As a general rule I am a major proponent of Christmas Bird Counts, and historically the Cypress Creek CBC has been my favorite of all CBCs. The first one I did was when I met Howard and Steve, two of my favorite birding partners. I have mentioned Steve numerous times, he is the president of the Texas Ornithological Society, and is one of the best birders that I know. Howard is another great birder, who I don’t bird enough with. He did a big year for Harris County in 2007, with 296 species, and probably has a higher world bird count than than any other non-professional birder that I bird with (not including my friends at Tropical Birding). The last member of our foursome of birders that I like to hang with is Geoff, another really good birder. He lives on the other side of town, closer to Howard, so he birds with Howard more than Steve and I. The last birder who birded with our group on this CBC was Jason, a friend of Steves. He was with us last year too. I really like this group of birders, and it makes for a great day of birding when we get together.
The day started with Steve, Jason and I owling with little success. We did get an Eastern Screech Owl to respond to tape, but little else. I always enjoy owling with Steve, and expect to hear something every time that I go with him (probably the reason I make the effort to wake up so EARLY to get there, when I really like sleep). My favorite experience owling was during the 2010 Buffalo Bayou CBC when Steve called in a number of Eastern Screech Owls, and this one flew to within 15 feet of us.
We finished looking for owls and went to meet at Paul Rushing Park to get ready for the day of birding the daytime portion of the CBC. We met up with the rest of the group and headed over to our regular locations at Live Oak Ranch and Tucker Easement. There was more water in the ponds than last year, so there was very little room for waders and shorebirds, and therefore we missed most of those birds that had been seen in previous years. There were, however significant numbers of ducks. We saw a lot of Gadwalls, Pintails, American Widgeons,Green-winged Teals, as well as some Mallards and Wood Ducks.
The passerine numbers were low, except for sparrows. One of the top birds of the day was the only Green-tailed Towhee of the count.
One of my favorite sparrows is the Harris Sparrow. There were more of these birds than I remember ever seeing.
Another unusual note of the day was that we saw flocks of Vesper Sparrows that we initially thought were Savannah Sparrows. The Savannah Sparrows were down in numbers comparably.
Other sparrows seen included White-crowned and White-throated. Note the atypical habitat for the White-crowned Sparrow.
Dark-eyed Juncos were another uncommon bird seen. We saw them the same place that we saw them last year.
Towards the end of our day, we had some Sandhill Cranes and a White-tailed Hawk fly over in the distance.
After we had finished birding our territory, I decided to go look at what kind of birds were on the lakes at Paul Rushing Park. There were more ducks, including Ruddy Ducks, and off to the side there was a Greater Yellowlegs.
In the fields between the lakes and the parking lot were a number of Horned Larks and American Pipits. I rarely see Horned Larks so I spent some time watching these birds.
So this is how the year begins, as did last year. Unfortunately, the next CBC that I did last year ,the Buffalo Bayou CBC, was done on a day that I could not get away from work. Hopefully, that is not a sign of things to come.