by Bob & Maggie Honig
updated Saturday evening, 27 December 2008[We have updated our species list: in the interest of being conservative, we are changing our report of a Great Crested Flycatcher to
Myiarchus sp. See species # 48 below for further details.]
Below is an annotated list of the species we observed on the Warren Ranch during our Birdathon on 25 December 2008, in the order we first observed them. We had a very successful day, observing 95 species while spending a wonderful day in the field to raise money to pay off KPC's Warren Ranch mortgage. For some species we noted the time when we first observed that species, to give you an idea of how our list grew. Of course we observed many of these repeatedly throughout the day. (Even though we have already done the Birdathon, it's still not to late to pledge to help save this very important property. Go to
http://www.katyprairie.org/support.html#Birdathon for instructions on how to pledge.)
Christmas day 2008 turned out to be wonderfully comfortable: mild, not too breezy, and with a high cloud cover. Although there was a bit of a mist at times, that high overcast was a lot easier on they eyes for all-day birding than full sun.
In its longest dimensions, the 6500-acre Warren Ranch is about 5 miles north to south and about 2.5 miles east to west. We drove a total of about 30 miles on the Warren Ranch for our Birdathon.
We left our house in Waller County about 6:20 a.m., arriving at the southern boundary of the Warren Ranch on Sharp Road shortly after 6:30 p.m. We spent our first few hours in the southeastern corner of the Ranch, focusing our initial efforts near where Sharp Road crosses Cypress Creek. Here we were able to access the gallery forest along Cypress Creek, lots of brush, and tree lines.
1. Killdeer 6:40 a.m.
2. Northern Mockingbird
3. American Robin
4. Northern Bobwhite
5. Great Horned Owl (A single call in the dawn gloom. We heard several more after sunset, and saw one perched on a power pole.)
6. Northern Cardinal
7. Brown Thrasher
8. American Woodcock 6:45 a.m. (several observed flying across Sharp Road from about 6:40 a.m. to 6:45 a.m.)
9. White-throated Sparrow
The beginning of civil twilight (when there is enough light for one to see clearly) was about 6:50 a.m.
10. Mourning Dove
11. Carolina Wren
12. Eastern Phoebe
13. Gray Catbird 7:00 a.m.
14. House Wren
15. American Goldfinch
16. Black Vulture 7:04 a.m.
17. Ruby-crowned Kinglet
18. Snow Goose
19. Red-winged Blackbird 7:10 a.m..
20. Yellow-rumped Warbler
21. Blue Jay 7:15 a.m.
Sunrise was approximately 7:16 a.m. (though we couldn't see it due to the overcast).
22. Greater Yellowlegs
23. Sedge Wren
24. Northern Flicker
25. Red-shouldered Hawk
26. Cedar Waxwing 7:25 a.m.
27. Orange-crowned Warbler
We had 27 species in roughly an hour and felt we were off to a very good start. We then headed north a short ways along the north-south power lines passing through mostly grasslands, a few tree lines, and one wet area.
28. European Starling
29. American Kestrel 7:36 a.m.
30. Great Blue Heron
31. Great Egret
32. Greater White-fronted Goose
33. Red-tailed Hawk
34. Eastern Meadowlark
35. Savannah Sparrow
36. Red-bellied Woodpecker
37. Swamp Sparrow
38. Le Conte's Sparrow 7:50 a.m.
39. Northern Harrier
40. Ross's Goose 8:00 a.m.
41. Green-winged Teal
42. Vesper Sparrow
43. Wilson's Snipe 8:02 a.m.
44. Lincoln's Sparrow 8:13 a.m.
45. Brown-headed Cowbird
We then made a turn toward the east, back toward Cypress Creek, but this time a bit north of where we started our day. The gallery forest along Cypress Creek here contains the most mature woodlands in the ranch. Nearby is lots of brush bordering fields plus some man-made wetlands (a Ducks Unlimited habitat creation project), making for a diverse habitat.
46. White-crowned Sparrow
47. Loggerhead Shrike 8:24 a.m.
48.
Myiarchus sp. 8:31 a.m. (This bird had a peaked crest, gray throat and breast, yellow belly & undertail, rusty primaries. We intially recorded this as a Great Crested Flycatcher. However, on further discussion, we are not sure that our view of some of the field marks allows a definitive identification; so we have taken the more conservative approach to allow for the possibility of Ash-throated Flycatcher. Our suspicion is Great Crested rather than Ash-throated; in particular we feel that the yellow belly was too bright for Ash-throated, but we did not have the best of views. Great Crested is a summer resident/nester in southeast Texas, as well as a spring and fall migrant, not at all expected in the winter. Ash-throated occurs each winter on the Katy Prairie, though in very small numbers. Interestingly, there have been recent reports of Great Crested from Kleb Woods, only about 8 miles to the northeast of Warren Ranch.)
49. Song Sparrow 8:35 a.m.
50. Carolina Chickadee 8:45 a.m.
51. Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 8:48 a.m.
52. Downy Woodpecker 8:51 a.m.
53. American Crow 8:51 a.m.
54. Hooded Merganser 9:50 a.m. (a good find, not commonly seen on the Katy Prairie)
55. American Wigeon
56. Common Ground-Dove 9:59 a.m. (We saw a pair, the only ones we saw all day, after we had turned down a ranch road that we had already covered and hadn't planned to revisit — we didn't recognize it as the same road the second time, approaching from the opposite direction. Sometimes you just get lucky.)
57. American Pipit
58. White-tailed Hawk 10:17 a.m.
59. Crested Caracara 10:33 a.m.
We arrived at Warren Lake just after 11:00 a.m. and spent the next 90 minutes or so in that vicinity.
60. Bald Eagle 11:03 a.m. (Initially seen perching in a tree on the dam at the south end of the lake. Later in the day seen perching on a power pole near Warren Ranch Road, and still later flying west from Warren Lake carrying nesting material; we had a total of 3 separate sightings of a mature adult at Warren Lake over the course of the afternoon, a single individual each time.)
61. American White Pelican
62. Pied-billed Grebe
63. Sandhill Crane
64. Ruddy Duck
65. Forster's Tern
66. American Coot
67. Belted Kingfisher
68. White-faced Ibis 11:24 a.m.
69. House Sparrow 11:26 a.m.
70. Northern Shoveler
71. Mallard
72. Snowy Egret
73. Eastern Bluebird 11:45 a.m.
74. Brewer's Blackbird
75. Great-tailed Grackle
76. Barn Owl 11:55 a.m.
77. Inca Dove
78. Mottled Duck 12:27 p.m.
79. Common Yellowthroat
80. Blue-winged Teal 12:42 p.m.
81. Eared Grebe (2 individuals)
82. Ring-necked Duck 12:48 p.m.
83. Long-billed Curlew 12:59 p.m.
84. Gadwall 1:04 p.m.
85. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 1:09 p.m.
86. Field Sparrow 1:14 p.m.
87. Harris's Sparrow 1:16 p.m.
We next headed toward the northwest corner of the Ranch and ultimately made a big loop through the center of the Ranch, returning to Warren Lake and vicinity about an hour before sunset.
88. Long-billed Dowitcher 2:50 p.m.
89. Pine Siskin 2:53 p.m.
90. Turkey Vulture 3:32 p.m. (It was not until this late in the day before we saw this species, and it was the only Turkey Vulture for the entire day! Very surprising for a species that is usually ubiquitous, seen very commonly flying over open country.)
91. unidentified small hawk species (small with a solid gray back; just got a fleeting, sub-second glimpse as it flushed out of a tree line; either a Sharp-shinned Hawk or Merlin, both of which are found on the Katy Prairie in winter)
92. Eurasian Collared-Dove 4:39 p.m.
93. White Ibis 4:48 p.m.
We then parked ourselves where we could see large expanses of fields with tall grasses, just the habitat where a Short-eared Owl might forage at dusk. We stayed there for about 45 minutes, hoping for a glimpse of that elusive species; but alas, no Short-eared Owl. (We had a tantalizing glance at a bird that made us wonder when it briefly appeared through a gap in a tree line to the west, against the setting sun, making us wonder; but it was certainly nothing we could say for sure was an owl.)
Sunset was approximately 530 p.m.; and the end of civil twilight was around 556 p.m.. We headed back toward the mature gallery forest and dense brush along Cypress Creek along the southeastern border of the Ranch, just the place we might find Barred Owl and Eastern Screech-Owl. And guess what ...
94. Barred Owl 6:33 p.m.
95. Eastern Screech-Owl 6:38 p.m.
We then headed back to the south gate of the Ranch on Sharp Road, keeping alert for the possibility of seeing the elusive Short-eared Owl until we left the Warren Ranch behind us at about 7:00 p.m. All in all, a wonderful day, with a species list that exceeded our expectations and raised a good chunk of money for the Warren Ranch.
Our total of 95 species was more than we had expected, but maybe it shouldn't have been. Our previous experience with Katy Prairie Birdathons had been only in April, with a very different suite of species; and we had totaled roughly 70 species in each of the past 3 years. Now we feel that our 25 December 2008 total of 95 is a reasonable winter target for the Warren Ranch. Of course, a few of the species on our list would not be expected every year or could be easily missed because of their low abundance, for example Hooded Merganser, Common Ground-Dove, Barred Owl, Eastern Screech-Owl, Gray Catbird, Pine Siskin, even Bald Eagle; and certainly Great-crested Flycatcher. Conversely, there were some species that winter on the Katy Prairie that we didn't observe, such as Northern Pintail, Lesser Scaup, Bufflehead, Double-crested Cormorant, Least Sandpiper, Dunlin, Blue-headed Vireo, Chipping Sparrow, and Common Grackle. So that tells us that a total species count of 100 or more for a winter Warren Ranch Birdathon is certainly a possibility. Maybe next year ...
Happy New Year to all! And thanks for the generous contributions!
