Things Natural, Wild and Free; A Sunday Special Edition

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Things Natural, Wild and Free

"Like winds and sunsets, wild things were taken for granted until progress began to do away with them. Now we face the question whether a still higher 'standard of living' is worth its cost in things natural, wild and free. For us of the minority, the opportunity to see geese is more important than television."  -  Aldo Leopold

The first challenge of birding is to spot a bird:

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Then the fun begins:

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This set of photographs was taken at the Mitchell Lake Audubon Center yesterday morning during an Alamo Area Master Naturalist training field trip. A special note of thanks goes to Tom and Patsy Inglet for their expert and enthusiastic guidance.

There are still quite a few birds I am learning to identify. Some I am more certain of than others. Going down the series from top to bottom:

• The first two photos appear to be of a Northern Harrier.
• Photos three through nine are of a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk with a swallow chasing it in the eighth photo.
• Photo ten I have yet to identify with any certainty.*
• Photo eleven is an Eastern Phoebe.
• Photo twelve appears to be either a Northern Harrier or an American Kestrel.
• Photos thirteen and fourteen are of a Crested Caracara.
• Fifteen and sixteen are of a very spectacular Vermillion Flycatcher.
• Seventeen is a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher.
• Eighteen is a Wilson's Snipe.
• Nineteen through twenty-two are American White Pelicans.
• Twenty-three is a flock of Double-crested Cormorants.
• Twenty-four appears to me to be a Lesser Yellowlegs.
• Twenty-five is a  Black-necked Stilt.
• Twenty-six includes Mallards, a Black-necked Stilt and American Avocets.

If anyone can provide an identification I have missed or a correction, please feel free to send me an email at dhewers@gmail.com.

* Update, January 10, 2013: Photo ten is a Least Sandpiper. When I first posted this I hadn't had time to verify the identity of the bird. Least sandpipers were present in great abundance, literally in the hundreds, the day these photos were taken.