The Deskbound Birder: Hermit Thrush

Showing posts with label Hermit Thrush. Show all posts

Wednesday, 11 December 2019

Texas and Yellowstone National Park - Background and Trinity River Audobon Centre 11th December (Day 1 and 2)

Background
Having sold my business to a Dallas based consultancy back in May of 2019 I was required to attend a two day conference in Dallas on 12th and 13th December. I had decided to extend my stay in the USA by visiting a few birding sites around the Corpus Christi 'Coastal Bend' area for a small number of ticks and to visit Yellowstone National Park, a location that I had long wanted to undertake a winter visit to. Sarah and Tobias were to join me and so this was not going to be a full-on birding trip and so birding was combined with family events.

Logistics
To maximise my potential for seeing the few new birds available I employed local guides in Corpus Christi and at Yellowstone National Park. In the Corpus Christi area I used Jon McIntyre of McIntyre Birding Tours. In Yellowstone the new birds were even fewer but I wanted to use a guide to maximise our chances of seeing some of the mammals, targetting the few birds and allowing me to enjoy the scenery rather than drive and so we employed the services of Steve Hoffman of Merlin Birding and Nature Tours. Both guides were excellent, knew the sites well and knew where to locate the birds I wanted to see.

Weather
The weather in Dallas was generally cold at around 8c and overcast with some sunnier spells. In Corpus Christi the temperature went up to 26c, on our first day it was sunny and still and on the second day it was overcast and breezy. In Yellowstone National Park there was up to 75cm of snow on the ground wih temperatures down to -8c during the day. It was generally still and sunny with short spells of cloud cover.

Equipment
I took with me my Olympus kit with the OMD EM1x camera, 300 F4 lens and 1.4 converter. While I took my 2x converter I did not use this. I took bins and no scope as our guides had scopes.

Itinerary

10th December (Day 1) – Fly London Heathrow to Dallas (15:45 - 20:10).
11th December (Day 2) – Trinity River Audobon Centre AM.
12th & 13th December (Day 3-4) - Work conference with no birding.
14th December (Day 5) - Birding Corpus Christi area.
15th December (Day 6) - Birding Corpus Christi area.
16th December (Day 7) - Fly Corpus Christi to Dallas (scheduled flight cancelled) then Dallas to Denver then Denver to Bozeman landing at 20:40, 7.5 hours later than scheduled.
17th December (Day 8)- Travel east through Lamma Valley in Yellowstone National Park.
18th December (Day 9)- Travel west through Lamma Valley in Yellowstone National Park.
19th December (Day 10) - Non-birding day.
20th December (Day 11) Flight from Boseman - Denver (10:43-12:29) then international flight to London Heathrow (17:25-09:30) landing on 21st.

11th December
We were up at 07:00 and after breakfast took at taxi to the Trinity River Audubon Centre arriving at 08:45. We wandered through the woodland at the back of the centre recording Hermit Thrush, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Eastern Phoebe, Downy Woodpecker, Hermit Thrush, Blue Jay, Northern Cardinal and my first tick of the trip, Carolina Chickadee. The reserve centre opened at 09:00 and we entered the reserve walking a short loop through the scrub habitat mainly looking for Harris’s Sparrow. The birding was fairly good and we recorded a range of species including Pileated Woodpecker, Red-bellied Woodpecker, White-throated Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow, Eastern Bluebird, Northern Mockingbird, Song Sparrow, Lincoln’s Sparrow and Sharp-shinned Hawk. As we neared the small lookout I came across a flock of sparrows and eventually Sarah picked out two cracking adult Harris’s Sparrow. Eventually we considered that there were two adults and three first winters in the group. We headed back to the centre happy with the morning. Our taxi was due to collect us at 12:30 and I spent sometime birding around the car park while we waited realising that where we had seen the Harris’s Sparrow backed onto the car park. Beside the bus park I played a recording of Harris’s Sparrow and a cracking male and a female hoped up on top of a bush and sang in response, the song is a high mournful double whistle changing in tone between each series of whistles. I had great views of these birds and was very happy with such good views of my main target at this site. My eBird checklist can be viewed here.

We spent the rest of the day at the Dallas World Aquarium and the 12th and 13th were taken with a work conference in Dallas. On 13th we caught at 16:30 flight to Corpus Christi arriving at 18:15 and transferring to the Omni Corpus Christi Hotel.

Hermit Thrush - Trinity River Audobon Centre, Dallas

Northern Mockingbird - Trinity River Audobon Centre, Dallas

Blue Jay - Trinity River Audobon Centre, Dallas

Carolina Chickadee - Trinity River Audobon Centre, Dallas

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker - Trinity River Audobon Centre, Dallas

Red-bellied Woodpecker - Trinity River Audobon Centre, Dallas

Eastern Phoebe - Trinity River Audobon Centre, Dallas

Eastern Bluebird - Trinity River Audobon Centre, Dallas

Northern Cardinal - Trinity River Audobon Centre, Dallas

Sharp-shinned Hawk - Trinity River Audobon Centre, Dallas

Red-tailed Hawk - Trinity River Audobon Centre, Dallas

White-throated Sparrow - Trinity River Audobon Centre, Dallas

Lincoln's Sparrow - Trinity River Audobon Centre, Dallas

Harris's Sparrow (first winter) - Trinity River Audobon Centre, Dallas

Harris's Sparrow (adult) - Trinity River Audobon Centre, Dallas

Links to Other Days of the Trip (Click to View)

10th December (Day 1) – Fly London Heathrow to Dallas (15:45 - 20:10).

11th December (Day 2) – Trinity River Audobon Centre AM.

12th & 13th December (Day 3-4) - Work conference with no birding.

14th December (Day 5) - Birding Corpus Christi area.

15th December (Day 6) - Birding Corpus Christi area.

16th December (Day 7) - Fly Corpus Christi to Bozeman.

17th December (Day 8)- Travel east through Lamma Valley in Yellowstone National Park.

18th December (Day 9)- Travel west through Lamma Valley in Yellowstone National Park.

19th December (Day 10) - Non-birding day.

20th December (Day 11) - International Flight.

Thursday, 2 June 2016

Alaska - 2nd June (Day 6)

We were up at 06:30 for a complete change in the routine from the last few days spent on St Paul, the day was to be spent driving south to Seward from Anchorage a journey of 126 miles with a few stops en-route and some birding in Seward on arrival. First stop was a supermarket on the southern edge of Anchorage where we obtained supplies for the next few days, we then headed south along Seward Highway. This is a stunning road following the Turnagain Arm, through Chugach National Forest and then cutting through the mountains via mountain lakes, meadows and flanked all the way by snow capped mountains. A brief breakfast stop at Beluga Point failed to locate any Beluga but I guess we were a little early in the summer, these are usually seen from July onwards and are best on a rising tide - apparently. We saw little here apart from some Dall's Sheep which were pretty boring things - white goats on a hillside.

We pressed on conscious that we had a lot of ground to cover to get too Seward. A stop at Mile Marker 75 near to Portage produced two Trumpeter Swan amongst the horsetail marsh plus a smart Sooty Fox Sparrow. Then a more productive stop at Turnagain Pass produced Wilson’s Warbler, Yellow Warbler, Hermit Thrush, Sooty Fox Sparrow and Golden-crowned Sparrow in superb mountain scenery. We took the northwards turning to Hope and then followed the Palmer Creek Road south of Hope, following George West's 'A Birder's Guide to Alaska' hoping to bird in an alpine area along Resurrection Creek Valley but unfortunately the road was closed (it seemed permanently) and so we birded an area of scrub just above the treeline seeing Townsends Warbler, Yellow-rumped (Myrtle) Warbler, Varied Thrush, Ruby-crowned Kinglet and Slate-coloured Junco. Nice but not really worth the hour or so diversion.

Trumpeter Swan - Mile Marker 75 near to Portage

Savanna Sparrow - Turnagain Pass, between Anchorage and Seward

Yellow Warbler - Turnagain Pass, between Anchorage and Seward

Wilson's Warbler - Turnagain Pass, between Anchorage and Seward

Golden-crowned Sparrow - Turnagain Pass, between Anchorage and Seward

Sooty Fox Sparrow - Turnagain Pass, between Anchorage and Seward

Hermit Thrush - Turnagain Pass, between Anchorage and Seward

Turn again Pass between Anchorage and Seaward

Ruby-crowned Kinglet - Palmer Creek Road, Hope

Varied Thrush - Palmer Creek Road, Hope

Yellow-rumped Warbler - Palmer Creek Road, Hope

Birding on the Palmer Creek Road

Dropping into Seward we grabbed a coffee and sandwich and visited the harbour and marina where we spent some time with half a dozed very tame and ridiculously cute Sea Otter as they frolicked and groomed amongst the boats. The highly localised Northwest Crow fed along the shoreline with many Glaucous-winged Gull but despite the rarity of the crow's it was hard to get too excited about them. Finally, we headed out to Lowell Point and spent the evening birding the shoreline and mature spruce trees, the highlights here were Barrows Goldeneye, Marbled Murrelet, Surf Scoter, Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Belted Kingfisher, American Dipper, Harlequin Duck, Steller’s Jay and Red-breasted Nuthatch. We headed to our accommodation, the Harbour View Inn and ventured out into Seward for dinner eating at Chinnok seafood restaurant.