Recent Bird Sightings
About WBS
Overview
Membership
Travel history
Projects
Officers & committees
Recent sightings--->
Area birds & birding
Birding resources
Hill Country birds
Hummingbirds
Helping nature
Bluebird house plans
Natural landscaping
Mealworms as food
2008 Posts:
Name: tom toporowski
Date of sighting: Same as date posted
Date posted: Thu Jul 3 13:07:19 2008
karen and i were sitting on our deck late this morning, when karen said there was a different little bird with some yellow on it in the redbud tree. it was a male golden checked warbler. first time we have seen one in the yard. (we have lived here for nearly 7 years). good spotting, karen!
Name: tom toporowski
Date of sighting: Same as date posted
Date posted: Tue Jun 24 10:38:49 2008
on father's day, i had a pleasant surprise. at dusk i looked out the back window and in the dim light saw a bird drinking from the birdbath that seemed too large to be a jay. with closer scrutiny i realized it was a eastern screech owl.
since then i have literally seen this little owl everyday. on tuesday after father's day i discovered it has taken up residence in the owl box i built and put up inthe yard this past march. about 8:15 each evening in sits in the circular entrance to the box waiting for darkness. first stop is usually the bird bath for a drink before beginning it's evening hunts.
to my surprise and delight i saw the owl at times when i would not expect to see it. i happened to look out the window at 11:27am this past sunday and there was the owl at the birdbath. wow. and this morning just minutes before sunrise, i saw the owl at the birdbath. this time it was getting ready for a good rest by taking a bath. but this feathered little one wasn't content with just one bath, he came back to the birdbath for two more dips all within just a few brief minutes. big wow! sure glad we have a bird bath... and that my wife encouraged me to put the owl house up in our yard.
Name: Herb Smith & Susan Zimmerman
Date of sighting: Same as date posted
Date posted: Tue Jun 17 17:52:21 2008
This morning we had at least one female and one male Golden-cheeked warbler feeding with a mixed flock of chickadees, titmice and at least one Black and white warbler. It was great to see them here again since we haven't seen them for several years.
Name: Merry Merian
Date of sighting: Same as date posted
Date posted: Thu Jun 5 10:53:31 2008
I don't know what the pair of birds are that are nesting in my yard. The male has a long pointed beak with a yellow head. The body is large with black bars on a grayish brown wing. The female is the same size with faint yellow on the head. Thanks Merry
Name: Herb Smith & Susan Zimmerman
Date of sighting: Same as date posted
Date posted: Sun May 4 19:45:40 2008
We seem to be getting a little bump in migrants, having a Rose-breasted grosbeck (a first for us here) coming to our feeders regularly since last night. On our walk this morning we saw American redstart, Common yellowthroat, and Tennessee warblers, plus an Olive-sided flycatcher. Yesterday, there was a Baltimore oriole and a Great-crested flycatcher. We're hearing a lot of White-eyed vireo and Nashville warblers, and think we may have heard a Swainson's thrush this morning. We still have lots of migrant hummers – both Black-chins and Ruby-throats at the same time as a Black-chinned female is sitting on her nest.
Returning summer resident male and female Painted buntings are nearly constant. Surprisingly, we’re still seeing American goldfinch at the at the feeders and saw a very late Lincoln's sparrow on our walk.
Name: Bill and Bobbie Wofford
Date of sighting: Same as date posted
Date posted: Wed Apr 30 21:05:56 2008
Again while sitting on our patio this week we were fortunate enough to see some really interesting birds. First off there were the three mentioned below but then today we saw the Painted Bunting, White Crowned Sparrow, and Red Breasted Groesbeak. Monday we went out to Aquarena Springsd and amoung the usual birds found we saw the nesting pair of Red Shouldered Hawks near the main building. We could see what we think is at least one baby still in down. Later we heard then saw the male and female Downy Woodpecker flitering and fussing in a sycamore tree while darting back and forth around this one spot. It was not obvious to us until we went around to the other side of the tree. It was then we saw a Golden Fronted Woodpecker at their nest either eating the eggs or the babies, we could not tell. Our presence drove the Golden Fronted Woodpecker off and the pair of Downy WP got quiet again. Still don't know if they babies were killed or not.
Name: Bill and Bobbie Wofford
Date of sighting: Same as date posted
Date posted: Sat Apr 26 21:12:27 2008
Correction to the entry below, it was the Red Breasted Nuthatch and not the Brown Breasted was feeding upon the ball moss. A lapse in memory identification on my part.
Name: Bill and Bobbie Wofford
Date of sighting: Same as date posted
Date posted: Sat Apr 26 20:54:52 2008
In our back yard today we were fortunate to see three different birds. Early this morning we saw the Indigo Bunting feeding at our ground feeder. In the late afternoon we heard and then saw the Brown Breasted Nut Hatch working the lichen on the live oaks trees the working over the ball moss was the Blue Headed Vireo.
Name: tom toporowski
Date of sighting: 4/13/08, sunday
Date posted: Mon Apr 14 11:10:40 2008
while in san marcos yesterday, i went by aqarina springs for about 30 minutes at around5:00pm.
green herons are definitely back...saw six of them. also saw two immature yellow crown night herons, a great blue heron, 2 pie billed grebes, and a couple of coots. not much, but the yellow crown night herons were interesting to watch...one was beginning to develope a characteristic white line below the eye and a few short feathers crown feathers. it was cleary dominate over the other, which had neither white line or any crown feathers.
Name: Herb Smith
Date of sighting: Same as date posted
Date posted: Mon Mar 31 10:08:29 2008
I had a nice look at a Louisiana waterthrush along the banks of the Blanco this morning. Also, a soaring Osprey, a bird that first showed up two days ago. Two male and one female Wood duck nicely rounded out my walk. We've been hearing and occasionally seeing Northern parula for about a week, and hearing other warbler songs that we haven't really identified yet. Migration seems to be picking up.
Name: Herb Smith & Susan Zimmerman
Date of sighting: Same as date posted
Date posted: Tue Mar 25 10:09:40 2008
The beautiful male Lazuli bunting is continuing to come in to our millet feeder at regular intervals. Two WBS members came to see it yesterday and were successful.
Name: Herb Smith
Date of sighting: Same as date posted
Date posted: Sun Mar 23 20:31:34 2008
Tonight we had a Lazuli bunting come in to our millet feeder, then land in a nearby tree when it found the feeder empty (the Chipping sparrows are really going through the seed, getting ready to head north). This is a first for us in Wimberley. Beautiful bird! And rare for the area.
Name: Bill and Bobbie Wofford
Date of sighting: Feb 23 2008
Date posted: Sat Feb 23 19:53:56 2008
Being slightly in need of new bird sightings this date, we went first to Capes pond, see Tom Toporowski's entry below. We saw the same ducks that he did plus a pied billed grebe and great blue heron. We then went to Aquarena Springs and saw the eastern phoebe. We were slightly disappointed at this stop but continued in our quest for birds. We then went over to AE Woods Fish Hatchery and again saw nothing to speak of. We then continued on out SH 621 to Staples. Wow! We saw another flock of the Sand Hill Cranes in exactly the same place as previously reported then as if expecting a cue, about 30 or so came in for a landing to join the rest of the flock. Now this piqued our interest and we continued on and turned right on SH 1339 and went about a half mile, hoping to see more but it was not to be. We turned around and stated back when we noticed a raptor hovering about 200 yards off to our right. We identified it as a White Tailed Kite. We watched this kite for about 15 minutes and decided to leave. Coming back we took a side road and wound up at the San Marcos Civic Center where we have birded before. As expected we saw the white crowned sparrow on the fence behind the main building. There high in the Cottonwood tree nesting in the same place and nest where we saw the Red Tailed Hawk last year rear a brood, was the Great Horned Owl attempting to do the same thing using a great home with a view. We wish her luck. It was a great evening of bird watching.
Name: tom toporowski
Date of sighting: Same as date posted
Date posted: Tue Feb 19 23:06:00 2008
while in san marcos today, i drove by stokes park, which is located on the san marcos river on cape road (cr299). there is a pond on cape road which is about a quarter of a mile from stokes park (toward chuck nash chevrolet). this pond is on private land, but can be viewed from cape road. on the pond were several species of ducks including: northern shovelers, ruddy ducks, a blue wing teal, ring necked ducks, and 6 canvas backs. this is the third time i have seen the canvas backs on the pond with a sigthing of one female on 1/10/08, and 15 canvas backs (13 females and 2 males) on 1/29/08. i hope someone else will check out this pond and note your sightings on this site.
Name: Bill and Bobbie Wofford
Date of sighting: Jan 27 adn 28
Date posted: Thu Jan 31 13:13:41 2008
In the previous posting I forgot to mention seeing the greater roadrunner and Red breasted nuthatch as well as the pine warbler in our backyard, At the San Marcos Civic Center we saw the white crown sparrow as well as the song sparrow, logger headed shrike, and Eurasian colared dove, meadow larks and American Kestrel.
Name: Bill and Bobbie Wofford
Date of sighting: Jan 27 2008
Date posted: Thu Jan 31 12:23:29 2008
We deicided to go to Aquarena Springs for an evening of birding. We saw two adult red shouldered hawks mating in cottonwood tree in the parking lot, a common yellowthroat on the boardwalk, belted kingfisher, and two pied billed grebes. We witnessed an osprey swooping down to snare a bass for dinner, beats me and a fly rod. We then went out to Randy Vetters Park on the Blanco, where the only birds seen was a blue bird and a mockingbird. Not being through with birding we went out toward Staples and just before going into the village, in the far distance we spotted the Sand Hill Cranes. At first just a few then we noticed that more were coming in for a landing. We determined they were coming in from the Southeast. We then continued on down FM 621 for about a half mile we then came to CR 1339 and turned right. About a mile later we pulled off the road and watched as flock after flock of 25 to 35 birds came in to land at the previous reported spot. We counted over 500. A marvelous sight and concluded our day of birding. A good Day.
Name: David Wilson
Date of sighting: Same as date posted
Date posted: Sat Jan 26 15:01:38 2008
What a great day to bird the backyard!!!
We have either an Allen's or Rufuss hummer, collard dove and a Red-naped Sapsucker!!! We did get photo's.
Name: tom toporowski
Date of sighting: 01/04/08
Date posted: Sat Jan 5 15:50:08 2008
yesterday i birded at hornsby bend. saw over 40 species...a good start to this year's list. best bird of the day was a female canvas back; first female i ever saw. it was in pond 2 in case you may be planning to go to hornsby. also saw several wilson's snipes. oddly enough there were few northern shovelor's, and the number of ducks(all species) was relatively low. wonder why.
Name: Herb Smith & Susan Zimmerman
Date of sighting: 2007
Date posted: Wed Jan 2 13:12:03 2008
During 2007, we again kept record of the birds we saw in our River Oaks subdivision neighborhood. We identified 114 species, compared with 108 in 2006. Of these, 27 were new for this year, but we missed 21 that we saw in 2006. The net result was 135 total species for the two years.
The new birds for 2007 included:
American Redstart
Blackburnian Warbler
Blue Grosbeak
Bufflehead
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Hermit Thrush
Least Flycatcher
Mississippi Kite
Mourning Warbler
Purple Finch
Red-breasted Nuthatch (Lots!)
Rock Wren
Email: webmaster@wimbirds.org
wimbirds.org/sightings/index.html (Last modified Jan-02-08)