On my way home from Port Aransas, Texas, I took time to bird in San Angelo State Park in San Angelo, Texas, and at Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge at Roswell, New Mexico.
My drive to San Angelo was mostly rainy. So I didn’t have any opportunities to bird that day. I did stop in a little town to get a pic of an old building that looked interesting.
I arrived in San Angelo with steady rain. When I awoke the next morning, it was pretty foggy. So birding conditions were not good at all. But I still managed to get a quite a few sightings. I didn’t stay long as I wanted to have some time to bird at Bitter Lake.
Bullock’s Oriole
Curve-Billed Thrasher
Bell’s Vireo
Scissor-Tailed Flycatcher
Pyrrhuloxia
Lark Sparrow
Cactus Wren
Black Vultures
Canyon Towhee
Brown-Headed Cowbird
Black-Crested Titmouse
Bobwhite Quail
Golden-Fronted Woodpecker
The best find of the morning was seeing a female Vermillion Flycatcher building her nest. She would get some moss or grass and place it in the nest and then check it for comfort. Then go get another piece to add. I never did see the male.
Vermillion Flycatcher – female
There wasn’t too much activity at Bitter Lake as I arrived there around midday. After driving around for a little while and hiking a couple of short paths, I managed to find a few birds.
Scissor-Tailed Flycatcher
Yellow-Rumped Warbler – Myrtle Variety
Lark Sparrow
Green Heron
Cinnamon Teal
Scaled Quail
The highlight of the day though was seeing a variety of nightjars! These birds are so difficult to find in the wild. But on this visit, they were all perched out in the open and very close to the road. Awesome! I was able to get some good photographs! Even with that advantage, it was still very difficult to identify the birds. I mostly used size as a reference for the Common Poorwill as it is the smallest of the nightjars. The Common Nighthawk flew and sang right after I took the up-close photo which made it easy to identify.
I think you’ll agree these are really cool birds!
Common Poorwill
Lesser Nighthawk
Common Nighthawk
That concludes my 10-day trip to the gulf coast and all the wonderful bird sightings I was able to see during my travels. I got 27 new lifers and my total number of lifer bird sightings is now at 396!!!
Pronghorn Antelope
What fun! And crazy good, excellent photos!
Thanks so much Joe!! 🙂
Fascinating birding post, Kelly! So many beautiful birds! I am always interested to see birds that I have not seen here, like the quails, the nighthawks, the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher and Pyrrhuloxia. Thank you!
Thank you so much Tiny! We definitely have much different birds than your area.
Another amazing showcase of birds from your country, I am impressed by the great photography you have mastered.
Well thank you Aussiebirder! I try very hard to take good photos. It’s nice to hear my efforts are being noticed. 🙂
Stunning pictures! You can be very lucky that you saw a lot of different and beautiful birds!
Thank you Fotohabitate! I do feel lucky to see so many birds!
Your photos keep getting better and better! The second photo of the lark sparrow is amazing! It looks like you had a wonderful trip with lots of fantastic memories!
Thanks Stephanie! I’m definitely loving my new camera. I use it almost everyday so getting lots of experience in the settings. I had a wonderful trip. Sad it’s over lol!
Great photos again! Curious how you were able to identify the difference between the common poorwill and the two nighthawks…they look so similar.
It was a challenge! Mostly size helped me determine the poorwill 😊
And thank you!