August 15/16 Report - South Llano River S.P.

Sorry for the delay on this one. Would have been much more helpful to get this out quicker, but life is what happens when you're making other plans. The species shift is quick this time of year so more timely would have been better, but...

Circumstances allowed me to get out to South Llano River State Park on August 15th & August 16.

The visit on Friday the 15th was late afternoon under challenging conditions. There was pretty solid cloud cover and not nearly the light I would have hoped for. With three possible blinds to choose from based on previous notes and with a limited amount of time, I went with Blind #1.

There wasn't a lot of traffic at blind #1. Probably the weather, likely also the lack of seed. 95% of what I saw was Northern Cardinal. I saw a Carolina Chickadee and another bird that I'm awaiting positive ID on. I think it was a female Western Tanager, but I'm going to let my friends who know more about this than I give me my grade on my bird identification test. (Update: The verdict is female Summer Tanager but possibly a young male who is starting to turn into it's telltale red)

The visit on Saturday was much more productive. I went to Blind #4, located in the powered camping area near Buck Lake. I had never been in that blind early in the morning--the last time I had been there it was towards mid-day and it wasn't overly productive. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great.

This visit, however, was very good. Sadly the adult male Painted Buntings had all ready moved on for parts south, but other species were in full bloom. The laundry list:

Bewicks Wren (Probably...maybe Carolina)
Black-Crested Titmice
Carolina Chickadee
House Finch
Inca Dove
Ladder-backed Woodpecker (immediately outside the blind)
Lark Sparrow (Adult & Juvenile)
Lesser Goldfinch
Northern Cardinal (Male, Female, & Juvenile)
Painted Bunting (Female, I think...)
Wild (Rio Grande) Turkey (Outside the blind)
White-winged Dove
Yellow-throated Warbler

The Yellow-throated Warbler is a life list entry for me and I managed to get a couple of good shots. I was able to add good images of Inca Doves, Carolina Chickadees, and Lark Sparrows to my photo library. I also got a shot of Lark Sparrow adults feeding their young. Very entertaining.

The visit also confirmed that this can be a very productive morning blind and I was very happy that I found my way down there.

Overall it was just an awesome morning in the blind.

Image: Inca Dove, South Llano River State Park, © 2008 Jim Miller