DUNCANVILLE, TEXAS — A cool front came through earlier this week, and the weather is much more tolerable — now it’s only in the 80s! This morning, with a temperature near 60, I decided to see whether any winter residents had arrived yet.

They have!

• Double-crested Cormorant - 35 in a V headed south
• American Coot - several hundred (numbers have rather suddenly exploded)
• Northern Flicker - 4 (No, flickers don’t generally breed here, but they are common in winter.)
• Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 3 (To see my first kinglet brought a smile.)
• American Pipit - 3 (Only two previous reports in the state this season, but today they were seen in several places.)
• Savannah Sparrow - 7

I still can’t find a Sabine’s Gull at Joe Pool Lake (or much of anything, other than coots), but I did see a flock of about 20 Monk Parakeets fly by. They are well established in the surrounding areas, but I hadn’t seen them from the dam before. With a yellow sea of broomweed behind them, their greens and blues were spectacular.

DUNCANVILLE, TEXAS — Before my unsuccessful twitch yesterday, I birded Cedar Ridge Preserve and Village Creek Drying Beds. White-eyed Vireos were plentiful and vocal at Cedar Ridge. Residents included cardinals, Blue Jays, chickadees, and Carolina and Bewick’s wrens. Other migrants were one Great Crested Flycatcher and one Nashville Warbler — a brightly plumaged male even showing hints of an orange crown.

I found the drying beds — a favorite spot when I lived in Arlington two years ago — unlocked and full of birders. Fort Worth Audubon was on a field trip. Water was very high in all the units, so there was practically no shorebird habitat. Egrets littered the fringes of the pools, and a Red-shouldered Hawk flew over, showing off gorgeous plumage.

Black-bellied Whistling Ducks were conspicuous. A pair (or more?) of adults kept flying around and squealing, and a group of about 10 juveniles huddled close together, which made me suspect that a pair had bred here or nearby. I also saw a pair of Mallards, several dozen Blue-winged Teal (some of the earliest migrants), and a single Northern Shoveler. Pied-billed Grebes were also plentiful, and I’d imagine that they breed here too.

As I walked in the general direction of a photographer from the FWAS group, I heard a warbler song. “Yellow?” I wondered. A moment later, the man hailed me and said he was trying to photograph a pair of “Common Yellow Warblers.”

“I heard one singing,” I said.

“That was my phone,” he said.

Oh, how embarrassing. He was trying to lure the birds out into the open for a picture. He kept talking, and I soon realized that the birds he was actually after were Common Yellowthroats, not Yellow Warblers. Perhaps one reason that they hadn’t responded to the cell phone.

After he left, I did get a look at a young male yellowthroat, but I couldn’t find the Sora that the group had seen just before I arrived. And later, I did find a real Yellow Warbler too.

A Swainson’s Hawk joined a kettle of Black Vultures overhead.

Before I left Arlington, I checked out the unit of River Legacy Park on north Cooper, and I found water in the wetland that was dry two years ago. There were Red-shouldered Hawks and Turkey Vultures in the area, but no water birds that I could see. Nearby, however, I found a flooded patch of woodland with several migrants: Wilson’s Warbler, Nashville Warbler, Yellow Warbler, and White-eyed Vireo.

At Tawakoni, I didn’t do much other than look for the Sabine’s Gull and jaeger that had been seen earlier in the day. As I have already related, I was not successful. I did, however, see several Ospreys, one of which plunged into the lake and came up with a fish. There was a distant flock of several dozen American White Pelicans — what a combination of ungainliness and grace!

Of course, I had to make a pilgrimage to the giant spider web that’s been making news and attracting thousands of visitors to the park. The glory days of the phenomenon are over, but it’s still a weird and eerie sight, calling to mind images from the Wizard of Oz or countless other stories. For photos and information about the “happening,” to borrow a term from the arts, see the link above.

DUNCANVILLE, TEXAS — So, things have been pretty quiet on the blog front lately. Sorry about that. Birders always notice birds — we can’t stop that — but sometimes life prevents us from actively seeking them out. I’ve heard crows through the windows and seen Mourning Doves on the wires, but it’s been awhile since I really went birding. My plans for a birdy Labor Day weekend evaporated for a variety of reasons. The Fan-tailed Warbler is still being seen regularly, along with a host of other awesome species, but my hopes for getting out to Big Bend have pretty well died.

By this afternoon, I’d had it. It was time to bird. So after work, I went. It was a gray evening; there were raindrops in the air.

Rarely have I encountered such a birdless wilderness. Everyone else in the state is reporting great numbers and diversity of warblers, shorebirds, first state records, etc. I, on the other hand, heard a couple of chickadees, a few Carolina Wrens, and a Killdeer. Instead of Buff-breasted Sandpipers, there were crows. Instead of warblers, large grasshoppers.

It’s not that I’m feeling sorry for myself … OK, yeah, I guess that’s it after all. Hmm.

DUNCANVILLE, TEXAS — Waders continue at the Joe Pool Dam. This morning, I found two Yellow-crowned Night Herons (one adult and one immature) in the northeast cove — the first time I’d had this species at the lake. I observed the immature bird holding its bill ajar and fluttering its throat skin rapidly in an exercise that resembled panting. The adult bird faced the sun, wings drooped and slightly spread.

Green Herons are the most numerous species. One bird had speared a mid-sized fish, and I watched it manipulate the fish around and swallow it headfirst. A couple of Great Egrets and one Snowy completed the list of feeding herons.

The two Willets that I observed two days ago were still present, to my surprise. I had assumed they would keep moving south. Today, they were feeding closer to shore on the hydrilla mat, so I had slightly better views.

As I mentioned earlier in the week, cardinals, Carolina Wrens, Bewick’s Wrens, and Indigo Buntings are singing a little bit. Again, I did not hear Painted Buntings singing. I did, however, hear a racket in the bushes, and I looked up to see two fledgling Painted Buntings following their mother, begging insistently. She seemed to be ignoring them mostly. They looked about old enough to start fending for themselves.

DUNCANVILLE, TEXAS — Brian and I took a farewell tour (for him, not for me) of our haunts around Joe Pool Lake this morning. Between the huge marijuana bust and news helicopter accident, there has been some recent excitement in this out-of-the-way corner of Dallas. All was quiet this morning, however — even the birds.

Water levels have not dropped far enough (as I hoped they would) to create good shorebird habitat. However, an extensive mat of vegetation in the northeast cove seems to be providing habitat for several species. We saw three or four Green Herons, two Great Egrets, one Little Blue Heron, a coot, and two large, distant sandpipers which I assumed were Willets. The matted vegetation was so thick that the birds were able to walk on top of it, even though it undulated lightly with the waves.

Painted Buntings were around, but I did not hear even a brief snatch of song. I wouldn’t be surprised if males have stopped singing now. I did hear a few phrases from Indigo Buntings, however, so I’m not jumping to any conclusions just yet. Bewick’s and Carolina wrens are singing, as cardinals are of course. But overall, things are very quiet. It’s the arthropods, not the birds, that will catch your attention this month.