Almost there.

Lapland Longspur
Year Bird 499

Bob Friedrichs and I continued our panhandle trip last week. On Wednesday morning we found our first group of longspurs. As it turned out my target wasn't too hard, I was soon able to tick Lapland Longspur as Year Bird 499. I took lots of in flight photos and got some ok flight photos for documentation.

Northern Shrike
Lake Palo Duro.

Bob needed some birds for the year in Texas so we headed up to Lake Palo Duro for Northern Shrike and American Tree Sparrow. I'd never been to Lake Palo Duro and big water is always interesting in the Panhandle. When we got there almost the first bird we found was Northern Shrike. We spent a few minutes letting it make its rounds while we waited for a photo opportunity.

We continued and checked a line of brushy trees and sound a found a flock of American Tree Sparrows. These birds were not this easy back in January when I was chasing them!

Our plan was to work our way up to Texline and bird Thompson Grove in the morning. one the way Bob wanted to check a site where a few weeks ago Rusty Blackbirds has been found. We pulled up and the site was pretty dead. A few juncos and a pair of Great Horned Owls present. I lectured on how Rusty Blackbirds wouldn't stay in a site like this. Then I heard a squeaky call and three Rusty Blackbirds popped up in view. Amazing. a few miles way at a similar site we found another dozen Rusties.

American Tree Sparrow
Thompson Grove

The next day we made the Thompson Grove east of Texline in Dallam county at sunrise. The car thermometer read 8 degrees. Once the sun warmed things up sparrows got active. American Tree Sparrow was easily the most common. We figured more than 20 birds present. Oh and another Northern Shrike.

Heading back into Dalhart we saw and estimated 50 Common Ravens. We saw several groups up to eight. I'm kicking myself now. I wonder of these ravens are part of the montane invasion. Could there have been a Black-billed Magpie out there waiting to be found? We looked as we drove but made no active search. I feel like that was a mistake.

Making tracks we made Lake Arrowhead near Wichita Falls with enough light to look for a Red-necked Grebe. Not much grebe action on the lake, but Bonaparte's Gulls were present in numbers. From a park on the east side of the lake I saw a small gull that seemed to have dark underwings and no white triangle. Bob could not locate the bird though when he looked. It was getting dark and the bird was distant. We raced to the dam hoping the bird was heading that way but we found only more Bonoparte's. Did I find a Little Gull? it would be bird 500 for the year. I replayed what I saw over and over in my head. I looked a videos of Little Gull in flight with Bonoparte's. I would need to think on this one.