Davis Mountains State Park

It's been a while since my last post, and I've got a migration/Utah post coming up as well. I got sick, finals came up, graduation, and my friend got married so I've been too busy to post. Of course, the first thing I did as a post grad was head out to West Texas. Alex and I drove out to Fort Davis to camp in Davis Mountains State Park, and we stopped at South Llano River State Park as well.

Our first stop in Junction is an incredible place to visit for birders. South Llano River State Park offers swimming and kayaking in addition to awesome birding, so a weekend here is a great idea. The state park isn't too big, but even with it's smaller size it has had 261 species recorded there. Cassin's Finch was present in the winter and Varied Bunting has been recorded there, but the highlight birds are Golden-cheeked Warbler and Black-capped Vireo, two endangered birds that are great Hill Country finds. Great blinds offer chances to get other solid birds as well.

We got there too late in the day, around noon. It's over 4 hours from College Station, but it was right off the road, so we had to stop. It was unbearably hot, and our 3 mile hike did not yield Golden-cheeked Warbler, although we had 2 Black-capped Vireos, one with excellent looks. We hung out at the blinds as well, getting good looks at Painted Buntings and Summer Tanagers. After a 2 hour detour we hauled it to Fort Davis.

Male House Finch at South Llano River State Park

Male Painted Bunting at South Llano River State Park

We got to Davis Mountains State Park around 8:30 that night. We quickly pitched the tent and rushed over to campsite 3, to see the Elf Owl that nests on the post there. A scope was set up, and one of the people staying at the site put a flashlight up against the post to illuminate the hole without disturbing the nest. After a long wait, we finally saw a bird zip through the twilight, and a bird appeared in the hole as well. Elf Owl! At that point it was the best bird of the trip. We were overjoyed to have gotten amazing looks at a bird that isn't super easy to get unless you find a nest.

Alex got an amazing picture of the Elf Owl considering it was dark outside. Dude can digiscope like no other.

The next morning we got up and put in 8.5 miles on Sheep Pen to the Limpia Creek Overlook. We had a ton of great birds on the trail. Phainopepla was abundant along Limpia Creek, and we had Greater Roadrunner once we got up on the mountain. A great find coming up was Cassin's Kingbird, although it wasn't until after the photo that we could tell what it was. Tons of sparrows were flying around, but of course they never wanted to get close enough to let us ID them. The highlight of the morning was easily Western Tanager, although it was a quick look.

The white on the tail tip is a way of showing that this is Cassin's Kingbird instead of Western Kingbird

Phainopepla at Sheep Pen

Greater Roadrunner

After Sheep Pen we went to the drugstore in Fort Davis for some incredible food, we went back to the blinds for a few hours. We figured it was too hot for the birds to be out, and the water at the drips would get some birds. We had great looks at Hepatic and Western Tanager, Woodhouse's Scrub Jay, Canyon Towhee, Lesser Goldfinch, Scott's Oriole, and Black-headed Grosbeak. The blinds are amazing here and should be visited.

Acorn Woodpecker at the blinds 

Black-headed Grosbeak

Canyon Towhee

Scott's Oriole

Woodhouse's Scrub Jay

The next day we went to Madera Canyon, high up in the Davis Mountains as part of The Nature Conservancy's area. The trail is the only one open year round, and they rest of the preserve is open only on select weekends throughout the year. There are pretty views, but Alex and I both felt really uneasy on the hike. We have no clue why. The area is pretty remote, and according to a local we are in places "where we can see some things we don't want to see." There is a high density of mountain lions in Jeff Davis county, and at the top of the trail we were at about 6200 feet. Sul Ross St. studies have shown that we were most likely in mountain lion habitat, and our elevation was about 100 feet below what to expect for a lion. I for sure wouldn't do Madera Canyon without a partner, but it's a nice trail, although it wasn't as birdy as it seemed on eBird.

For the most part we had a lot of the usual stuff. Rufous-crowned Sparrow, Hepatic and Western Tanagers, scrub jays, etc. Best sighting of the day was a likely Dusky Flycatcher, and I am confirming that on Texbirds now. My other guess would be a Gray Flycatcher. EDIT: David Sarkozi knows way more than I do and he is leaning Gray, and his reasoning is the bird is more pale and gray than a Dusky, which after looking I think he's right. The bird is also more uniform in color than a Dusky would be. We also had Western Bluebird and Swainson's Hawk. Pretty good sightings, and a great last bird was Plumbeous Vireo. 

Gray Flycatcher

Hepatic Tanagers are going to be darker along the wings compared to a Summer. Bill color is also different.

We returned back to the blinds after a lunch. Great looks at the usual birds, but right as we were getting up to leave we saw a flash of baby blue. I've skimmed the field guide enough times to know what it was. I freaked out, Lazuli Bunting! It was a bird I wasn't expecting at all, and it was a top 5 bird of the trip. Later that night we went up Skyline Drive, where in addition to stellar sunsets and stars we got Common Poorwill and Common Nighthawk. In addition, we had Great-horned Owl on the telephone poles the night before. We really cleaned up on our nocturnal birds. We only missed Western Screech Owl and Flammulated Owl, which is a really rare find. I don't think Western Screech is common in the park either.

Had some dust on the lens for this one, but I went wild over the Lazuli Bunting

Lesser Goldfinch

I debated all night over whether Elf Owl or Lazuli Bunting was the better find. It didn't matter on our last day. We got up to head back to College Station, but we stopped for 30 minutes at Balmorhea Lake, which is on the way back to I-10. It's a small lake, and we were going after Clark's Grebe and Western Grebe. Balmorhea is one of 3 places to reliably get Clark's Grebe. Western Grebe appears to be a little easier to find, but both can really only be reliably found at Red Bluff and McNary Reservoir and Balmorhea Lake, all in the Trans-Pecos. 

We got a weird route that tried taking us through private land, and we're quite thankful it took us on the wrong route. We had 2 falcons fly overhead. They were too big for American Kestrel, but for sure not Peregrine Falcon. The tail banding and yellow near the legs left one option: APLOMADO FALCON!  It's a really rare bird for the area, and we were bumpin after we looked at the field guide. Once we got on the right route we had Pyrrhuloxia and a possible Varied Bunting, but it was too tough to ID it. We got both Western and Clark's Grebe and some Scaled Quail. What a fantastic way to end the trip!

Overall we had a fantastic trip. I added 34 year birds, and we had a total of 58 species, a good haul. I'd recommend in the future doing this in addition to Big Bend. We stretched it out and had a great time, but solely to maximize species I think we saw most on the first day, then added some others as it went along. The general habitat of Davis Mountains SP and Madera Canyon is all pretty uniform, but if you go during an open weekend at the preserve you'll get way different elevations, which bring a ton of new birds into the mix. South Llano River is a place we'd like to have more time at, as 12-2 is not ideal, but if you go in the morning you'll for sure get Golden-cheeked Warbler and Black-capped Vireo. 

Best Birds: Black-capped Vireo, Elf Owl, Lazuli Bunting, Aplomado Falcon, Clark's Grebe, Gray Flycatcher, Mountiain Chickadee

Misses: Montezuma Quail (good luck finding that one), Golden-cheeked Warbler, Zone-tailed Hawk, Common Black Hawk, Grace's Warbler. All were going to be difficult finds outside of Golden-cheeked, so overall pretty successful

Clark's Grebe

Scaled Quail

Western Grebe