RBAS westward ho!

March14-16, RBASers, we’re hitting the road for our monthly field trip for an overnighter to Fort Clark Springs, Del Rio and the trans-Pecos/Edward Plateau. This is an exciting opportunity to visit several excellent birding areas, explore the Tamaulipan mazquital ecoregion, and learn about the paleogeography of the area - fossils AND volcanoes! But really we’re going to see birds.

Bryan Calk gave us a primer on the area with his excellent RBAS talk last fall about Fort Clark Springs. Our intrepid trip leader Bruce Neville has sketched out an itinerary that has us covering some high quality birding territory with loads of unique birds to be seen. Just look: here’s a list of birds from Ebird found in those two counties in this time of year that we rarely see in Brazos county… if at all!

Greater Scaup	Common Poorwill	Green Jay
Common Goldeneye	White-throated Swift	Western Scrub-Jay		Yellow-breasted Chat
Scaled Quail	Black-chinned Hummingbird	Chihuahuan Raven		Olive Sparrow
Northern Bobwhite	Ringed Kingfisher	Common Raven		Rufous-crowned Sparrow
Least Grebe	Green Kingfisher	Verdin
Horned Grebe	Golden-fronted Woodpecker	Bushtit		Canyon Towhee
White Ibis	Ladder-backed Woodpecker	Rock Wren		Cassin's Sparrow
White-faced Ibis	Prairie Falcon	Canyon Wren		Brewer's Sparrow
Golden Eagle	Black Phoebe	Cactus Wren		Black-throated Sparrow
Common Black-Hawk	Say's Phoebe	Black-tailed Gnatcatcher		Lark Bunting
Harris's Hawk	Vermilion Flycatcher	Mountain Bluebird		Summer Tanager
Zone-tailed Hawk	Ash-throated Flycatcher	Curve-billed Thrasher		Pyrrhuloxia
Ferruginous Hawk	Brown-crested Flycatcher	Long-billed Thrasher		Bronzed Cowbird
Snowy Plover	Great Kiskadee	Sage Thrasher		Hooded Oriole
Bonaparte's Gull	Couch's Kingbird	Phainopepla		Scott's Oriole
Herring Gull	Bell's Vireo	Tennessee Warbler		Lesser Goldfinch
Elf Owl	Black-capped Vireo	Tropical Parula		Evening Grosbeak
Common Pauraque	Gray Vireo	Golden-cheeked Warbler

Crazy right!? Loads of good birds- and the chance to see them with loads of good people!

Verdin - from Allen D Wilson

Mountain Bluebird - from Minette Layne

Cactus Wren - from Alan Vernon

So now the planning part. If you are wanting to go, please let Bruce know as soon as possible! We want everyone to be on the same page for timing and location, as well as make sure we bring everyone back. You'll also need to figure out where to stay: travel and lodging are up to you! There is limited camping/RVing at Fort Clark Springs, with the nearest other accommodations in Del Rio. Links to some of these resources are below.

Fort Clark Springs

Camping

RV

Motel

Del Rio Area

Hotels

Our tentative schedule will have us traveling on Friday from College Station to Del Rio for some birding and good border food. Saturday will be Fort Clark Springs, and Sunday will be traveling home.

Don't forget we have a great program on Wednesday 12March with Susan Heath from the GCBO coming to talk to us about her work with American Oystercatchers on the Texas Coast. 6:30PM at the Brazos Valley Museum of Natural History.

*****UPDATE*****
OK, so I may have been a little optimistic with mentioning Common Black Hawk, but you never know until you go look! Anyway, I've been given a more practical list for several of the counties in the area from Bryan.

Maverick:
Ringed KF
Couch’s
Chihuahuan Raven
Seedeater maybe
Ducks
Raptors
Val Verde:
Wrens
Seedeater maaaaaaybeeeee… (so you're saying there's a chance!?!)
Scaled Quail
White-throated Swift
Green-tailed Towhee
Lark Bunting
Sage Thrasher
Curve-billed Thrasher
Rufous-crowned Sparrow
Common Raven
Mountain Bluebirds maybe
Kinney:
Black-tailed Gnatcatchers
Lark Bunting
Elf Owl
Pauraque/Poorwill
Kingfishers
Cassin’s Sparrow
Sage Thrasher
Curve-billed Thrasher
Mountain Bluebirds maybe
Seedeater maybe
Uvalde:
Golden-cheeked Warbler
Hutton’s Vireo
Tropical Parula maybe
Scrub-jay
Rufous-crowned Sparrow
Everywhere: 
Verdin
Black-throated Sparrow
Pyrrhuloxia
Zone-tailed Hawk (unpredictable)
Olive Sparrow
Green Jay
Kiskadee
Three phoebes (Say’s hard in Uvalde)
Black-chinned Hummingbird
Long-billed Thrasher