Friday, January 11, 2008

Western NCTX





Took a day trip out to western North Central Texas with the old man today. Feeling lazy so I just copied and pasted an account of the day from an email I sent out,
Headed out west with my dad on Wednesday to show him
the areas out west. He had never see Hwy 222 etc.
Overall a beautiful day, but not very birdy. We made
straight for Throckmorton via hwy 380, then looped
north towards Vernon and then back home via hwy
70/287.

Stopped for a short exploration of Fort Richardson
State Park in Jacksboro. Real nice tallgrass prairie
mixed with nice live oak thickets. Lots of sparrows
and deer here, though we didn't stay long enough turn
up anything out of the ordinary.

Lake Throckmorton - no birds

Throckmorton cemetary - lots of owl pellets and
whitewash, but no owls.

Lark Buntings - several flocks throughout the day,
totaling several hundred birds

Sandhill Crane - 75 set down in a low field and out of
sight on the west side of 222 Throckmorton Co.

Prairie Falcon - 2

Red Crossbill - 20+ at the Vernon cemetary. Didn't
take long to find, as they were noisy as usual and
roaming all over the cemetary.

Red-breasted Nuthatch - 1 at Vernon cemetary

Ferruginous Hawk - 1 light adult over Vernon cemetary,
our only FEHA all day.

Harlan's Hawk - 1 dark juv. along 287 east of Electra

Barn Owl - 1 flushed from thick cedars at the Electra
cemetary, just north of the highway. Like
Throckmorton Cemetary, there were lots of pellets and
whitewash.

Attached some pics my dad took with his
Canon S3 (12x
optical zoom, image stabilizer)

Good birding to all in 2008!

Photos by Jack Hill: