Guest sightings: Lake Balmorhea

Mary Beth Stowe has allowed us to post her summary from Lake Balmorhea - it's snagged from Texbirds, backdated, and slightly reformatted for the blog but we're grateful for what we can get! I keep saying "we" - the blog is its own entity, I suppose? At any rate, be sure to check out Mary Beth's site: www.miriameaglemon.com, it's a fantastic combination of birding and art and humor and maaaaybe one of these days I'll even get to meet the brains in person!


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Lake Balmorhea
Date: Mon, 3 Aug 2015

Hi, all!


Was on my way to southeast Arizona today, but made a quick stop at Lake Balmorhea first thing. Stopped under the overpass long enough to confirm Cave Swallow and record the Rock Pigeons making a bunch of noise. Got to the lake, stuck my five bucks in the door, and delighted to the calls of both Western and Clark's Grebes and their chicks! And I relished in something else I hadn't experienced since leaving San Diego: the smell of the wet desert! Crawling around to the back side of the lake, a goofy-looking Pyrrhuloxia popped up on a bush, and along the back side of the lake was a nice assortment of water birds: what I'm presuming to be Blue-winged Teal (they were all in eclipse plumage and were quite distant - and of course flew the minute I got the scope out L), a dowitcher, a Greater Yellowlegs, a Great Blue Heron, and even a Black Tern batting by in the distance! Coming around the corner a pair of Scaled Quail were down by the water, and on the west side of the road was another little wetland with several Black-necked Stilts and a couple of Ruddy Ducks. Down at the end of the road a Yellowthroat was singing, and a brilliant Blue Grosbeak sat right up on a mesquite! While enjoying this a night heron, White-faced Ibis, and Green Heron all sounded off somewhere. On the way out a Black-throated Sparrow sang in the distance, and Western Kingbirds were patrolling. I think I mentioned the last time I came out here how much this place reminds me of the fresh-water wetlands near the Salton Sea!

Mary Beth Stowe

McAllen, TX

www.miriameaglemon.com