July 2nd Report - San Angelo S.P.

I thoroughly enjoy being able to get out to the San Angelo State Park on a non-weekend day. Obvious those of us who have normal jobs don't get the opportunity very often, but when compensation time hits a certain point there is a push to get out of the office and burn those hours before they are forgotten or turn into something the boss doesn't like.

So with that in mind, I took the morning of July 2nd off and went out to the bird blind. As mornings go in the blind, this one was reasonably prosperous. Light was not outstanding, but it was workable. But the species variety and more importantly some of the variations in terms of age of the species we see all the time was approaching outstanding.

Here's the laundry list:

Species List
Ash-Throated Flycatcher
Black-Chinned Hummingbird (Male & Female)
Black Crested Tufted Titmouse (Adult & Juvenile)
Bronzed Cowbird
Brown-Headed Cowbird
Bullock's Oriole (Female)
Curve-Billed Thrasher
Golden-Fronted Woodpecker (Juvenile Male)
House Finch
House Sparrow
Ladder-Backed Woodpecker (Male)
Mourning Dove
Northern Bobwhite Quail (2 Males)
Northern Cardinal (Male & Female)
Northern Mockingbird
Painted Bunting (Female)
Red-Winged Blackbird
Turkey Vulture
White-Winged Dove

Some things of note... Two male Northern Bobwhites was horribly unusual. The norm is a mating pair. The 2 males were understandably staking out who's area was who's.

Good to see the Painted Bunting again. I marked female, but after some additional instruction lately it is very possible that it is a juvenile male vice a female. Tough to tell at the distance I've been shooting at.

Unusual sightings:
-- Ash-Throated Flycatcher. First flycatcher that has spent any time in the blind area
-- Juvenile Black Crested Tufted Titmouse. Took re-examination of the pictures to spot it.
-- Juvenile Golden-Fronted Woodpecker. A surprise, but given the other Golden-Fronted Activity I've seen it is not out of the unusual.

Hummingbird activity is way up with multiple hummingbirds present most of the time in the blind area. Of course, food availability is limited, so they're fighting over what is present.

Not as much mammal life lately. Hoped the cottontails would make it into the blind by now, but no such luck.

Image: House Finch (Male) San Angelo S.P., (c) 2008 Jim Miller