On April 19, 2014, we decided to head up to Lost Maples State Park. They had been seeing some good birds there, including a number that would be lifers, like Lazuli Buntings, Black-capped Vireos, and a Painted Redstart. I saw on the Lost Maples website that they were doing bird walks on Saturday morning at 8:00AM, so we decided to make the 1.5 hour drive west.
As we were driving to the park, we got our first year bird, the ever elusive Wild Turkey. We had about 6 of them, including a mating pair in the fields along the road. At the Visitors' Center, we snagged another new bird, a beautiful Indigo Bunting. We paid and made our way up to the overflow parking lot for the beginning of the bird walk. While observing the feeders, we met the guides and saw a nice male Blue Grosbeak enjoying some seed. I told one of the guides about some of the birds we were looking for and she happened to hear one of our targets. We all looked up to see a male Scott's Oriole (lifer) singing at the top of an oak tree. Not even 15 minutes in the park and already 3 year birds!
We ended up being the only participants on the walk, so we began our trek down the trail. We had just crossed a stream when a small Myiarchus flycatcher blew past. Based on call and size, we had another lifer...Ash-throated Flycatcher! The next bird was also awesome, not new, but you can't beat excellent looks at singing male Golden-cheeked Warblers. A Texas Hill Country specialty!
Moving on, our guides pointed out a Hutton's Vireo nest. She wasn't home, but it was very cool to see anyway. In a cliff face on the left side of the trail was literally the largest Red-tailed Hawk nest I have ever seen. They also weren't home, but the size of this thing was impressive to say the least. We crossed a second stream and had a Louisiana Waterthrush sing in the trees. We also heard the beautiful descending song of the Canyon Wren (lifer).
Continuing toward the pond, Les (one of the guides) mentioned that he was disappointed to have not seen an Acadian Flycatcher yet as they normally moved through about this time. No sooner had he said that than we heard a very distinctive 2-note call. 8 eyes and 10 minutes later (and an Eastern Phoebe...), we had our Acadian (lifer).
The Acadian provided a burst of excitement, so we continued around a bend and crossed a third stream. Well, it may have been the same stream, but we crossed it 3 times on our way up. We heard the Canyon Wren again (I'll never get tired of that song!) and had a Northern Cardinal acting very aggressively. Turns out he was less than pleased with the Eastern Screech-Owl perched in a dead tree. The owl gave us the eye, so we moved on. In this area, we had numerous singing and fly-by Red-eyed and Yellow-throated Vireos, and while those were year birds, those were not my target. All of a sudden, out of the corner of my eye, I caught a flash at eye level, and barely, just barely, had my Black-capped Vireo (lifer). These are also a TX Hill Country specialty, but are much more secretive than the GCWA.
We were all hoping for better looks at the BCVI, so we headed about 100 yards up the East Trail where they have been reported (even as recently as the same morning). We weren't able to see them, but they were definitely calling from the deep bush, as were at least 2 Hutton's Vireos. Our thought was that others most likely played a BCVI call to draw them out in to the open, but as Lost Maples is a State Park, playback is strictly forbidden. Also, I prefer to not play calls unless I really am confident the bird will not be too stressed and I don't think they're on a nest at the time. Generally I play calls in my car so I am familiar with the sound and can recognize it in the field. We were entertained about about 4 GCWA as we listened to the BCVI.
The walk back was filled with many of the same birds. Once we returned to our starting point, our guides described a Great-Horned Owl nest that was visible from the camping area. Luckily the nest was too far away to be disturbed, but we were able to see one adult and one owlet peering out from their home. We camped out at the bird guides' feeders (they live at the park for a couple of months), but did not see any of the reported Lazulis. No worries, we still had 4 lifers and added 11 birds to the year list, bringing our total to 257! :D
