October 10, San Angelo, Texas
Linda and I visited San Angelo State Park, and we saw lots of birds. I was glad to see a lot of familiar ones: scissor-tailed flycatchers, red-winged blackbirds, house finches, pyrrhuloxia, canyon towhees, a red-tailed hawk, and a killdeer. The pyrrhuloxia especially posed for us and flashed pink. Linda saw many more — most of which I didn’t get a good look at.
In a single tree sat a greater roadrunner, as well as a curve-billed thrasher, my first sighting. We saw a couple more of each later.
The Lincoln’s sparrow were all over the park, and relatively tolerant to our approach. I don’t recall ever identifying it before. Likewise the field sparrow were plentiful; I don’t know if I could have distinguished either of these birds without help. However, the Eurasian collared dove should be easy to recognize... maybe I'm not big on doves.
We saw a small group of orange-crowned warblers foraging in the bushes. I didn’t see any orange crown — Linda says it’s usually small and faint, and one sees it only with the bird in hand. Linda was especially pleased to see several flocks of northern bobwhites. They have had a lot of trouble in recent years, some disease that would blind them. What pleased her most was her first sighting (in San Angelo anyway) of a Sora. The bird waded into a little tank (a man-made pond) and made its bird-bath.
Nice Texas mammals also closely observed: a young armadillo nibbling by the road, oblivious to me, and a black-tailed jackrabbit, also nibbling by the road, oblivious to nothing.
