Guadalupe Delta Christmas Bird Count

I participated in the Guadalupe Delta Christmast Bird Count yesterday. It's one of the logistically more difficult CBCs, since much of it is on private ranch land that is not near a major city. For most participants (including myself) long pre-dawn drives are necessary to reach our assigned areas by sunrise. I covered an area of private ranch land I estimate is about 100 acres. About a third is riparian woods and the rest is open grassland with a bit of marshy habitat.

It was well worth the effort to get there before dawn. I heard Barred Owls, Barn Owls, and Pileated Woodpeckers. I first heard, then saw and photographed part of a group of wild turkeys roosting up in the trees. I spent the first two hours of daylight walking along a berm next to some marshy habitat and enjoyed lots of bird activity. Swamp Sparrows, Marsh Wrens, and Sedge Wrens were numerous. And I heard a few Soras and two Virginia Rails. Here's my eBird list for this area:

http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S16031717

After the active early morning, I walked a 2.5 mile circuit through dense riparian woods with a neat mixture of trees and Dwarf Palmettos. Unfortunately the birding was extremely slow. I did find some neat Pileated Woodpecker holes. (See attached observation.) Here is my eBird list for this area:

http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S16031782

I spent the afternoon driving truck trails on the south two-thirds of the area, stopping periodically to try and find birds. But the bird activity was still slow, and it remained slow for the rest of the day. Here is my eBird list for this area:

http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S16031822

All day I only ran into one other person, one of the ranch hands. Even though only the first two hours of the day had lots of bird activity, it was still a blast to hike and drive around the place by myself all day long. I look forward to next year!

Here are my photos on Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikael_behrens/sets/72157638865079683/

Posted on December 21, 2013 02:36 AM by mikaelb