depart 2 minutes after we got there.  Thanks flyboy.  I get a peek once in three weeks and mostly saw one flyby and then north ends of a bunch of southbound shorebirds.  Of course I couldn't wonder what they spray, and how much drift there is onto the habitat at the hatchery, and what effects it has?  And didn't want to go stand in it to bird, since I didn't need de-bugging. We saw two each Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, a couple Baird's and 6 Least Sandpiper, 1 Semipalmated and 1 White-rumped Sandpiper, 2 Pectoral Sandpiper, and about 5-6 Spotted Sandpiper. 4 Shoveler and 25 Blue-winged Teal were the only ducks besides Whistling-Ducks, and one of the drake Blue-wings was a hybrid with some Cinnamon Teal cinnamon color in the breast and in the buffy eye crescent.  There were many Dickcissel singing here, a pair of Orchard Oriole, 4 Coot, a Great Blue Heron, and lots of Chimney Swift, Barn Swallow, Purple Martin, a Yellow Warbler, and one Black Setwing dragonfly amongst many Odes. A Savannah Sparrow was getting perhaps nearly tardy. A quick look around Cook's Slough found very little but a small group of warblers including a few Yellow, a 1st year male Wilson's, at least one male Common Yellowthroat which also sang a bit. The bird of the day was a female BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAK eating mulberries in a tree there, my first one at the slough, and the only one I've seen this spring so far.  Dickcissel, Painted Bunting, Bell's Vireo, Brown-crested and Vermilion Flycatcher, Olive Sparrow, Verdin amongst the regulars there. Lots of Odes but I didn't work them besides taking pix of a red morph Rambur's Forktail. Over the course of the drive down, plus the stops in between, we must have heard about a hundred singing territorial male Dickcissel. Saw twice that many Mockingbird along the roads, maybe fifty or so Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, a few Bullock's Oriole, a dozen or two of Western Kingbird, but only heard one Couch's, and no Kiskadee, which can get quiet in the day when they are nesting. At home, about 10:30 p.m. I finally got some audio tape of the male Couch's Spadefoot Toad calling at our kiddie pool puddle we keep. Chuck-wills-widow and Poor-will were calling too, as well as Rio Grande Leopard Frog, Barking Frog, Blanchard's Cricket Frog, Gulf Coast Toad, but it seems the Chorus Frogs (our "spring peeper") are done now.  Common Nighthawk was booming a bit. Probably nearly 2" of rain over the two events, not bad, and should help keep this world class flower show going strong. May 14 ~ With some pea to penny sized hail, about 2/3" of rain came through with a front, pre-dawn.  Couldn't get out until the afternoon, when it is pointless looking for migrant landbirds, they get their few hours of sleep in then when grounded. The only thing new and different was a tardy FOS Green Heron at UP. It was either eating Mulberries, or things coming in to the berries. Less than 10 mi. SE of us in NW Medina Co. the cell stalled right after going over us and dumped up to 8" of rain locally, between here and Medina Lake.  Hutton's Vireo singing at SR. May 12 ~ News today was butterflies, as I saw two new for the year species.  First in the a.m., a MOURNING CLOAK landed out back on the caliche briefly, circled around the clearing a couple times and moved on.  Whilst I've seen the species now the last 3 springs, I did not record one the first 4 springs I was here looking, and would not have overlooked the species, having grown up with it being abundant.  Then in the p.m. when I squirted water about a bit a bunch of stuff came in including my first Theona Checkerspot of the year, and another Buckeye. I keep forgetting to mention the numbers of juvenile hummingbirds seems fairly high, we have them thick for a couple weeks now, since the last week of April.  All Black-chinned of course, and you can tell they are fresh juveniles by their mostly gray heads right now when they just fledge.  We're using a couple pounds of sugar daily (= 1 gal. of fluid) in the feeders, so have perhaps 500-1000 birds in the area coming in.  Haven't seen a Ruby-throat in a week and change.  They just passed through quickly this year. The juvenile Scrub-Jay (again only 1 fledged from first set) was learning to bathe, and at one point threw so much water up, when it came back down and landed on its back, it scared itself out of the bath.  It took a couple minutes for it to work the courage up to go back in after that.  Sometimes when you actually watch birds, it's hard not to chuckle, if you do it right. May 11 ~ Couple Yellow Warblers and Yellow-billed Cuckoo down around UR and 360.  Bird of the day got away, a warbler with a strong rich emphatic flight note "seent", which sounded like an American Redstart to me but I only saw it against gray skies shooting from tree to tree quickly. There were over 450 Cedar Waxwings on the Mulberry Trees on Cypress St.!  It doesn't appear they care about leaving ANY for me, the street (and now my tennis shoes) stained purple from all those they've carelessly dropped, wastefully, most with one peck out of them, as if they were not good enough!?!  Yes I checked to see what the problem with those huge fat purple-black berries was, of course.  :) Very interesting at SR is now two new different Hooded Orioles that have shown up at the feeders, both looking like AHY (after hatch year, also correctly SY - 2nd yr.) birds, about a year old, in their second year.  One is an orange morph male (they come in green/yellow like females also) and the other a female, which looks superficially quite like female Bullock's as they have dirty white underparts except for undertail coverts and throat and upper breast.  The color is a greener yellow than Bullock's but underparts areas with and without color nearly identical to fem. Bullock's pattern. This plumage is not well-illustrated in the standard guides. May 10 ~ I couldn't get out, but at 11 p.m. besides hearing Chuck-wills-widows, Poor-will, Common Nighthawk, then Eastern (Mexican) Screech-Owl, I heard what at first I took for a distant kid goat, but it sounded closer and I wondered if it was a whirlpool in my tanks outside as water goes down the overflow drainpipes, but it was getting louder, and finally a good long burst of song confirmed it, next to the 4' x 1' kiddie pool we keep for a pond, COUCH'S SPADEFOOT TOAD !! Calling in the yard!!  That is about as good a yard beast as one can get, if you ask me.  Made my day! My observations over the last 7 springs here now indicate they require a 6" rain event to emerge from estivation. That is how you can tell if we got over 6".  Do you hear something coming from say a pond or wet area, that sounds like a gnome with a kazoo imitating a baby goat or sheep? They are real beauties IF you can see one!  But good luck! Spadefoot Toads have vertical pupils unlike other North American frogs and toads, and males are olive and black, so quite impressive in appearance. May 9 ~ Heavy drizzle most of the a.m., and we didn't get out until too late as bird activity was quieting down already it seemed.  At UP was the continuing Northern Waterthrush, and a male Common Yellowthroat.  At the 354 pecans there were 6 Yellow Warblers, one each Wilson's (finally saw one this spring) and Nashville Warbler.  Lots of Dickcissel singing out in the Thistle (non-native Musk).  Kathy spotted the best bird of the day there, a FOS Eastern Kingbird, finally. Was thinking we missed the window this spring.  At UR there was a Yellow and a Nashville Warbler, a calling cuckoo, the singing Acadian Flycatcher.  Down by the river, on 360, there were 4 more Yellow and another Nashville.  So about a dozen Yellow over a few stops, and 5 sps. of migrant warblers total.  The flowers are still spectacular as if you haven't noticed.  Still new things popping out I haven't seen before, like the Brown-Flowered Psoralea I found today, and some Winecup right past the east edge of town on Lee St.. A couple Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks were at the SLC pond. Another Barn Owl was heard late, about 11 p.m.. I saw yesterday's big fancy beetles again on the Mexican Poppy near UR, and checked the other patch of that at the end of Lee St. which also had some, probably 16 between the two patches, all devouring the flowers and leaves.  Mike Quinn, former TPWD Entomologist (that's Mr. Bug to you and me) has ID'd them as Blister Beetles (Meloidae), so I am really glad after consideration I decided to not grab one.  Lytta fulvipennis is the species, and THANK YOU Mike Quinn beetle man extraordinaire for the identification! These beasts were gorging themselves, at times hanging upside-down waiting to expell some frass so they could eat some more is how it appeared.  They excrete a chemical when disturbed that can cause very painful serious burns, hence the name. Orange-winged Blister Beetle - Lytta fulvipennis at Utopia, TX, May 8, 2010, was ca. 1.5" long! May 8 ~ Moderate east winds overnight with a weak dry frontal passage usually means migrants at this time of year so I checked a few spots.  On the trail at the north end of UP which I walked yesterday a.m., I photo'd a pile of Catbird feathers. So one was there in the last 24 hours.  There was a Northern Watherthrush at the northmost end of the park, #2 this spring here. Eastern Screech-Owl calling lots lately after dark at SR. The Mulberry trees on Cypress still have loads of Waxwings, and finally FOS Orchard and Baltimore Orioles.  At Utopia on the River the Acadian Flycatcher has returned (not here yesterday), and a couple Nashville and Yellow Warblers was about it.  There were some (8) spectacular beetles (ph.) on some Mexican Poppy at UR.  Down on the other side of the river along 360 I found several Larkspurs in bloom (Delphinium), some Cardinal-Feather, Scarlet Pimpernel, and both Celia's and Nysa Roadside-Skippers.  Up on SR near the end of the pavement there are some Barbara's Button's in bloom. At SR there is Rock Flax that is knee-high and Mexican Hat up to my waist. Lots of the yellow you see along the roads locally is Coreopsis, acres of it, some areas have Nerve-Ray, the lavender purple mostly finishing up now is largely Dakota Verbina. May 7 ~ FOS local Olive-sided Flycatcher at UP was discovered due to a burst of song, "Quick! three beers". Music to my ears.  A single Nashville there was my only migrant warbler at 3 stops.  UR had a Great Crested Flycatcher, but no Acadian has returned yet.  Flyover Dickcissels were there, at UP, 354, and SR.  The numbers of Hackberry and Tawny Emperor butterflies is Asteronomical.  A hundred of each in a few spots, easy.  Red Admiral and Question Mark nearly as abundant too. A Spotted Sandpiper was on the dam at UP. May 5 ~ Hutton's Vireo singing a lot outside.  Two male and two female Hooded Orioles using feeder, besides the pair of Scott's. Two pairs of Painted Bunting and one pair of Blue Grosbeak seem to have settled in again, and one pair (2) Chipping Sparrow is all that remains of them, the other half dozen leaving the last few days. First just fledged Lesser Goldfinch about the yard today. May 4 ~ Errands in town so a quick check yielded very little, a few Nashville (6 at 3 stops), a Yellow, and good was two Black-throated Green Warbler, a female at the 354 pecans, and a male that sang at Utopia on the River.  Lots of Hackberry and Tawny Emperor butterflies about, as well as Questionmarks, Red Satyr daily at SR. At least 275 Cedar Waxwing hitting the ripe Mulberries around town. Two less female Brown-headed Cowbirds about the yard. Interesting was when the just fledged (yesterday) juvenile Scrub-Jay flew up to the wire near the adult.  The adult lifted its leg to scratch an itch on the side of its face/head, and quickly after the juvenile lifted its leg and scratched the same place on its face.  Now it could not have had the same itch.  Mimicry, same way people learn! May 3 ~ Here we go high pressure and 90 deg.F, get ready for summer. The Ruby-throated Hummingbirds cleared out after the frontal passage in late April and very few remain, I saw but one female today. Saw some good Common Nighthawk booms (dive display) and several Chuck-wills-widows were calling as was an Eastern Screech-Owl. Female Blue Grosbeak is about the seed, besides the male. May 2 ~ The winds calmed and skies were clear last night and it appeared as the migrants high-tailed it out of here, as I saw a single Nashville (UR) and that was about it for migrants.  Oh I you could call the 3 Western Kingbirds migrants too.  At the end of Lee St. before the first dogleg there is a nice patch of Mexican Poppy in the corrals, which is fairly scarce here. Kathy had a Spotted Towhee today we heard yesterday and the day before (Fri. and Sat.).  But since I didn't hear or see one Tues. through Thursday, I think it was a new migrant that stopped. Out at the S.Little Creek pond there was a Black-bellied Whistling-Duck, my FOS local one this spring.  A Great Blue Heron was there and one flew up the river at UP. There are acres and acres of Coreopsis around town, out along 357, or just south of town on 187, the abundant yellow groundcover is this species.  Along 360 there are fair amounts of Nerve-Ray, and all the roads are lined with Engleman's Daisy among other things. There are also acres of purple Dakota Verbina in between the yellow things, and all together, holy cow what a color show!  Around Utopia on the River's grounds there are Baby Blue-eyes and Tube-Tongue for some of the ground-cover.  Some Bluebonnets are still going. One fresh mint Monarch was seen, clearly a new fresh emergence. May 1 ~ I checked spots around town for migrant birds since a weak frontal passage turned winds around overnight.  I hit UP, UR, 354 and 360 over a few hours.  There were numbers of Nashville Warbler (15+, at 4 stops), Yellow Warbler (6, at 4 stops), and Orange-crowned Warbler (3, at 4 stops), so while the most warblers since Myrtles went through, it was not exactly jumping.  A male Lazuli Bunting was a UR, where there was also a FOS Great Crested Flycatcher finally. A pair of Brown-crested were checking holes out at UP, but they won't stay to nest.  The Northern Waterthrush was gone from UP, but the Least Flycatcher was still there.  A Spotted Sandpiper and a pair of Green Kingfisher were also present. In the "best bird of the day always gets away" category, I saw a mostly gray and white warbler with some bold black and white on throat and face, white tailspots, and what looked like yellow on the wing as it flew right by me, on 360 along the river.  It looked like Golden-winged Warbler to me, but it landed and then bolted away so got to watch it fly a hundred yards, then I couldn't relocate it. Other interesting things were a butterfly that I'd have sworn was a Spring or Summer Azure (Celastrina ladon/sps.) type of beast, a blue I've been looking for, wondering if they occur here, which disappeared after a couple looks of it flying and perched but I was unable to photograph it.  It would be a new species for my local list though if I had been able to confirm or document it is some way.... There are hundreds of Question Mark butterflies about, thickest I've ever seen them.  A few good flowers are out too, if you haven't noticed the bloom is spectacular everywhere you look. I found a Prarie Larkspur (Delphinium - blue here) down along 360 which is the only one I've seen besides the plant (for the first time now 2) I know of at Lost Maples SNA up Can Creek, in some honeycomb limestone (with Canyon Mock-Orange on same piece!). April 30 ~ Wow so that's it for April already?  I spent an hour checking some trees around town for some more FOS birds. Dickcissel was singing on 354 as was Yellow-breasted Chat, both returning breeders.  At UP the Northern Waterthrush was still there, and gave a few short snippets of song!  A FOS there was a Least Flycatcher.  Then at Utopia on the River there were 2 FOS's, a singing Swainson's Thrush, which is the voices of angels, and finally 2 overdue Blue-headed Vireo. There were about 7 Nashville Warbler there, and 1 female Tennessee. The nesting Red-eyed Vireo, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, and Acadian Flycatcher there have not returned yet.  A female Great-tailed Grackle flew over SR.  Several Common Grackle were at the north end of town, and some were at Feller's place at the Waresville turn. Saw one migrant Monarch. Four Carolina Wren fledged from their nest over the back door at 3 p.m., so maybe I'll be able to stand on my porch without being scolded again. This a.m. here at the hovel there was a Spotted Towhee that called, which I'm sure is a new passage bird as none have been here since Monday.  And a Hermit Thrush drew its bow across the strings as that calls so sounds.  Hutton's Vireo sang for a long time in the juniper over the bath.  Talk about monotonous! A Black-tailed Jackrabbit was out front this a.m., with fully brown and gray sides, quite unlike the white-sided one I photo'd a couple years ago. April 29 ~ A quick run to town got me out of the car at a couple of the migrant patches.  At the 354 Pecan patch there was a FOS local Yellow Warbler, and a FOS local Dickcissel.  At UP there was a very nice yellow-washed FOS Northern Waterthrush. A couple Nashville Warbler were at each stop, but little else. No Great Crested Flycatcher yet, one Indigo Bunting singing at Utopia on the River.  Here at the hovel on SR I saw my first female Painted Bunting of the year, a week after the first male. At about 7 p.m. a Tawny Emperor butterfly landed on a juniper out front, which I got in the scope for study views, first of the year. Butterfly species number 42 for the month locally.  There are still 9 Chipping Sparrow at seed here at SR. The other big butterfly news today was finally seeing a yellow Swallowtail at the Library, an Eastern Tiger, species #100 on my library garden list!  Finally!  I only added about 3 last year, and none all fall, usually our best season.  This was a dumb-miss category beast.  Since they don't nectar a lot it is hard to get for the garden, and it's just a matter of spending lots of time standing around when not much goes on there (spring) and getting one flying through.  I saw my FOS Firefly this evening! April 28 ~ Must have been migrants about because I had a couple in the yard, but didn't get to go around and check the trees about town. Besides a Nashville, interesting was a very small Hermit Thrush. It reminded me of guttatus from the west, and did not appear like the usual bigger April migrant Hermit Thrushes we get.  There was a green bunting outside, the FOS NON-adult male Painted Bunting, this appearing to be a first year male, not a female, so still waiting on them.  Two adult males were about the seed this morning. Heard Blue Grosbeak out there too.  Scott's and Hooded Orioles probably have nesting underway by now and hit the feeders several times per day.  Nice to have a dawn chorus again, and especially the Painted Buntings!  Red Satyr still flopping around the hovel. Barn Owl, Chucks, and Poor-wills calling at 10:30 p.m. at SR. April 27 ~ Another Eight-spotted Forester moth outside today. Nice to have male Painted Bunting singing outside much of the day again.  Stiff northerly winds probably knocked down migrants but I had to work to catch up from all the goofin' off birding during Nature Quest.  The last week of April and first week of May is peak chances for eastern warblers here, IF, we get weather to knock 'em down.  At the seed there are 9 Chipping Sparrow left, but NO Spotted Towhee today (one was here Monday) for the first time since fall. One Pine Siskin continues at the sunflower seed tube. After dark I was listening to a Common Nighthawk call, thinking it was a female by the pitch, timbre, and tone, and so wondered when I would hear my first boom (male display dive) this year of course, and of course just then, vrooooom there it was.  A short quick one but a boom!  There is something special, and reassuring, about hearing the sounds of nature, the calls of the wild, each spring, like the songs of Golden-cheeked Warbler, Black-capped Vireo, or Painted Bunting, the frogs calling at night, or seeing the Scissor-tailed and Vermilion Flycatchers displaying along the roadsides again. Maybe it is as Rachel Carson once suggested, that they are the signals of rejuvenation of life. April 26 ~ Had to run to Uvalde for supplies today, and if you can, take a drive down 187 for the wildflower show. It is spectacular, and a little bit of Winecup at Clayton Grade moves that to my local list from the Uvalde only section.  Down off the drop in the flatlands there was an area with a couple hundred yards solid of 3' Standing Winecup, stunningly beautiful.  Down along Old Sabinal Road the entire ground cover for miles was Coreopsis in bloom. Some of the Firewheel (Indian Blanket) seems to be all red. A spectacular drive from Sabinal to Uvalde on this quiet, birdy, little travelled road.  One section has some singing Cassin's Sparrows and another had 8 singing Dickcissel, plus another Loggerhead Shrike was down there.  One Yellow Warbler flew across the road, and a migrant Monarch as well. At the Uvalde Nat. Fish Hatchery there were 4 Spotted Sandpiper, 9 Least Sandpiper, 1 Solitary Sandpiper, and 3 male Yellow- headed Blackbird, but much seemed to have cleared out since Saturday, which was much changed from two days before that on Thursday.  If someone that knew what they were doing checked this place daily I bet the list would be fantastic. But the type of migrants that stop, often don't even stay a day or two.  Constant migrant turnover at a site like this. Somewhat odd was a single female Brewer's Blackbird at Wally world. April 25 ~ Today we'll try to do some recovering from all the early a.m.'s the last 3 days..... I added up how many species I saw during the Nature Quest field trips the last three days and come up with 140 species for me personally.  So, I'd bet over 150, maybe 160 something, species of birds were seen by all the groups put together. If one got real lucky with migrant fallout, I'd bet over 170 could be done by all groups over the few days, in the right year with the right weather.  The only different thing I heard of from others so far, was a Black-headed Grosbeak at Garner St. Pk., which is scarce here.  Tony Gallucci at Big Spring had Northern Parula, which is returning breeders at an isolated colony or population.  One was singing a Yellow-throated Warbler song.  From the porch this morning I heard my FOS Yellow-billed Cuckoo. An earlier Uvalde County report on Texbirds in early April at Concan of a drive-by on a fly-by bird is erroneous.  They simply aren't here yet in early April.  If you keep notes in any sort of sensible manner, you learn which birds are here or not, when. Also the TPWD *habitat-based* checklists that are a dollar or so have bar graphs telling you what is or isn't here when, with amongst 7-8 of them, one for the Hill Country, and one for the Brush Country, so even without notes, but for two dollars of reference material, and learning to look before you leap, you can keep your foot out of your mouth easily. Some folks prefer touting "finds" to knowing what they saw. A Tennessee Warbler passed through the yard quickly in the a.m.. At Utopia on the River there was my FOS local Brown-crested Flycatcher, but no Great Crested yet.  A couple Nashville Warbler were there and at Utopia Park (UP).  Also at UP was Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Myrtle and Audubon's Warbler.  The pond on South Little Creek had a Killdeer, Great Egret, a pair of Gadwall, and 5-6 Blue-winged Teal.  The little pond a half-mile to the south had 8 Band-winged Dragonlet, and lots of mosquitoes. About a hundred Waxwings eating the unripe mulberries in town. A Hutton's Vireo singing at SR.  If my life depended on it I'd say the gray and lime-olive bird that I flushed out back in the p.m. was a Green-tailed Towhee.  I saw it in flight and then sitting in the base of a juniper where the size, shape, and silhouette were spot-on for one.  I couldn't refind it after I came in and got binocs and chased into the junipers for it.  Did kick up a House Wren though. Later at 10 p.m. there were Barn Owl, Eastern Screech-Owl, Poor-will and Chuck-wills'widow calling, plus finally a Couch's Spadefoot Toad could be heard distantly at the pond down the draw over a quarter mile away. Two migrant Monarchs and a Red Satyr were about. April 24 ~ Today my Nature Quest trip was a Tour de Uvalde. Ft. Inge first thing early, then Cook's Slough and National Fish Hatchery.  We only heard Green Jay unfortunately, and only saw one Kiskadee fly by, things are being quiet probably due to nesting, and no Green Kingfisher either. One Neotropic Cormorant was there, several singing Olive Sparrow, Swainson's Hawk including one in the scope.  Great scope views were had of singing Pyrrhuloxia and Cactus Wren thanks to Dwanye and Marj Longenbaugh and their Zeiss scope.  THANKS !!  Anthony Sharp had looks at a Waterthrush which would likely be Northern there at this date. A pair of Wood Ducks flew by, lots of Bell's Vireo singing. A Loggerhead Shrike is still there, heard Verdin, the male Bullock's Oriole seems to be back on territory at the historical markers up front, and I heard a flyover calling FOS Dickcissel. At Cook's Slough there were good scope views of a FOS Olive-sided Flycatcher and a calling Brown-crested Flycatcher, a downy natal Black Vulture again.  But the post-frontal wind picked up to 20+ MPH sustained which really makes nature nerding tough.  At the hatchery we saw 4 female Wilson's Phalarope, three species of Teal, and a Sora, Shoveler, Gadwall, Wigeon. 2-3 migrant Monarch seen over the day, and back at SR in the p.m. there were 2 Barn Owl, 2 Poor-will, Scott's Oriole, Ruby- throated Hummingbird, and a local breeder adult Cooper's Hawk. April 23 ~ Today was a Nature Quest trip to Lost Maples and Kerr WMA. In town from the cafe at early-thirty I saw my FOS Lesser Nighthawk, and we heard a Couch's Kingbird calling.  At Lost Maples we had good looks at Golden-cheeked Warblers, my FOS Acadian Flycatcher, and the best bird was a migrant Swamp Sparrow seen well by almost all. I had a two second look at a Zone-tailed Hawk, and Dwayne and Marj Longenbaugh saw a male Lazuli Bunting at the feeding station, but we didn't see Green Kingfisher.  The butterflies and flowers were great though.  We saw about 7 Red-spotted Purple and my FOS local Arizona Sister finally, plus lots of Two-tailed and Spicebush Swallowtails. West of Hunt on the way to Kerr WMA in the afternoon I must say the consistent dependable presence of European Starling at the Stonehenge stop really makes for good ambiance. At Kerr WMA almost all of us got good if not brief looks at a male Black-capped Vireo as it moved around singing.  We heard several. The real story there was Bluebonnets as far as you could see, acres and acres, the entire understory was Lupine.  Uncharacteristically, there were so many you could smell them, the air perfumed sweetly beyond belief.  Of the 10 springs I've birded in the hill country I've never seen it like this with wildflowers.  Absolutely mind-blowing. Was the wet winter the main difference?  We needed a good seeding event after two years of drought!  Saved by El Nino, the warming of water in the Eastern Pacific.  We are all connected. Weird was a fem. Northern Harrier southbound low over SR just before dusk. Another FOS was had at home late at dusk over SR, a Common Nighthawk. So with the Lesser this morning in town, and the calling Poor-will and Chuck-wills-widow this eve, a FOUR species of goatsucker slam at Utopia today, three from the porch.  I guess it should be noted most years my FOS Lesser is on Main St. near the cafe before sunup, while meeting birders. April 22 ~ Nature Quest began and today I led a trip that visited Chalk Bluff in the NW corner of Uvalde Co., in very heavy drizzle for the morning, then Cook's Slough and the fish hatchery in the p.m.. At Chalk Bluff there is great habitat, but it is $8 per person to go in under normal circumstances.  And on weekends it is often a zoo from spring to fall, all week in summer.  It is good for some south Texas brush country species in thorn-scrub, adjacent to riparian corridor species, so diversity is great.  We all saw Grasshopper Sparrows in the scope singing (thanks again to Dwayne Longenbaugh), and Couch's Kingbird was there, but conditions were tough and few migrants besides Nashville Warblers were there.  There were probably returned breeders like my FOS Eastern Wood-Pewee, Orchard Oriole, Yellow throated Warbler and Vireo, Brown-crested Flycatcher, Pyrrhuloxia Black-throated Sparrow, and heard Cassin's Sparrow. It quit drizzling by time we dropped altitude and did the hatchery where the best birds were Merlin, Long-billed Curlew, Semipalmated Plover, 6+ Baird's Sandpiper, 15 Ring-billed Gull, a White-faced Ibis, and a beautiful breeding plumaged Eared Grebe, likely all knocked down by the weather.  There were very few birds out by the heat of the afternoon at the slough, 4 Ruddy Ducks are getting late (3 were at the hatchery too). The butterflies and flowers were good to great, the diversity of leps low, but numbers were impressive.  A few Western Pygmy-Blue and several Common Sootywing were seen.  A few odes (dragonflies) were out, one probably Sulphur-tipped Clubtail, I got pix of.  Heard House Wren. Amazingly when totalled up everything I saw and heard was 105 species of birds for the trip in three stops, 8 hours roughly, almost nothing new the last 2 hrs..  I think had I gone to say Concan, I could have seen maybe 10 or more species if lucky?  So 125 or more is possible in a day in the county, if you had a great migrant fallout day. Kathy had our FOS local (Utopia) Painted Bunting in the yard today which hanging on a feeder makes it seem the returning yard Alpha male. April 21 ~ Finally a FOS Blue Grosbeak here at SR.  A Scissor-tailed Flycatcher stopped and called for a bit from a live-oak perch out back. I heard a bunting call but didn't see it.  There are still 20 Chipping Sparrow and 2 Spotted Towhee here at the seed.  Some hawks went over northbound including one group of 28 Swainson's that had one dark morph (chocolate) bird amongst them.  Also there was one Sharp-shinned, 2 Cooper's, and 1 (migrant) Red-tailed Hawk. April 20 ~ Counted 60 Blue-eyed Grass (the Iris) flowers in yard, and I see some Straggler Daisy starting, but new were a couple Cut-leaf Gilia I've never seen here before.  4-5 Chuck-wills-widow were calling in the evening, as was E. Screech-Owl, and a Barn Owl. Question Mark butterfly was nectaring on Slender-stem Bitterweed, and a Common Buckeye was on the Texas Onion. April 19 ~ Ruby-crowned Kinglet and Kestrel passed SR northbound. At UP there was Green Kingfisher, 2 Blue Jay, Black Phoebe, 1 Spotted Sandpiper, 2 Myrtle and 1 Orange-crowned Warbler, plus an 8-spotted Forester moth, even prettier than yesterday's Disparate. April 18 ~ A neat fancy moth was a Disparate Forester, a FOS at SR. What looked like a Buckeye (lep) shot across the yard, they need a good year after two bad ones.  Best birds were a flock of 9 Franklin's Gull over SR, one very low and close.  Yellow Ground-Cherry now blooming, and Eastern Screech-Owl calling. April 17 ~ we had a bit of sprinkles in the a.m., but no real showers after early a.m. so I checked a few spots around town again to see what was about.  Last night at about 11 p.m. there were decent numbers of passerine migrants giving flight notes below the cloud deck, but still passing northbound. They could not have been using stars, but were clearly all northbound.  I heard a dozen in 10 mintues, of 4 species. Whether they were coming down, ending a flight, or leaving and were going to climb up through the clouds, I don't know. At the park there were a few warblers including my record early FOS Tennessee Warbler, a couple Nashville, several Myrtle (an ad. male in gorgeous breeding plumage), an Orange-crowned Warbler, and non-migrants, the nesting Yellow-throated Warblers. Finally saw FOS Indigo Bunting (2), still a couple Ruby-crowned Kinglet, and between the park and town must have seen 5-6 Blue Jay. There were some Cliff Swallows around the 1050 bridge, but surely their nests were lost.  At the north end of town there was a FOS Western Kingbird, and at the county-line road flood pond there was an FOS Spotted Sandpiper and 4 Blue-winged Teal, the Green-wings gone.  A Yellow-headed Blackbird was on the Senior Center.  At Jones Cemetary there was Vesper, Lark, several Savannah, and a Grasshopper Sparrow, another Western Kingbird, and a FOS Common Yellowthroat.  Out at the buffalo wallows on S. Little Creek Rd. there were a couple male Shoveller that weren't there yesterday, but only 1 Am. Wigeon, 1 Coot, but 4 Blue-winged Teal and 4 Gadwall, so things changed overnight. Also a Solitary Sandpiper was there. The real neat thing there and at the little wallow a half-mile south was over a half-dozen Band-winged Dragonlets just emerged, after a couple years with nothing here due to drought, that is great to see again.  A FOS Northern Rough-winged Swallow was along Little Creek, probably wondering where the bank was that had its nest.  A complete re-arranging over there from the major rain of Thursday the 15th.  Forgot to mention a Belted Kingfisher was at the UP.  You won't recognize the area below the dam on the other (west) side of the river, at the park, scraped clean of 8 years of understory regrowth, it is a new habitat.  A couple other odds and ends were a FOS Bronzed Cowbird in town, and a Bullock's Oriole at Jones Cemetary. One male and 5 female Great-tailed Grackle at the Senior Center. Migrant Turkey and Black Vultures as well as some hawks passed over northbound again today.  A couple Broad-winged, maybe 50 Swainson's Hawks, several migrant Red-tailed and Red-shouldered Hawks, a Sharp-shinned, couple Cooper's, and still more Kestrel.  A post to Texbirds said yesterday 2000 Broad-winged Hawks went over Concan. I also saw 2 more migrant Monarchs today about town.  At SR there were 3 Pine Siskin and 2 Spotted Towhee continue.  Saw a FOS summer form Question Mark today, and Giant and Two-tailed Swallowtail. At UP was my FOS Blue-ringed Dancer (damselfly) finally, and at the S. Little Creek wallows were a few FOS Red Saddlebags up here, besides a hundred Variegated Meadowhawk and some Green Darner. April 16 ~ Only a little bit of spittin' left today for rain, and just as well since soil is saturated and it's all runoff now. If you'll recall I have said it before and at the risk of being redundant, bad weather equals good birds.  Migrants are knocked down that would otherwise procede un-impeded.  Birders hope for bad weather as it is good for them, but not neccessarily the birds. Around town today first up on county line road just east of the bridge there was a well-flooded field.  It had a pair each of Blue-winged and Green-winged Teal, one Killdeer, and best was 11 FOS male Yellow-headed Blackbird, amongst too many Cowbirds. A FOS Cassin's Sparrow was skylarking from mesquites there too. Bell's Vireo was singing over in the mesquite by the storage spaces. County line bridge still had 8" of water running over it at noon. Then out at the Little Creek buffalo wallows there were 3 Gadwall, 5 American Wigeon, 6 Blue-winged Teal, and 3 American Coot. The Little Creek Crossing of N.Thunder Creek Rd. looked like water was 6' or more over the bridge at peak.  A couple Broad-winged Hawks were in the area there, in Bandera County. A pair of Great tailed Grackle were around the stables at the end of Lee St..  Several Common Grackle, 4 Blue Jay in town. For Seco Ridge (SR) here there was a decent movement of raptors and such today from noon-thirty on, with some groups still passing northbound after 7 p.m..  I could only go peek and check every so often but small numbers seemed to be trickling north all day. There were at least a couple or few hundred Turkey Vultures (not a raptor), about 30 Swainson's Hawks, an amazing 12 Kestrel, Red-tail, Cooper's and Sharp-shinned Hawk, and a mind-blowing 50 plus FOS Broad-winged Hawk.  I've only seen a dozen or so in 6.5 years here. Hundreds of hummingbirds have been swarming the feeders due to the rain and lack of other food opportunities, most of them Black-chinned of course, but a fair number of male and some female Ruby-throated are present.  One Pine Siskin, 22 Waxwing. One Blue-gray Gnatcatcher passed through yard. Storm total from Tuesday to Friday is about NINE INCHES of rain! The down side was the Black Phoebes that were nesting under both the 1050 and Co. Line (356) bridges lost their nests, as did the 20 pairs of Cliff Swallows that were under 1050.  If the water didn't come up till after dark, we may have lost the swallows too. I didn't see any around as should have been.  I suspect the Cave Swallows in the culvert 5 miles west out 1050 by the Bear Creek pond (which also had an Eastern Phoebe nest) were wiped out as well.  It was just too much water too fast, especially that last deluge after dark about 9 p.m.. One of the cells that went over us in the day yesterday dropped 4" in 3 hours at Pearsall. April 15 ~ Well whooda thunk on this day we get flooded?  Any significance to that?  :)  It rained pretty steady and hard at times, all day.  Total was about SEVEN INCHES !!!  The ground outside is not the same.  At some point water was going way over (a couple/few feet) the 1050 bridge just west of town and below the park, and the county-line bridge was over-run too. April 14 ~ about 1.5" of rain, a Field Sparrow among the 25-30 Chipping still here, 2 Spottd Towhee still, and another Kestrel passed over northbound.  A Blue-gray Gnatcatcher passed by the yard as well as a Ruby-crowned Kinglet. April 13 ~ Another drizzle day like yesterday and tomorrow and the day after that.  A Zone-tailed Hawk soared over SR in the a.m.. Just after 2 p.m. a group of 3 FOS FRANKLIN'S Gulls flew over in the drizzle!  One Pine Siskin & about 30 Chipping Sparrow still. Common Ground-Dove is still about, as are the regular Doves: Inca Mourning, White-winged, and Eurasian Collared-Dove. April 12 ~ The first positive female Ruby-throated Hummingbird of the spring I saw today at the feeders, actually a couple of them. Also an Audubon's Warbler was about for over an hour. April 11 ~ Still two Spotted Towhees here at the seed.  Drizzly all day, best bird Kathy had at a hummer feeder, a male Bullock's Oriole. This is weeks earlier than we've ever had one up here.  We took a quick look at the park, but not much moving there.  One Myrtle Warbler a Ruby-crowned Kinglet was singing, a couple White-eyed Vireo, several Lincoln's Sparrow, a Summer Tanager was singing.  No Pied-billed Grebe. April 10 ~ Went to Lost Maples mid-morning to mid-afternoon for a walk up the Can Creek trail past the ponds.  There were a couple Scissor-tailed Flycatcher just north of town, but darn few are up here yet, still.  At the HQ building at Lost Maples there was a Tarantula that appeared to have been kicked, HARD, as to have damaged a couple legs and who knows what internally. It was still, not moving, and didn't look good.  Thanks ya citiots!  You go to a State Natual Area to kill the animals? It was the first one I've seen there, apparently dying from human interaction, and completely needlessly, without reason. It could have easily been moved without hurting, damaging, or possibly killing it.  Do nature a favor and stay in the city. As if that wasn't bad enough, we saw a sign at the pond that said "NO Bikes past this point".  Which I presume means they have changed the rules and are going to allow mountain bikes on the trail to the pond.  Which last time I checked bikes were vehicles, and the loose rocky trail is not whatsoever a vehicle path, but a pedestrian hiking trail.  Bicycle tires on it will be so loud as to nearly ensure you won't be able to hear birds. What a great idea from the state to run vehicles through endangered species nesting grounds.  In California where this has all played out a long time ago, I can can tell you hikers and bikers do not mix.  There will be accidents, injuries, and lawsuits. Pedestrians will be hit.  Bikers like going downhill fast, have no braking control on this type of loose rock substrate the trail is, and expect everyone to just get the hell out of their way.  The natural experience of listening to the birds, some endangered species, will no longer exist.  The person that thought this up is a mental midget that does not care about the experience of the majority of park users, but of that of a special interest group they probably belong to, whose presence will diminish the experience of all other types of users there due to the noise pollution alone, no different than boomboxes.  Locally there are hundreds of miles of roads for bikers. There are only a few miles of pedestrian hiking trails open to the public.  Now they will have vehicular traffic.  TPWD sees Lost Maples as its cash cow, and exploits, er, manages it, for maximum cash extraction, not what is was saved for and given to the state for, PROTECTION.  It is not natural to have a bunch of vehicles going up and down the trail. Now let me get down off my soapbox and recount a little of what nature we saw there.  Since our last visit a month ago, it turned green, with most trees leafing out, or starting to. The flowers were the big show, very spectacular, a great display from the fall and winter rains.  There were very very few odes (dragonflies) about, a female Common Whitetail, and a gomphid that looked like a Clubtail that just after emerging flew to the wrong place and was taken by a jumping spider a 10th its size. Photographed some type of bumblebee sphinx moth as well.  One of the neatest things we saw was a Snapping Turtle in the pond. I've seen one across the divide at Big Springs, but this is my first here. Heard about 8-10 Golden-cheeked Warbler and one Black-capped Vireo. There were a few Louisiana Waterthrush singing, and over a dozen Black-and-white Warbler, one Yellow-throated Warbler, which will sing a while and depart.  For migrant warblers there were a several each Nashville and Orange-crowned, and 1-2 Myrtle, so 7 species of warblers all together.  A pair of Red-shouldered Hawks seem to be nesting again, and they probably run off any small buteo that shows up.  Only a few Summer Tanager were back, no females yet, but about 6 Hutton's Vireos were heard. Other things not back yet are Red-eyed Vireo, Eastern Wood-Pewee, Acadian Flycatcher (of course), and while White-eyed Vireo was in fair numbers, only a half-dozen Yellow-throated were about. Heard a couple Bushtit, numbers of Ash-throated Flycatcher. In the bird notebook there were reports of Scott's and Hooded Orioles, Lazuli Bunting and a Blue Grosbeak.  Go enjoy the trails while you can without constantly listening to vehicle wheels on it, while you can still hear the birds, and not have to constantly be watching to jump out of some idiots way. A Solitary Sandpiper was an FOS up here, in the river at Vanderpool. After dark I heard the FOS Barking Frog out back, here on SR. April 9 ~ Today's stonker was out the office window in the a.m., a stunning male LAZULI Bunting!  Another nice cool a.m. in the upper 30's was nice.  Northern Cloudywing and Dun Skipper still about.  Perhaps 35 Chipping Sparrow left.  Heard an Eastern Screech-Owl after dark. April 8 ~ A cool 39 deg.F or so in the a.m. felt nice. Saw two FOS skippers (butterflies) Dun and Sachem, the latter likely the one I thought I saw yesterday.  Also had a quick pass of what looked like a Buckeye.  And saw a Gray Hairstreak, several Olive Juniper Hairstreak, Horace's and Funereal Duskywings, a few Two-tailed Swallowtail, Red Satyr, and the more common stuff.  A few male Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are at the feeders now, and surely a hundred plus Black-chinned are present.  Twenty species of blooming wildflowers in the yard now.  One Pine Siskin, 25 Waxwing. April 7 ~ After a frontal passage I stopped in town during errands, and at UP saw an amazingly record early for here locally CATBIRD. There was one Pied-billed Grebe left, down from up to 4 over winter. Also my FOS Summer Tanager was singing, as was Yellow-throated Vireo, so it is really starting to sound like spring and summer down there. Regulars like Blue Jay, Black Phoebe and Green Kingfisher were seen. Probably had a Sachem blast by here at SR, and finally saw my FOS Giant Swallowtail locally here too.  Drummond's Skullcap and Annual Pennyroyal now really starting to bloom as is Yellow Wood-Sorrel and lots of the white form of Pink Evening Primrose (50-100 in yard). April 6 ~ A very orange female Hooded Oriole has showed up so 2 females of them here now, and later in the morning I watched two male Hoodeds fight falling to the ground, just a flurry of orange and black feathers, squawking, squeaking, it was amazing.  So 4 Hooded, 4 Scott's now so far.  Hermit Thrush bathed at dusk. The April migrants have an olive tone to the brown back, look just gray flanked and of decent size.  A Ground-Dove was my FOS locally. April 5 ~ As the overcast broke a few raptors got up and moved over. A migrant Red-shouldered was escorted away by the resident pair, male Northern Harrier, TWO Osprey, a migrant Monarch. A few Cliff Swallow were at the 1050 bridge.  I can't believe the height of the Blue-eyed Grass this year!!  Some must be 15-16" tall!!!   Last year all I saw was 4-6".  Lots of Blue Gilia going, Blackfoot Daisy, Slender-stem Bitterweed also has 16" scapes with flowers so big they're falling over.  What a difference some rain makes.  The Deer Pea Vetch is finishing up, it was great, and the Texas Garlic is starting to get going.  A female Great-tailed Grackle was seen in town. April 4 ~ At SR there was Nashville Warbler and Blue-gray Gnatcatcher that passed through the yard in the a.m., migrants.  Around town there were finally 3+ FOS Clay-colored Sparrow near the storage spaces, a Ruby-crowned Kinglet at UP, and an Orange-crowned and a Myrtle Warbler at the Library.  Two migrant Monarchs were seen, one in town and one here on SR.  The bird of the day was a first spring male (or AHY - after hatch year) Golden-cheeked Warbler that came down to the bath, twice, but was scared off both times. I never see them away from the breeding territory in spring, only as post-breeding wanderers in June and July.  For instance I've never seen one at Utopia Park where I've seen over 200 species.  Almost forgot in town saw a male Great-tailed and 10 Common Grackle (a few female). April 3 ~ Down at UP near dusk sure enough Chimney Swift came in to drink, surely what I heard yesterday, but I call it FOS today. Great views of Mercury lower right of Venus (west) just near dark. Blue Gilia blooming now.  An FOS dragonfly was Wandering Glider. April 2 ~ Thought sure I heard Chimney Swift while driving down Main St. in town, but didn't see them. If it wasn't a FOS I would call it. Did see some other FOS's around town though.  Three Scissor-tailed Flycatchers finally made it up here, a FOS Bell's Vireo sang in the mesquite behind the storage space place, and 3 Grasshopper Sparrow (FOS) were down that road too, with a couple more elsewhere, including one in the yard here on SR.  Out west of town on 1050 near the pond the Cave Swallows (FOS) were back at their culvert, I counted 11. Butterflies are getting better with several Two-tailed and Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Northern Cloudywing, Nysa Roadside-Skipper, Lyside Sulphur.  At one point when I had the 3 Grasshopper Sparrows, right there right then there were also Savannah, Lark, Vesper, Field and Lincoln's Sparrows.  It was like looking at a field guide plate. April 1 ~ No foolin', April?  Northern Cloudywing butterfly was about the yard, as was a migrant Monarch, and Eastern Tiger Swallowtail. March totalled 20 species of butterflies, double February's 10, and a great increase from January's 5, but only half as many as several prior March totals, reflecting the long cold winter, and two years of drought before that.  Hopefully with the rains and what is seeming to be the start of a great wildflower season, the ones that made it will have a good breeding season, they sure need it as numbers were already much reduced last season. I seemed to have missed the late March Swainson's Hawks this year. Tom Collins had some over in Center Point on that big rain system about the 24th or so.... and Rhandy Helton had them in Junction the end of March, but I missed an early date on them here this year. March 31 ~ Topped yesterdays 80deg.F by a couple degrees today, and without humidity (<20%) it was quite nice.  Two-tailed and Eastern Tiger Swallowtails about.  NO Junco or Orange-crowned Warbler today!  Methinks they left last night.  A couple Pine Siskin and a dozen Cedar Waxwing were around.  I got a positive ID on a Horace's Duskywing.  Supporting my long held theory that "the bird of the day always gets away" there was a warbler about the yard briefly which only gave flight notes unfortunately, but what I saw of it I can only imagine it was a Northern Parula. Which would have been a yard bird had I got a positive ID on it. The planet Mercury is showing very well just below right of Venus. March 30 ~ The Oriolefest has begun again, with 4 Scott's, 2 Hooded, and 2 Audubon's Orioles in the yard at once.  Audubon's waits for Scott's to leave feeder, but they'll disappear any day now until they come back with a juvenile in June.  The Lark Sparrow is still here as was the Orange-crowned Warbler.  There were several Two-tailed Swallowtail, the Nysa Roadside-Skipper and Red Satyr were both still about too. A FOS was a small metallic green Halichtid (bee).  The highlight of the day was refinding the Snakefly (Raphidiidae) in the office, and getting a couple pix before it was released outside.  A lovely female, she was quite the beauty. March 29 ~ Roadrunner bill clacking for the first time this season. A second female Scott's Oriole (AHY) arrived, 2 males, 2 females back. One (pale male) Slate-colored Junco remains, and about 65 Chipping Sparrow. A couple FOS butterflies were a Nysa Roadside-Skipper and a worn migrant Painted Lady.  The two Poor-wills again called after dark. The Agarita (Texas Holly) is all but over and done blooming, while Redbud has passed peak, but still looks pretty good. A Lincoln's Sparrow bathed at SR, a migrant here, and still no Clay-colored Sparrow yet.  At UP there was a migrant Hermit Thrush. Had a FOS Bombyliad today. March 28 ~ This a.m. here at SR there were two male and one female Scott's Oriole, a male Hooded, and by 10 a.m. the FOS female Hooded appeared.  Let the oriole show begin!  Audubon's was around too, so 3 species of orioles in the yard at once. The Audubon's will quickly disappear, as soon as caterpillars get going again.  A Blue-gray Gnatcatcher passed by, but it was pretty windy so we worked, saving it for a calmer day. A Common Checkered-Skipper was about as was an Erynnis Duskywing. An FOS Red Satyr flopped by the office window about noonish. Still a evenly pale gray male Slate-colored Junco about, and the wintering Orange-crowned Warbler continues to fatten up on peanut butter. Might be in the upper 30's tonight if the wind stops blowing. The big FOS of the day was at 10:30 p.m. when two POOR-WILL were calling, finally.  The last six years the first detections were in February, so nothing until late March had me worried. Did they really hibernate a month plus longer this year? March 27 ~ A Uvalde run day.  The wildflowers down Hwy. 187 from Clayton Grade to past the D'Hanis cutoff are spectacular along the roadside, probably the seed slurry mostly, but outstanding and beautiful right now due to the good rains. Once we bottomed out on the flatlands of the brush country near Sabinal we saw our FOS Scissor-tailed Flycatchers.  They still aren't up on the hill yet.  None of the way down, in the valley, or on the way back.  We saw a dozen at least from Sabinal to Uvalde. Still a few Western Meadowlarks, and Loggerhead Shrike, seems like the wintering Red-tailed Hawks are gone, and just residents around. Several Caracara.  Only did one real stop since the gate at Cooks' Slough was locked at noon.  Ft. Inge had an outstanding wildflower show going though.  We watched a pair of Green Jay there for a bit, and saw Green Kingfisher, Great Kiskadee, Long- billed Thrasher, Couch's Kingbird, Verdin, Cactus Wren, and a few Myrtle Warbler, Ruby-crowned Kinglet and White-eyed Vireo, one Orange-crowned Warbler, few Lincoln's Sparrow, 1 pr. Gadwall, N. Cardinal, Ladder-backed Woodpecker, Pyrrhuloxia, Black-crested Titmouse, some White-crowned Sparrows.  Awesome wildflowers. At Wally's World from the parking lot I saw my FOS Swainson's Hawk. The best FOS's of the day though were at the hummer feeders this a.m. before we left around 9 a.m., SCOTT's and HOODED Orioles are back! At least two male Scott's, what looks like alpha male, and a not- as-bright dull yellow full adult plumaged male, probably alpha female Scott's too, and at least one male Hooded, so 4 new orioles returned at the feeders this a.m.!  I sure didn't see them yesterday afternoon.  The Scott's were singing a bit, and one took a long double bath, which you essentially never see them do, watching them every day for over 6 months they are here. March 26 ~ One Slate-colored Junco was still about, black-face, a lighter gray male with a black face, chin and throat.  Two Audubon's Orioles, and still no Scott's or Hooded back yet. At least 11 of the white primrose blooming in the front.  The best bird of the day was my first local Raphididae, a Snake-fly, on the INSIDE of an office window, gone and un-relocated when I returned with camera!*&(*$!  Black,just over an inch long. Eastern Tiger and Two-tailed Swallowtail flew through the yard, besides the now numerous Pipevines, and several Black Swallowtail A Gray Hairsterak passed by as well.  Lark Sparrow here was the first local spring returnee I've seen.  Still at least 2 male and 1 female Spotted Towhee here at the seed.  There were at least a half-dozen bats overhead at dusk.  Been seeing a few and it has looked like some were back at the Concan cave from studying NOAA radar loop images at dusk. March 25 ~ I heard a bar from a FOS Yellow-throated Vireo at UP. Otherwise just the Myrtle Warblers and Ruby-crowned Kinglets. Couple each Blue Jay and Black Phoebe, 3 Pied-billed Grebe still and my first local Green Darner dragonfly of the year, ovipositing (ph). A Swallowtail, probably two-tailed made several quick landings on a hummer feeder while I was right there.  Also saw a couple Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (FOS) going to and in town.  I saw what seemed to have surely been a Cabbage White, which is accidental here at best.  I got good looks in my binocs as it nectared in the fields of bladderpod and bluebonnets at the north end of town. Back here at SR there was a FOS un-ID'd Skipperling on Bitterweed. The male Vermilion is again on territory by the horse trainers. March 24 ~ drizzle in the a.m. as a cold front approaches. A FOS Nashville Warbler sang out front in the draw for an hour, and at 3:45 p.m. a male Black-throated Green Warbler was in the now leafless live-oak, then the junipers.  A serious squall line went over late in the p.m., with a half inch of rain. March 23 ~ Two FOS's flew over SR today, a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, and two male Great-tailed Grackle.  Also there Audubon's Oriole was singing, 45 Cedar Waxwing, 2 Slate-colored Junco, 4 Spotted Towhee at once was the best count all winter, Hutton's Vireo was singing. A flower bloomed that looked like the white form of Evening Primrose, which does occur in nearby Real County. March 22 ~ Barely froze in town, again about 33 dF on SR. 4 Audubon's Orioles came in in the cold morning.  Another Ash-throated Flycatcher calling on the knoll, a Two-tailed Swallowtail floated past, a couple Baskettail dragonflies about. A male Vermilion Flycatcher has taken back to its territory a half mile down SR before 2nd loop at the horse place.  At UP there were about 10 Myrtle Warbler and 2+ Ruby-crowned Kinglet. Roadrunner cooing (singing), first I've heard this year.  It's that sound like a wimpering or moaning dog.  Photo'd the first Green Darner (dragonfly) I've seen locally this year, a pair ovipositing. March 21 ~ It froze this a.m. in town, but about 33 up here on SR. First female Brown-headed Cowbird I've seen this year in yard. 8 Pine Siskin, and Deer Pea Vetch starting to bloom well. March 20 ~ First day of Spring!  But it doesn't feel like it! A front blew in before dawn, maybe a half-inch or so of rain with it. Too windy to do anything outside, 20 + gusts to 40 (!), and chilly, with a freeze forecast for tonight and tomorrow night! March 19 ~ 1 Pink-sided Junco and maybe down to two Slate-colored on the Juncos.  Sure been nice having them around this winter. 5 Sandhill Crane flew over SR late in the p.m..  A Barn Owl flew over northbound at about 10 p.m.. March 18 ~ FOS Ash-throated Flycatcher, 4 Audubon's Oriole at SR. A Northern Harrier lifted off with 10 Turkey Vulture and rose to migrating altitude before heading off northbound. March 17 ~ Happy Paddy Day!  A Two-tailed Swallowtail flew by here on SR.  Juncos remain the same.  6 Pine Siskin, 11 Cedar Waxwing, 2 Audubon's Oriole, 60 Chipping Sparrow, and at least 2 of the 3 Spotted Towhee that wintered continue. March 16 ~ from late on the 15th and overnight we had an inch of rain, a lot of it in just an hour or so.  No Oregon Junco today, but 1 Pink-side and maybe only 3 Slate-colored left. Live-Oak is raining yellow leaves, perhaps 40% fell in 2 days. March 15 ~ Heard the first Turkey gobbling this a.m., for a sign of spring in the air.  Gray Vervain and Mountain Laurel opened flowers.  There were a few Slate-colored Junco, 1 Oregon and 1 Pink-sided still here, and a couple Audubon's Orioles too. March 14 ~ A post on Texbirds mentioned at Garner St. Pk. on this date 2 Yellow-throated Warblers, as well as 4 Golden-cheeked Warbler and 5 Hutton's Vireo.  Here at SR, the Prairie Fleabane flower has finally opened, and the yellow Live-Oak leaves are starting to drop. March 13 ~ Another Ruby-crowned Kinglet passed through yard, and down in town there were FOS Barn Swallows, perhaps 4 or so. We went to Lost Maples to see what the state of spring was there. We went 2 miles up the Can Creek trail to the last permanent water. It's still winter.  Well barely spring.  Most deciduous trees are just starting to bud, if that.  Many show virtually no signs yet, like Lacey Oak and Sycamore, a few Maples were barely beginning to flower, the Buckley Oaks are just budding leafs. The Redbud is just starting to flower, whereas back in Utopia at 1350' instead of 1800-2000' it is really going.  I heard two Golden-cheeked Warblers, we saw one male Black-and-white Tree-Creeper (Warbler) singing closely, what a cool bird they are. Two Hutton's Vireo were singing, as were Canyon Wren and Rufous- crowned Sparrow, 1 White-eyed Vireo, a pair of Common Raven, 1 Scrub Jay, a couple Lincoln's Sparrow, and a pair of Black Phoebe at the pond.  We did not see Green Kingfisher, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Ash-throated Flycatcher, Zone-tailed Hawk, Louisiana Waterthrush, though the Kingfisher had been seen yesterday.  There were about 3 Spotted Towhee, one doing some quiet singing (sub-song), a few Pine Siskin. There were an amazing number of Anemone flowers, I believe Wind-flower is the one.  But little was going in that regard, some Dakota Verbena just opening, a few of the Agarita (Texas Holly) were going good but nothing like around Utopia 500+' lower.  Butterflies were good though with about 3 Two-tailed Swallowtail, a few Black and one Pipevine Swallowtail, one Falcate Orange-tip, a dozen fresh bright Olive Juniper Hairstreak, a couple Questionmark, a dozen Orange Sulphur, a few Sleepy Orange and Dogface, one Common Checkered-Skipper, 10 Erynnis Duskywing likely Juvenal's but some could be Horace's, one Gulf Fritillary, 5 Red Admiral. We saw 10 species of butterflies in a few hours, as many as I recorded in all of February, but these mostly fresh, not last years beat worn leftovers. Kathy spotted an Anole at the spring 2/3 mi. past the ponds. It was 8 deg.F this winter in Utopia, I don't know how they make it through the winter.  That permanent waterhole there had Mexican Tetra (Astyanax), Long-nosed Dace (Rhinichthys), and Notropis Shiners I think may be Sand.  For Odes we saw one Springtime Darner (Basiaeschna janata) and a Zygop that got away un-ID'd (damselfly).  Overall still winter. OK, not quite, more like very very early spring, as all the the hominids (people) there indicate, actually a very high number of them seemed to be out.  Cabin fever I guess. Back at the hovel in the dirt road 60 yards away at the low-spot mud puddle in the caliche (limestone) a Henric's Elfin flushed again as we pulled in, and on some feces a neighbor's (100 yards away) dog deposited was a Goatweed Leafwing.  Still a Pink-sided Junco, one Oregon, a few Slate-colored but departures are taking place.  The Chipping Sparrow flock is probably 50-60, half of just two or three weeks ago. The Crow-poison (a lily) is blooming now and I wonder if that is why we don't have Crows here?  :)  The first Prairie Fleabane is almost all the way open, maybe tomorrow. March 12 ~ A few migrants passed through the yard today, including the FOS White-eyed Vireo, a couple Myrtle Warbler, and a Ruby-crowned Kinglet.  Only one Slender-stemmed Bitterweed flower open, so its very popular with the Variegated Fritillary, a few Parallena are open. March 11 ~ Kathy saw a big yellow Swallowtail here at SR, I presume Two-tailed.  At least a half-dozen male Black- chinned Hummingbirds and a couple or few females about now. Down in town at the park on the river the Bald Cypress are flowering now.  Still no Barn Swallow, barely a Martin. March 10 ~ Here at the SR hovel still 2 each Oregon and Pink-sided Junco, and 5 Slate-colored, 6 Pine Siskin, and 3 Audubon's Oriole.  Roy Heideman e-mailed me and mentioned he had an Acorn Woodpecker at his place in mid-Feb.. It is believed there is still extant a relict population nearby, by the most knowlegeable naturalist in the central hill country. All the land is private and so finding one from the roads is difficult at best. Of course one here could have been a vagrant from a more distant source, and without excellent pictures, tape recordings, etc., we can't speculate as to this individuals origins.  It is my most- (only) wanted central Texas species; if you see one, please call collect (local# 2349). March 9 ~ Sure enough 3 male Black-chinned Hummingbird in the a.m., and 5+ by the p.m., and the FOS FEMALE. A FOS Dung Scarab here at SR, a black velvet ant, and another Northern Cloudywing (lep) in the yard.  In the afternoon I had to run to town and stopped at the park where I saw my first dragonflies of the year, finally! 5 Epitheca Baskettails, and 1 Springtime Darner (Basiaeschna janata) were a treat.  Also there was a teneral Zygop (damselfly) which you have to be an expert to ID when they just emerged since they are all the same color at first. Another FOS there was a skink (lizard), and there were about 2 doz. Blanchard's Cricket Frog.  In the p.m. back at SR there were FOS Goatweed Leafwing, 3 Henric's Elfin, and a couple Dogface flew by.  The Redbud is starting to bloom just barely, and some of the Agarita (Texas Holly) is really going now.  Like elsewhere it seems the wintering passerines are leaving in droves with far fewer Myrtle Warblers about. March 8 ~ Today's big FOS was Black-chinned Hummingbird, one male in the a.m., and 2 by the p.m..  In 7 years of local data this is the latest arrival date I have for them. A male Brown-headed Cowbird was in the yard, the first here for the year, though we had one a couple weeks ago a couple miles south of town.  Hutton's Vireo was singing, a Slender-stem Bitterweed popped a flower open, and another I think is Whitlow-Grass bloomed too.  Lots of Dutchman's Breeches are starting to open, and the Agarita (Texas Holly) is starting to bloom as well.  Tony Gallucci had the first Golden-cheeked Warbler I heard of this spring near Hunt. March 6 ~ A Uvalde supply run day.... and clearly things are departing from the lower altitude brush country as there were far fewer Shrikes, Red-tailed Hawks, Meadowlarks (Western) along the road.  At the ponds a mile west of Sabinal on the cutoff there were 8 Shoveller, a male Cinnamon Teal, and on the return trip near the ponds there was a beautiful pale female richardsoni Prairie Merlin.  Here at Utopia on the way out of town near Waresville we saw the FOS Vermilion Flycatcher I've seen locally this year. At Ft. Inge there was a Green Jay, Green Kingfisher, Kiskadee, Olive Sparrow, Long-billed Thrasher, Couch's Kingbird, but many of the wintering passerines have departed.  A few (so new) migrant White-eyed Vireo were there.  At Cook's Slough there were 10 American White Pelican, a hundred Double-crested one Neotropic Cormorant, and far fewer passerines as elsewhere, but a couple that were clearly migrants: a Blue-headed Vireo, and a male Black-and-white Warbler.  Spring is arriving! We saw no odes though (dragon and damselflies) at either stop. Saw several Vermilion Flycatcher and a Couch's Kingbird called. I heard what was surely the Black-tailed Gnatcatcher that has been there I think a couple months. March 4 ~ Less than a hundred Chipping Sparrows so departure has begun for them, but still about 10 Junco including 3 Oregon and 2 Pink-sided still.  Saw a couple Lyside Sulphur again, 2 Olive-Juniper Hairstreak, Black Swallowtail, and probably a female Dogface blew by.  I see 3 Yellow Wood-Sorrel flowers. March 3 ~ First Lyside Sulphur (lep) of the year, and the first Cucumber Beetle (Chrysomelid) too. March 2 ~ I love this FOS stuff the next couple months getting arrival dates for returning breeders and passage migrants. Over the years you'll see things will change as the environment does.  Nothin' stays the same but change.  Today's FOS was ZONE-TAILED HAWK, which straffed a Turkey Vulture! There were a few "TV's" around, and oddly a Golden-fronted Woodpecker passed over SR southbound.  Kathy heard the Red-shouldered Hawks calling, so display season is here for them. March 1 ~ A FOS northbound Osprey struggled against the winds over SR in the afternoon.  I saw Judy Schaeffer at the P.O. and she said there were some Cranes northbound over the dump last Thursday Feb. 25. She also mentioned Green Jays were back, down at the Sabinal Bird House near Sabinal, and that someone reported Audubon's Oriole off B & R Rd.. We had 1/2"-3/4" of rain late last night and early this a.m.. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Feb. 28 ~ The first Purple Martin I've seen this year flew over the hovel on SR in the a.m..  There were 3 Audubon's Orioles about the yard, and still the Junco flock, Siskins, Waxwings, Robins, 125 Chipping Sparrow, the wintering Orange-crowned Warbler, and rain is on the way.  This next week Golden-cheeked Warblers start to return and Black-chinned Hummingbirds should be back too, as should be Barn Swallow, with more to quickly follow!  Get your hummingbird feeders out, cleaned and ready for the new season. Since Lesser Goldfinch has begun to overwinter here in small numbers I can no longer tell when the first spring birds return.  The last 6 years it was the last week of February 21-26, but now that is undetectable.  Good thing I got some data before this change occurred. Feb. 27 ~ A brief look in town found 4 Turkey Vulture roosted at UP, and a glimpse of a FOS damselfly I couldn't refind to ID. There was a Mockingbird singing, the first of that I've heard this year.  There were a couple FOS butterflies in the warmth: a Northern Cloudywing, an Olive Juniper Hairstreak, and about 5 dark swallowtails over the day of which 3 were Black (which we've had already this year) and two looked like Pipevines which we haven't had yet this year.  Still some old leftover beat worn (last years') Variegated Fritillary and Snout. Feb. 26 ~ Early in the a.m. a couple Turkey Vulture flew over SR, the first at the house this year, and another was about late in the p.m..  Down in town there were 5 Starlings today! There are very few places that would be news, I guess that is why they call it Utopia! The highlight of the day was having a Collared Peccary (Javelina) come and feed under the sunflower tube for a few minutes mid-day, about 1: p.m..  I got a couple ID shots for this new beast for our yard list, and the first one I've seen up here. Based on its size and being alone it must have been a boar. Feb. 25 ~ A sure sign of spring is the FOS Starling singing in town.  It was on top of the star (!) with lights (not on) on the confier used for a Christmas tree in the park on Main St.. I heard a Purple Martin down in town too. Feb. 24 ~ One American Goldfinch on the sunflower tube was the first I've seen in a month or more.  At 11 p.m. there was a flock of White-fronted Goose flying north over SR. Feb. 21 ~ At SR I heard another Purple Martin high overhead, they sure seem ecstatic to get back every year.  Hutton's Vireo singing a little.  One fresh male Black Swallowtail, and worn old leftover Snout (2) and a Variegated Fritllary. Feb. 19 ~ At least four Oregon Juncos in the Junco flock now, and 2 Pink-sided, plus about 8 Slate-colored of a couple flavors.  Heard a Ruby-crowned Kinglet pass through the yard northbound, probably a spring migrant. A dozen House Finch now, 6 males.  The 3 Spotted Towhee continue at the seed here, 2 male and 1 female. Feb. 18 ~ Couple hundred more geese at 10:15 a.m., and you could set North on your compass by their heading. A couple hundred Cedar Waxwing were about as well. At Utopia Park (UP) in the afternoon during a P.O. run I saw the adult female Black-and-white Warbler again, a good "still present" date to get.  Also there was a FOS Turkey Vulture!  So one is back! Locally, only Black Vulture winters up here in the hills. A few TV's usually winter along Hwy. 90, except when it is real cold like this winter, when they may even bug out of that rather constant food supply for warmer climes. Feb. 17 ~ A great show in the a.m. was a few flocks of White-fronted Goose, from 8 a.m. to 8:15 I counted well over a thousand, about 1150, in groups of 300+.  Who knows how many flocks I missed before or after.  It is likely lots of them headed north today.  They were about 1000' up above Seco Ridge, but over the west edge of the valley, and not calling, so if you didn't see them, you missed it.  There was a single flock of about 400 Cedar Waxwings that came in and landed nearby feeding on Juniper berries.  A few dozen Robins were about too. Feb. 16 ~ 'Twas about 25 deg.F in the a.m.!  A female N. Harrier passed northbound about mid-day at migrant altitude. Another spring migrant passed over northbound in the dark at 8:30 p.m., a Greater Yellowlegs called twice.  Still no Turkey Vulture up here. Feb. 15 ~ probably upper 20's here in the a.m., chills low 20's. 8 Pine Siskin, 7 Lesser Goldfinch continue, no Americans around. Half dozen House Finch maybe, and as many Cardinal, less than half the normal Cardinal numbers. Feb. 14 ~ The best FOS of the day was heard only as usual, in the early afternoon a Purple Martin somewhere high up was apparently very happy to get back to Utopia!  Last year my first was Feb. 13. We made a couple quick stops around town, best was 3 fresh (new, just emerged) Black Swallowtail!  First new fresh butterflies of the year, others overwintering are worn beat last season's leftovers.  We also saw a fresh Gulf Fritillary a fresh American Lady, and 2 fresh Dainty Sulphur, so 4 species of newly emerged butterflies was a sign of spring coming if I've ever seen one.  There were a few old Snout, Sleepy Orange and Variegated Fritillary about too, for a whopping 7 butterfly species day!  We had a quick look at what was probably a Question Mark too.  We looked for Elfin and Olive Juniper Hairstreak, but didn't see either.  The Redbud doesn't even have signs of buds yet.  It warmed to a toasty 70+ deg.F in the afternoon ahead of the front! A fairly good check of the shore edge at the pond at the park yielded ZERO dragon or damselflies yet.  The shallows are shockingly devoid of sunfish, that is the Lepomis such as Bluegill, Red-breasted and Longear, Bantam, the 'perch' are missing. I think when the water got low and everything was forced into a very reduced area, the big bass ate everything.  It also likely affected ode larvae, with them too being concentrated in the reduced area with all the predators.  It will be interesting to see how things play out this season.  Even Gambusia numbers are very low, and I don't see any wild native minnows like e.g. Texas Shiner (Notropis amibilis), that should be present.  I'll have to take the raft out for a critical survey, but from shore it looks like a moonscape compared to the last 6 years.  We've had late Jan. and early Feb. odes before, and there should be two hundred Lepomis sunfish along the shore. There were the regular wintering birds, but nothing different. Bluebirds are singing though, and that is nice.  The Great Blue Heron and 4 Pied-billed Grebes continue.  Down at the horse corrals near the 360 crossing a couple miles south of town there was a flock of Brewer's Blackbirds. Amongst them was a very early Brown-headed Cowbird, and a male Common Grackle, the latter two are FOS sightings. Feb. 13 ~ Note if you'd read to Feb. 6 before (already), stuff was added from Dunbar Lane in Uvalde that was missing. Either the 13th or the 14th a Summer Tanager female was reported from Concan.  This is almost surely the bird reported there in late November, as it is 5 weeks before migrants show up, and more likely then a wintering bird, which is exceedingly scarce hereabouts.  One also wintered in San Antonio this year. Here you can get idea of how cold, windy, and generally un-birdable it has been.... hiding inside watching birds isn't such a bad thing to do on cold days anyway.... One interesting thing is the peck order at the peanut feeder. The Bewick's Wren and Orange-crowned Warbler are the only two species that will share presence on it.  Black-crested Titmouse chases both of them, and Carolina Wren away, sometimes with a 10' dive at the feeder with wings in V over back like a Kite dropping on prey, or Chimney Swifts in rocking display. Both Bewick's and Carolina Wren pairs mutually feed, with both members of the pair, one bird hammering away with reckless abandon, obviously not trying to grab pieces, but rather to create peanut shrapnel, so as to knock food down to its mate.  They also keep an eye on when the Orioles or Jays are on the feeder, since they are so messy there will always be lots of free food falling when they are on it.  Even the Orange-crowned Warbler pays attention and dives in for scraps, scavenging the bigger birds. The texana Scrub-Jay clears everything out except Audubon's Oriole which displaces them at will.  The Orioles have a peck order within themselves, each usually patiently waiting for their turn. Pine Siskin (PISI is the 4 letter code, ironically) can get real pisi at the feeders sometimes; I've seen them chase the resident Carolina Chickadee and Titmouse off the sunflower feeder to the point them going to the other tube feeder. Feb. 12 ~ Hutton's Vireo, 65 White-winged Dove, 150 Chipping Sparrow, 8 Pine Siskin, 7 Lesser Goldfinch, 30 Cedar Waxwing, 11 Robin, 4 Inca Dove, 3 Oregon, 1 Pink-sided and 6 Slate- colored Junco, 1 Field Sparrow, 4 Audubon's Oriole. Feb. 9-11 ~ cold, barely 40 deg.F for a high, drizzle, and 5 Audubon's Orioles at the sugar water.  On the 11th I saw flowers of Dutchman's Breeches, the 3rd species of flower I've seen bloom this year. Feb. 8 ~ Hutton's Vireo about the yard. Feb. 6 ~ Uvalde area for a few quick stops, best thing we saw was one Ken Cave.  :)   Other things of interest were the first Turkey Vulture I've seen since early November, probably a spring migrant, as they arrive around Valentine's Day up in the Utopia area.  Another FOS was a Northern Rough-winged Swallow at the hatchery. Also there were a couple dozen Ring-necked Ducks and Gadwall, but most of the waterfowl seems to have departed already. At Cook's Slough there was a Golden-crowned Kinglet, which have been scarce this winter.  The rest there was the regular expected suspects, virtually no waterfowl left. That is a real sign winter is nearing its end.  The ducks follow the melt north, if there is open water, that's all they need. We checked Dunbar Lane a mile or so west of Uvalde, north off Hwy. 90 where there are some good ag fields, often productive for cranes or geese, early is better because heat waves can kill distance viewing quickly in a scope, and in big barren fields the birds are often far away.  We saw about 1200 Sandhill Crane, a few hundred White-fronted Geese, and mixed in with one flock of them was 3 Snow and 4 Ross's Goose.  There was a flock of a couple hundred Mountain Plover far out in a field, that I could only see because they flushed and got above the 10 a.m. heat waves.  I saw a flock of about 20+ Longspurs, which looked like McCown's Longspurs to me, and probably the only species likely in those numbers, in that habitat, here. There were lots of Vesper and Savanah Sparrows, and numbers of White-crowned, Say's Phoebe, N. Harrier, Western Meadowlark singing. Feb. 4 ~ a pair of Bushtits went through the yard, the flocks apparently already having split up for the breeding season. It could have been 5" of rain by time it was all done. Feb. 3 ~ Started raining late on the 2nd, and looks to be a major soaker, perhaps 24 hours or more worth, by morning we were way over 2", and nearing 4" by the p.m. from this event! February 2 ~ The Hutton's Vireo was whinnying about the yard today.  About 150 Chipping Sparrows now, and still 15 Juncos including 3 Oregon and 1-2 Pink-sided amongst the Slate-coloreds, 3+ Audubon's Orioles, and an ad. Sharp- shinned Hawk that views this as his feeding station. February ~ February !?!?! January was the 4th wettest ever on record at Del Rio, and 10th wettest at San Antonio. We would likely be somewhere in between those two sites. The El Nino came just in time, because we so badly needed extra rain after a nearly 4 FOOT deficit over the prior 2 years. January is normally the driest month of the year here, and we probably had 4" of rain, at least, which is the average total in our wettest months.  Outstanding! Dec. 09 had the most snow cover of 43 years of records for that in the U.S., and Jan. 2010 was the 8th most snow cover in a month for 43 years they've kept track of that. Both months colder and wetter than averages in most areas. I think history shows more of the same for February then. Jan. 31 ~ I did a chilly quick look through for a few hours at Garner St. Pk..  The best bird was my first mid-winter record of Spotted Sandpiper.  The ground was carpeted in pecans in those groves, which support quite a large number of birds. In places you could walk and crack shells and turn around and Titmice and Chickadees would be down on the ones you just stepped on.  There were about a couple hundred Myrtle Warblers feeding on them, and a couple hundred plus Chipping Sparrows too.  Twenty or so White-winged Dove are also probably pecan dependents as well.  I saw one each of Audubon's, Orange-crowned and Pine Warbler.  I still can't get over how they butchered the most extensive old- growth closed canopy live-oak grove they had.  It is deplorable habitat management, at taxpayer expense.  My understanding is that this butchery was many many thousands of dollars. A 500 year old closed canopy now looks like city park tree trimmers went overboard. Jan. 30 ~ Green and Belted Kingfisher were at UP, the first Green I've seen since Dec., or maybe Nov..  They were quick to bug out when it got cold in Dec..  Blue Jay and Black Phoebe were about the park too. Jan. 29 ~ We got another inch of rain today, for about 2" in two days, and maybe over 4" in January, normally the driest month of the year. Maybe a good sign? Jan. 28 ~ I found a dead male Fiery Skipper in a bucket, in fair condition, so it hasn't been there long, a week at most.  It was a worn leftover, not a fresh one, and is butterfly species number 5 for the month. We got about an inch of rain today. Jan. 27 ~ At least 700 American Robin, and 100 Cedar Waxwing went over SR, the Robins mostly westbound, but a couple hundred descended on the junipers for berries in the yard. Jan. 25 ~ Heard a Flicker out back, been a female Yellow- shaft around. Better was a male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker flying into the live-oak out back while I was on the back porch, 15' away!  I had been watching Robins eat juniper berries from as close as 5' away.  Here's an interesting behavior observation, which to me is the funnest part of bird watching or study.... I was working at the desk/computer when motion caught my eye on the shelf below the window.  There was one of the Carolina Wrens, soaking wet to the bone, must have just been in the bath.  It went to a shallow vegetable tray with dry good soil in it, and proceeded to spend over a minute taking a dirt bath.  While soaking wet!?!?!?  Water and dirt equal ? Mud? I'm sure there is a good explanation, like mud smothers bird mites or something, but it was fascinating and amazing to see it, and wonder what it is all about. My mom told me to stay out of dirt when I was wet. Jan. 23-24 ~ Weekend was a blowout due to winds but another flower bloomed, a Parralena, and the Sida is still going, so there are two species of flowers open outside. Jan. 22 ~ About 50 Robin and 30 Waxwings stopped to eat Juniper berries, always a treat, they seem to be hitting the trees here near daily the last couple weeks. The astounding avaian event of the day was the first spring migrants of the year passing over northbound, at 10:15 p.m., White-fronted Geese!  Last year I first detected them January 27, and the 5 previous years FOS was in February.  Down in the lower Rio Grande Valley and on the coast, a few Purple Martins have been seen, the first landbird to return always, and incredibly early too for an insect eater. We don't get them till later up here. Jan. 21 ~ Amazing now after a couple days of 70 deg. F, a veritible burst of butterflies appeared, overwintering worn, beat as they are.  A dozen Snout, and 3 FOS Sleepy Orange, a FOS Red Admiral, blasting us up to four species for the year with the Variegated Frit that is about.  More unexpected was a flower that opened on Sida, the FOS flower this year. Jan. 20 ~ A quick stop at the park and I saw the female Black-and-white Warbler amongst the regulars there, one hatch year Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, a Golden-crowned Kinglet which I haven't seen lately, and finally a local Winter Wren. There were four Pied-billed Grebes at the pond in the park. We should get some more new stuff that gets pushed down by all the cold and storms.  Saw a Snout butterfly or two today! TWO species of butterflies for the year now. Jan. 18 ~ 1 beat worn Variegated Fritillary butterfly is I think the first butterfly I've seen around the yard this year. Jan. 17 ~ Here at SR early there were 130 Robin, 100+ Cedar Waxwing, a No. Flicker, and amazingly four Shoveller flew over! Then while down in Uvalde we stopped at Ft. Inge for a quick look and heard Green Jays and Olive Sparrow, saw Long-billed Thrasher, Green Kingfisher, Kiskadee, Verdin, 100 Lincoln's Sparrows, 1 Grasshopper Sparrow, White-eyed Vireo, and the regulars.  At Cook's Slough there were several Couch's Kingbird and Vermilion Flycatcher, and more of the regulars. Over the trip we saw about 20 resident Fuertes' Red-tailed Hawk, 3 standard Eastern type Red-tails, and at the Hwy. 90 bridge over the Frio at Vulcan in Knippa, a western Rufous morph Red-tailed Hawk!  About 3 mi. N. of Sabinal on the way back we saw (been looking) what is surely a returning winterer, a HARLAN'S (Red-tailed) Hawk, which should be re-split, but for the meanwhile means we saw 4 subspecies of Red-tails today! Jan. 15 ~ We had a good rain today, probably an inch plus, and the 14th we had a half inch and change, so chalk some up for the aquifer. Jan. 12 ~ Great show at the bird bath ca. 11 a.m. here on SR. A veritible parade of feathers, the medium sized stuff steals the show.  Both sexes of Cardinal, Scrub-Jay, Spotted Towhee, Robin, interspersed with several Audubon's Orioles.  As at the peanut and sunflower tube feeders, the Audubon's Orioles dominate the larger Scrub-Jay.  One AO moved down to the bath where a Jay was at the edge and jumped right in and splashed the SJ. The Jay made a couple quick lunges toward the AO. As at the feeders the AO opens its beak so the mandible and maxilla at 90 degrees spread, like two stilletos or daggers aimed right at the SJ. The fully open beak reveals a bubble-gum pink interior mouth lining, which is very impressively eye- catching next to the blue spots at the base of the lower mandible. With two big sharp dagger knife blades sticking out of it. The SJ did not lunge again, so the AO did not lunge at the SJ, which moved away to the nearest perch and made noises while squirming like a child trying to hold a potty while the AO bathed putting up a splash like a motorboat. When it was done it left.  The Jay moved in and acted though it were going to bathe. Another AO flew down, and SJ retreated immediately, that AO bathed, and left, and the SJ finally got its chance, when the orioles are done. It really seems to perterb the SJ's as all the other birds respect them enough to stand down like good birds. Jan. 11 ~ A bit warmer, I hate to say that at 20 deg. F this a.m..  But it got much warmer in the day, a smokin' 50 deg.. 15 Robin, 30 Waxwing, 9 Pine Siskin, 2 Common Raven, 2 other raven, and that dang Hutton's Vireo passed through the yard, now that count week is well over, finally.   Some Cardinal quiet singing. Jan. 10 ~ Not to lighten up it was still only 15 in JCT, 16 in KVL and 18 in HDO, so we were probably 17 deg. F here this a.m.. Can't wait till this breaks!  Birds going through seed, peanut butter, and bird bread like gangbusters.  5-6 Audubon's Orioles using lots of sugar water too.  Small Waxwing and Robin flocks, a few Siskins and American and Lesser Goldfinches.  The Chipping Sparrow flock is maybe pushing 125 now, with a couple Field. Still over a dozen Juncos with a couple few Pink-sided and Oregon amongst the Slate-colored, and 3 Spotted Towhees still. Jan. 9 ~ Brrrr it's worse! Was 8 deg.F in JCT and I heard in town folks said 8 deg. F here too, and up to 14 deg.F on the ridges this a.m.!  I thought about 12 at Seco Ridge. They say record coldest here in a long time.  Certainly the coldest since we got here (fall '03).  Was freezing or below Thursday evening to Saturday mid-day, 40 hours or so! And only broke freezing for 4 hours or so and its teens tonight! The highlight of the day was the frostweed ice flowers! I'll have to get a good description of what exactly occurs, but the moisture within the stems of the frostweed exits the stem and curls down as it does, making a ribbon of ice, that often loops and it is not uncommon to have all four sides of the stem do it making a big ice flower shape at the base of each stem.  I did get some pix and will put them up shortly. They are stunning beautiful as they are delicate.  I expect it takes a certain amount of cold for it to occur, and it is the first time I've seen it here in now 7 winters, down at the park. Jan. 8 ~ WOW its cold !!  About 20 in JCT, 21 in KVL, and maybe 22 here on SR.  If any birds show up I won't know because the windows are too fogged to see out. The high temp. might have broken freezing by a degree, maybe. Jan. 7 ~ A big arctic front and blow hitting pre-dawn, winds gusting to 35-40 mph, temps around freezing, chill factors in the 20's.  Lovely.  Supposed to be in teens in the a.m. tomorrow, with wind chills near ten! To address some hooey I heard, this does not mean global warming is not occurring.  Another proper term is climate change, which means there will be more extremes, like hotter summers, and colder winters.  Does this not sound a familiar theme to anyone?  :) Some years colder winters will result from the planet's overall warming. Jan. 6 ~ I heard Carolina Chickadee singing whistled song for the first time this year.  Kathy says she heard it a couple days earlier, apparently she is keeping secrets. A couple each Lesser and American Goldfinch around, and a Pine Siskin. Jan. 5 ~ Last day of count week, picked up a single calling American Pipit flying over SR.  That was it, so 8 sps. for count week, with 59 count day, makes for a total of 67 species detected count week.  Missed Turkey, Caracara, and Hutton's Vireo, for 3 dumb ones off the top of my head. Here at SR there were also 6 Audubon's Oriole, and the Junco flock was 8 Slate-colored, 2 Oregon, 2 Pink-sided. Chorus frogs are still going very well around dusk daily. White-winged Dove gave a single burst of under-the-breath quiet-song.  Was 25 deg. F. in the a.m.. Jan. 4 ~ I had to run to town for the P.O., so took a quick look at the park, hoping for a Green Kingfisher. No love there, but a Great Blue Heron flew off, for a count week bird.  Saw the Black-and-white Warbler and the Canyon Wren we missed on the count.  The wren treats giant cypress trunks like a cliff face.  There was an Orange-crowned Warbler there we'd missed too.  Again thought I heard a Pine Warbler, and saw at least 50 Myrtles along the river.  Saw two Autumn Meadowhawks (odes). They won't make it through the arctic blast on its way. Tomorrow is last day of count week, and could use a few dumb easy ones: Caracara, a live Great Horned Owl, Turkey. Jan. 3 ~ Shortly after sunup 26 Robins dropped out of the sky into the yard.  Where were they yesterday? Any time you do a count something silly avoids your gaze all day, and the next morning they fall out of the sky calling (if your lucky that's all) on your head!  I thought I heard Hutton's Vireo down the draw. Jan. 2 ~ We did our 7th annual first week of the new year bird count, our sort of mock pretend CBC, with the same one party (Kathy & me) doing the same roads and spots, now for the 7th year.  As long as coverage is consistent over the years, results are comparable, and educational. We saw 59 species around Utopia and up the valley, plus 3 subspecies. This was our lowest diversity total in 7 counts, and counted 1679 birds, darn near one at a time, scratching for them all day. Best was the male Vermilion Flycatcher at the park, quite scarce up here in the hills in winter, and the adult White-eyed Vireo was still hanging around at the library garden. 127 Myrtle Warblers was astounding, as was not seeing a Pine (thought I heard one in 3 places).  166 Vesper Sparrow was impressive and 2 each Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and Yellow-shafted Flicker was nice.  But no Robin!! Or Turkey, or Caracara, there are always some dumb misses. That is why there is a count week, 3 days before and after. The 5 deg. below normal cold all Dec. may have run the Green Kingfishers off, we didn't see one of them either. Somewhat surprising was not finding anything unusual though. Kathy found a couple DOR (dead on road) birds, both freshly hit/killed, an Eastern Phoebe and a Great Horned Owl. Now the owl was clearly just hit last night, or it would have been scavenged, ants would have been on it, etc., so it was absolutely positively alive, here in the circle, during count week.  And that is not good enough to count it as a tick for the total.  :) The count totals are up on the Bird Count page. January. 1 ~ HAPPY NEW YEAR !! 2010 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ We'll pause briefly for a numerical intermission and 2009 wrap up. I added a couple lists up I kept this 2009, one a green year list. The birds I saw without using any gas, walking around the yard, house, property, wherever I went without burning fuel. If I had a bike, I'd have rode to town (the river), and surely then could get much better diversity.  But, for being too far from the river to see the avian traffic using that highway, up here at 1500' in a juniper patch with oak/grassland, I think it was a good total, 147 species.  All seen from the yard in 2009.  You don't have to run all over the place to see a good number of birds.  But learning birds by call and in flight will make a big difference, some were only detected as nocturnal migrants! I saw about 245 species in 2009 in Uvalde County, which is funny because the TOS county year list reporting threshold is 250. A regular average birder should not be ashamed of a 200 Uvalde county year list.  So the TOS reporting cutoff may be reasonable for coastal areas, or places with large rivers and lakes, but obvioulsy one size does not fit all counties as a yearlist threshold. Try getting 250 in a year in Bandera or Real Co.. If one lived in Uvalde near the water hotspots I'm sure one would get another 10 or 20 more species, but the average birder might find 250 tough in a year in UvCo.  In a *outstanding year* with *weekly skilled effort*, 275 may be possible in a year in Uv.Co. with multiple days per week birding effort. Now my all time Uvalde County (UvCo) list by the most strict count is about 323.  There are a few things I've seen that wouldn't count if officially submitted, like Gray-breasted Martin, Aplomado Falcon, heard Yellow-green Vireo and White-collared Seedeater, a Gray-crowned Yellowthroat I didn't report (no photos), etc.. The 323 is the bare bones.  That is 6 years and a couple months worth, without chasing anything, even if I wanted or "needed" it. It is right about what I had after 3 years in Bexar Co. in the late 1980's, with its big deepwater lakes, gulls and shorebirds and eastern warblers. My Bandera Co. list is now about 232, and of course covers only about the <3% of that county that is the Sabinal River Valley and canyon Utopia to Lost Maples.  An incidental by accident total, I do not go around the county looking for birds, it is what I've seen birding locally in my patch.  I have had 210+ years ('04) in my few % of Bandera Co., but didn't keep track this year. The butterfly list for the year was about 89 species locally around Utopia.  With the rains since fall, we can expect next year a better season than this year's dismal offering. It was the first year here I did not see a Crimson Patch! The library garden list only grew by about 3 species this year and so remains stuck at 99 species until 2010.  Two of them were outstanding though, Clytie Ministreak and Dingy Purplewing, neither one photographed, but seen well at point blank. I guess the biggest mark hit in 2009 was my 300th species of bird (a flyover calling Marbled Godwit!) in the Sabinal River Valley. That is roughly a mile wide on average and less than 20 miles from Clayton Grade to Lost Maples, with a river that would be called a creek in most places and no significant lake. In the Ode world, I found three new Uvalde County records this year, with certainly the Swamp Darner my Utopia area highlight of 2009, but there were a number of exciting discoveries. I got the first ever photos of Marl Pennant for the county at the fish hatchery in June, and finding the first ever Spot-tailed Dasher in UvCo at Cook's Slough was pretty exciting too, in August. The last couple years there are some new guys getting into Odes here in UvCo and of course being near all those great waterholes in the dry country, they are finding lots of good new UvCo stuff.  They've pushed the UvCo Ode list to 99 species, quite respectable in the Ode world for a county list.  No doubt 2010 will bring Ode species # 100 for Uvalde County. End of brief 2009 numerical update and appreciation pause. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bird News Archive XII January 1 - June 30, 2010

Bird News Archive XII June 1 - Dec. 31, 2009

Bird News Archive XI January 1 - May 31, 2009

Bird News Archive X July 1 - Dec. 31, 2008

Bird News Archive IX Jan. 1- June 30, '08

Bird News Archive VIII July - Dec. 31, '07

Bird News Archive VII Jan. 1 - June 30, '07

Bird News Archive VI July - Dec. 31, '06

Bird News Archive V Jan. - June 30, '06

Bird News Archive IV July - Dec. 31, '05

Bird News Archive III Jan. - June 30, '05

Bird News Archive II June - Dec. 31, '04

Bird News Archive I Winter '03-'04 Summary Notes and Mar. 31-May 30,'04

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