November 20th Report - Pedernales Falls State Park Blind #2

Wow... what a great trip to Pedernales Fall SP.  This trip was everything the previous week's trip to South Llano River SP was not.

Weather was not great for this trip.  Cloudy with some significant gusty wind here and there.  Temperatures were a little cooler, but still very pleasant in short sleeves.

But I had this trip what I didn't have in the trip to South Llano River SP--very light traffic into and out of the blind.  When I walked in to the blind it was empty, though I had walked into the gate with a 2nd person.  He eventually joined me over there and stuck around for a while.  After a spell he left for destinations south, but a couple from the Houston area came in and stayed for an extended visit.  Other than that the blind was quiet.  And that made all of the difference because the blind landing area had a chance to stabilize.  Circles of fear were relaxed a little bit and plenty of birds came into the blind area.

Species spread was reasonably broad.  I counted 19 species in the 2 1/2 hours that I spent in the blind.  Surprisingly enough there were no doves among that group, nor were there any White-crowned Sparrows.   High quantity birds were Northern Cardinals, Rufous-crowned Sparrows, and White-throated Sparrows. 

The "Bird of the Day" though as far as images went was the Eastern Phoebe.  It didn't stay in the blind area long, but the time that it did spend was productive and it perched for reasonably long period of time on two different spots.  This produced what is easily the best image I've made of this particular bird.

Close seconds on bird of the day were a Carolina Wren and female Ladder-backed Woodpecker.  The Ladder-backed though gets the frame count record for the day that landed somewhere in the mid-80's between three different perch locations.

All in all this was an outstanding morning of bird watching and bird photography.  I met some neat, considerate, and very knowledgeable folks.  I made a big number of images.  I added three to my documented life list of birds:  The Orange-crowned Warbler (Oreothlypis celata), the White-throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis) , and the Rufous-crowned Sparrow (Aimophila ruficeps).

I really enjoyed the peace and quiet that comes from shooting out of a blind.  I can't wait to get back to Pedernales Falls SP.

Images:
Eastern Phoebe (Sayornis phoebe), Pedernales Falls SP, © Jim Miller, jmillerphoto.com
Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus), Pedernales Falls SP, © Jim Miller, jmillerphoto.com