Nalle Bunny Run 2016-08-06

I spent almost three hours on Hill Country Conservancy's Nalle Bunny Run Wildlife Preserve this morning, starting at about 7:45. The first thing I noticed soon after I got out of my car was that dragonflies were flying almost directly south just over the tree tops. I stopped and counted them for awhile. I estimated there were about 40 between 7:45 and 8:08 when I stopped. All but two were Spot-winged Gliders, the other two were Saddlebags of some kind. They'd appear in groups of 2-6.

This reminded me of a much more dramatic dragonfly migration event I observed there on July 30, 2013 when I counted 591 dragonflies fly south over my head in 10 minutes. Both observations are recorded at migratorydragonflypartnership.org.

Other items of interest:

I only observed one green Painted Bunting and heard no singing. On the past three monthly walks we've heard them sing. Soon they will be gone for the winter along with many other songbirds.

I found an early Black-throated Green Warbler in a mixed flock about a third of the way down the hill just west of the driveway. I think it was a first-year female. The only other obvious migrating bird I observed was a heard-only Dickcissel up near the gate.

Many birds are quite messy looking right now due to feather molting. Most birds molt most of their feathers late every summer. See the two cardinal observations attached.

I was happy to find 3 or 4 young cypress trees growing in a depression a little bit away from the water's edge.

On the east edge of the waterfall canyon I found a Rock Squirrel lying on a rock that didn't seem to mind my close presence. I got a couple decent photos of it.

After a record number of House sparrows in one group observed last month (60), I did not see a single one this morning.

Here are my photos on Flickr.

Here is my complete eBird list.

And the same photos as iNaturalist observations are attached.

Posted on August 6, 2016 08:53 PM by mikaelb