Texas Big Year—2019

Caddo Lake SP—December 30, 2018—D Day -2.  We arrived back in Texas this morning and headed to Caddo Lake SP to camp for a few days.  We will begin our Big Year count by doing another Christmas Bird Count.  We are joining Becky Gullette and Peggy Harding who have done our section of the Tenaha CBC, the west end of Lake Muravul, for the last 25 years.  This should get us off to a good start.

Today we did a little birding in Caddo Lake NWR that is just down the road from our campground.  The temperature was in the mid 40’s and the sky was overcast.  Not long after we began it commenced raining and has been doing so ever since, even as I write this at 8 PM.  However, we were able to find a few species before the weather changed for the worst.  At the NWR entrance, in the weedy fields on either side of the road, there were a many small birds moving about.  I was able to find White-throated Sparrows (and there were many feeding on berries throughout the refuge), a Lincoln’s Sparrow, Dark-eyed Juncos were abundant, a few Savannah Sparrows, and two Swamp Sparrows.  While standing in the road we witnessed a Piliated Woodpecker fly by, several American Crows, two Northern Cardinals and several Field Sparrows.  The rain cut short our field time today but I certainly know where to find some sparrows for our list.

Tomorrow, weather permitting, we will do some more birding, make a trip to Marshall, Texas for a Walmart stop and to get a refill of one of our propane tanks.  The cold weather here and in Georgia have gone thorough one whole bottle in a week.  Looks like we will have good weather for the upcoming CBC.