My next CBC was planned.  I went on the Cypress Creek CBC in the Katy Prairie.  I woke up at 4 and drove to Katy on my own, not knowing anybody there.  I was extremely fortunate to get teamed up with Howard Smith and Steve Gross two good friends who bird together alot. Howard Smith was in charge of the area that we went into. He is British and so has some major experiences travelling to bird. I spent the whole day with him. Steve Gross was the other main member of our group. He is really amazing. He recently did a Big Year and got like some record breaking number of species just in Texas that has recently been broken by some other birders. He also leads a breeding bird survey in the spring up near Huntsville. We had the best location possible for birding, and I felt like I had hit the jackpot in terms of all the stars lining up to set me up to have a fantastic day.  We were guests of Tom and Ann Kelsey’s Ranch, with Tom and Ann birding right there with us.  They were amazingly wonderful hosts and  were both knowledgeable and very intent on keeping their property environmentally up to snuff.

I can’t tell you how perfect it was to be with such accomplished birders and not feel like an idiot! They made me comfortable and I really learned alot during the day.

We started before the sun got up (the worst part of birding in my opinion) and walked to the ponds that they had on their property. As an historic sidenote, their ranch was turned into a wetlands nature preserve to replace the wetlands that were taken when they built the Katy mall. Anyways, we went to the ponds

The Sedge Wrens and Carolina Wrens were all over the place. The Marsh Wrens and the House Wrens showed up a little later in our walk. I missed the Winter wren that they saw. The only wren we didn’t see was the Bewick’s, which was seen by another group. We got to the next pond and saw Ringnecks and Pintail and Mottled Ducks. We had hundreds of Snow and Greater White Front Geese fly over. Every time we turned around we were scaring off a Wilson’s Snipe. We had White FacedIbis and White Ibis fly over. Long Billed Curlews too. We saw Swamp Sparrows American Pippits Red Winged Blackbirds, crossing our path in the grass in front of us. And Ruby Crowned Kinglets, Cardinals, Mockingbirds, and it seemed like a hundred Eastern Phoebes, one at a time. This was all within the first hour of getting there!!!

We Saw at least 5 Bald eagles (3 matures and 2 immatures) as well as Kestrels Northern Harriers, Red Shouldered Hawks ane Red Tailed Hawks. Towards the end of the day we saw a White Tailed Hawk and a Cara Cara that let us drive right up under him and get out and take pictures.

We saw Gadwalls and Green Winged Teal and Shovelers later in the day as well as some Cackling Geese.

We had been called to by a number of Soras all day and we went back to clean up our species that we didn’t get when we heard a Virginia Rail. It kept calling to us and it couldn’t have been 15 feet from us. We spent 45 minutes standing there and finally it walked through a very small open area so that we could see it! I wish that Sora would do the same thing so I can count it too!

I need to go to bed because I am doing another CBC tomorrow but here is a partial list of what I saw yesterday:

Location: Tom and Anna Kelsey’s Ponds
Observation date: 1/1/09
Notes: Done on CBC with Howard Smith and Stephen Gross As well as the landowners
who are naturalist
Number of species: 70

Greater White-fronted Goose X
Snow Goose X
Ross’s Goose X
Cackling Goose X
Gadwall X
Mallard X
Mottled Duck X
Northern Shoveler X
Northern Pintail X
Green-winged Teal X
Ring-necked Duck X
Great Blue Heron X
Great Egret X
White Ibis X
White-faced Ibis X
Black Vulture X
Turkey Vulture X
Bald Eagle X
Northern Harrier X
Red-shouldered Hawk X
White-tailed Hawk X
Red-tailed Hawk X
Crested Caracara X
American Kestrel X
Killdeer X
Lesser Yellowlegs X
Long-billed Curlew X
Wilson’s Snipe X
Mourning Dove X
Belted Kingfisher X
Red-bellied Woodpecker X
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker X
Downy Woodpecker X
Northern Flicker X
Pileated Woodpecker X
Eastern Phoebe X
Loggerhead Shrike X
Blue-headed Vireo X
Blue Jay X
American Crow X
Carolina Chickadee X
Tufted Titmouse X
Brown Creeper X
Carolina Wren X
House Wren X
Sedge Wren X
Marsh Wren X
Ruby-crowned Kinglet X
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher X
Hermit Thrush X
American Robin X
Gray Catbird X
Northern Mockingbird X
European Starling X
American Pipit X
Cedar Waxwing X
Orange-crowned Warbler X
Yellow-rumped Warbler X
Pine Warbler X
Common Yellowthroat X
Eastern Towhee X
Chipping Sparrow X
Field Sparrow X
Vesper Sparrow X
Lincoln’s Sparrow X
White-throated Sparrow X
White-crowned Sparrow X
Red-winged Blackbird X
Brewers Blackbird X

Eastern Meadowlark X
Virgina Rail X