South Texas Days 4 and 5: Dogs and Owls Around Austin

Barred Owl Near Austin, Texas

Day 4
Dogs and Owls Around Austin

Eric and I left our hotel early and drove through a fog to meet with a local leader of the Doberman Pinscher Club of America so we could begin setting up the course for the Working Aptitude Evaluation (WAE) Eric would conduct for more than 20 dogs. I had never been to a WAE so I was looking forward to learning about the process and meeting the people and their beloved dobermans.

Eric greeted and oriented the participants just before the evaluations began. Each dog had to remain out of sight and away from the course until it was its time to pass through the course. Each male dog went through the course first so they would not be distracted by the scent of a female that had been through the course ahead of them.

I captured a few images of the dogs and their owners as they individually passed through the course. One of the owners,Destani, gave me permission to share a couple of images I captured as her dog Ego made his way through the course. Ego responded properly at this stage of the course when the lady in the camp chair unexpectedly popped open the umbrella as Destani and Ego approached.

Eric would provide feedback and instructions to the owners based on how their dogs responded to the various challenges of the course.

After observing a few dogs passing through the various stages of the WAE course I walked over to the expo center across the parking lot to experience my first visit to an All-breed Conformation Show. I could not believe all the breeds that had been gathered in one place. The owners took great care to groom and prepare their dogs for the conformations.  It was very apparent that they adored their dogs. I asked a few of the dog owners if it would be okay to photograph their dog with my phone and each one of them had a smile on their face as they approved. Here is a very small sampling of the numerous breeds that were participating in the Conformation Show. I welcome correction if I have incorrectly identified the breed. I am far from an expert when it comes to identifying dog breeds.

Poodle

Dachshund

Spaniel

Afghan Hound

 

Boerboel

Belgian Tervuren

Spaniel

Golden Retriever

Poodle

Hairless Terrior

We ate a late lunch after completing Eric's responsibilities with the doberman evaluations and then developed a plan to bird Hornsby Bend with hopes of locating a Barred Owl, one of my prime targets for the Austin area. I had seen Barred Owls before in my home state of Kentucky, but I had never photographed one.

Hornsby Bend

We let the GPS guide us to Hornsby Bend and became a little confused when it directed us to enter a gate that was monitored by a guard station. I wondered if we'd somehow gotten the wrong location, but the guard, who was quite familiar with birders, noticed the confused looks on our faces and quickly assured us we were in the right place. She then told us how to enter Hornsby Bend for birding.

A pond presented our first observation of birds. Savannah Sparrows flushed from the tall grasses along the road sides as we drove along the road bordering the pond.  An Egyptian Goose (lifer) was a nice bird to see on the water since I was not expecting to see one.

Egyptian Goose Hornsby Bend Austin, Texas

Other than the goose the other birds on the water were typical of what we see in Utah in terms of ducks and grebes. A handful of Least Sandpipers were foraging along the shoreline. We parked the van and did a walk through the woods below the pond and close to the river. We saw flickers, herons, Carolina Wrens, chickadees, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Orange and Yellow-rumped Warblers, Blue Jays, Cardinals, Mourning Doves, Cedar Waxwings, a lone Eastern Bluebird, and Chipping Sparrows, but no Barred Owl. We drove to another likely place for Barred Owls just before sunset, but we failed to locate one there as well. That park was closing and park rangers were driving through to make sure people were leaving so we headed out.

After going back to the hotel for a few things we set out for another target owl species, The Eastern Screech-owl. Unlike the Barred Owl, which is active diurnally and nocturnally, the Eastern Screech-owl is strictly nocturnal. We reviewed recent sightings for Eastern Screech and decided to head over to Red Bud Trail. We arrived before it was completely dark so we chilled in the van for a little bit. We picked up Field Sparrow for another species to add to our list for the trip as I noticed them in the brush on the other side of the road from where we were parked.

Red Bud Trail

We heard our first owl call from deep in the woods about twenty minutes after the sun had sunk below the horizon. I played a call and the bird passed over my head and landed in a tree right next to me. I called Eric over so he could see it was well.

Eastern Screech-owl Near Austin, Texas

Other than missing the Barred Owl, our day had gone pretty much according to plans. Next on the agenda was a nice BBQ dinner. Unfortunately, the dinner plan developed a few wrinkles. Our top choices were closed so we had to go to plans B and C, so to speak. Finally, we settled on one that had good reviews online. We plugged it into the GPS and soon found ourselves sitting in the parking lot of a gas station wondering if we'd ended up at the wrong location. Just as I had that thought I noticed there was a small trailer and some canopies on the lawn across the parking lot from the gas station. Sure enough that was our destination, Smoky Z's. And it appeared that they had also closed for the night.

We were about to go somewhere else when I noticed a man who walked out from behind the trailer.  We decided to check and see if they might have a deal on some leftovers from the day. It turned out that the owner/chefs were willing to feed us. We enjoyed a little visit as they prepared a couple of nice meals to go. We heard about their history and how they put a lot of TLC into their cooking.  We were the recipients of southern hospitality. I demonstrated my poor selfie skills when I captured this image of Eric and me standing outside the mobile kitchen with the owner/chefs putting a little TLC into our dinner.

Before long we were in our room enjoying dinner and looking forward to our final day in Texas.

Day 5
The Final Morning in Texas

West Bouldin Creek Greenbelt

We started our last morning in Austin at West Bouldin Creek Greenbelt, a birding hot spot with recent reports of Barred Owls. The weather was consistent with every other day of our trip, gray skies with a dose of cold air and intermittent rain.



The greenbelt was quiet, but we managed to tally 17 or so species as we casually walked through the woods listening and looking for Barred Owls. Prior to our trip I had hopes of herping (looking for reptiles and amphibians) while in Texas. However, if you've followed the recent blog post you know the conditions were not conducive to cold blooded reptiles--few reptiles are active when the temperatures are in the forties. However, I got the idea to look for salamanders as we passed through the woods of the greenbelt. I carefully flipped a few rotted logs to avoid damaging habitat while checking for salamanders. Those efforts proved more productive than looking for Barred Owls because I managed to find several Western Slimy Salamanders pretty quickly.

Western Slimy Salamander Austin, Texas

Western Slimy Salamander Austin, Texas

Western Slimy Salamander Austin, Texas

The only new bird species we turned up for our trip list during our visit to the Greenbelt were White-throated Sparrow, Red-bellied Woodpecker, and Hermit Thrush.

We had a little more time before we had to head out to the airport so we did a little research in the Birdseye app and agreed to make Mayfield Park our last stop of the trip.

Mayfield Park

Birding Mayfield Park proved to be a good decision. Our walk through the woods and down to the water turned up some handsome Wood Ducks, a Belted Kingfisher, and a Great Blue Heron perched in a tree top. Mallards, Cedar Waxwings, and Downy Woodpeckers were also discovered along the way. A pair of Red-shouldered Hawks gave a few screams as they soared above us, but I kept my eyes peeled and my head on a swivel as I tried to observe every possible Barred Owl roost I could. Then came that moment when Eric and I both stopped in our tracks and listened intently to see if we'd heard what we thought we heard. And we did, because heard it again--the distant "who, who, who cooks for you" call of a Barred Owl. It was coming from behind so we reversed our direction and quickly and quietly made our way toward the owl. We soon discovered that there were actually two owls calling. Those big black eyes were shining despite the lack of direct sunlight.

Barred Owl Austin, Texas

The image below as captured as the owl was calling. It was apparent that they put their whole body into their calls as the bird leaned forward and extended its neck to deliver its notes.

Barred Owl Calling in Austin, Texas

Barred Owl Austin, Texas

Barred Owl Austin, Texas

Barred Owl Austin, Texas

The Black Eye

Apparently, I wanted to make the photo shoot with the Barred Owl a memorable one. Let me start by saying that out of nineteen owl species in the US and Canada only four have black eyes. Most species have yellow irises.  Right as we were about to stop photographing the owl and just before heading to the airport I got the idea that I could get a better angle on the owl by climbing onto and walking along the top of a rock wall. I finished with the owl and then thought about jumping down from the wall. It seemed a bit too high so I walked farther down the wall to where the ground was a few feet closer. I jumped, landed unevenly, and shockingly found myself falling backward onto my tail bone and then onto my back. My head bounced against the soft, rain-soaked ground, and then my harnessed binoculars collided with my face, making a direct hit to my left brow.  Throughout this chain reaction of bouncing and banging things that shouldn't have been banged nor bounced I instinctively held about $4k worth of camera and lens in my right hand as if it were the torch of the statue of liberty. I naturally sacrificed the body while protecting the gear. While flat on my back on the side of a road I made a declaration followed by a rhetorical question. "That was so stupid! What were you thinking?" And then I quickly looked around to see if anyone saw my very clumsy move. I was relieved to learn that it would remain unknown to others until I shared it with the world through a blog post. When I got into the van I looked in the mirror and realized that I was bleeding from my brow. I washed away the blood by squirting water onto some napkins I had left over from a restaurant and then borrowed and applied Eric's bottle of cold iced tea to the wound to try to prevent swelling. Here is a collage documents the fact that I got a black eye while trying to photograph a black-eyed owl. I'm sure that not a claim very many birders would ever want to make.

It took until we were inside the airport, but we finally made it to one of our planned BBQ restaurants in Austin, The Salt Lick. A great meal capped off a great Texas adventure.

We finished our trip to the Rio Grande Valley and Austin with a total of 143 birds species recorded. Twenty-one of those were life birds for me personally. Eric had birded Texas before so his list of life birds from the trip ended up being sixteen.  We were quite pleased with those numbers considering the weather and that we were there during the off season. I highly recommend birding the Rio Grande Valley if you have never been there. I know I want to go again, and soon.

Owling With a Marsupial at Cooper's Run

Cooper's Run in Nicholas County, Kentucky

Cooper's Run

I did some owling in the woods surrounding my brother's cabin in Nicholas County, Kentucky this past summer after he, his wife, Karen, and I enjoyed a delicious "meal from the grill" on the deck of their cabin. I'll get to the owling momentarily, but I want to share a little bit about my brother, James, one of my eleven siblings.  James has never met a repair or improvement project he couldn't handle. I remember once when he came to visit my family in Utah and he found out that the water shut-off valve in our home was leaking a little. He encouraged us to make a trip to the local hardware store and before I knew it he was showing me how to fix the problem. He often leaves people's homes in a safer condition than he found them after he visits. Consequently, he did most of the work to develop his property and construct his cabin. He told me that he hired a local Amish group to do the framing of the cabin, but he has slowly done the balance of the work himself. I enjoyed hearing how he operated  heavy equipment to clear a road back to where he wanted to locate his cabin and to clear ATV trails to make it easier to get around his 100-plus acres. He used the same equipment to dig very long trenches to get utilities from the junctions near the main road back to his secluded cabin.  James and Karen are devoted marathoners so they nicknamed their property Cooper's Run. 

A thick, deciduous woodland surrounds Cooper's Run and blankets small undulating hills throughout the property. Shallow creeks form and meander along the base of some hills and a few small ponds are home to croaking bullfrogs. During a brief walk along the creek beds I flipped a few rocks to discover salamanders. I asked James if he'd ever heard owls and he said that he had during the evenings he spent constructing his cabin. I then asked him if he wanted to see how I call and observe owls and he said that he did. The habitat was great for several species so I became hopeful that I could facilitate a unique encounter with at least one owl for him and Karen during my short visit to their place.

Dinner and an Owl (or Two) and a Marsupial for Good Measure

The sun was setting as we finished our delicious evening meal so I readied my owling gear. I had some headlamps to aid us during our walk into the pitch-black heart of screech-owl habitat, a flashlight for illuminating owls once I was able to hear and pinpoint their location through triangulation, and a camera in case we wanted to document the encounter. We took a short walk from the cabin down one of the ATV trails and into the woods. As we were walking down the trail, bushwhacking our way through freshly-spun spider webs, I noticed the eye shine of a lumbering mammal. My first impression was that it was probably a raccoon, which I commonly run across in Utah. As we got closer, however, it became clear that we were coming face to face with an opossum, North America's only marsupial, or pouched mammal. I put my light on the critter and captured a phone image as it calmly stared down the three of us.

Virginia Opossum in Nicholas County, Kentucky

I admit that opossums are not quite as cool as koalas and kangaroos, but at least I can now say that I've been owling with a marsupial. How many others can make such a claim? Actually, that's a rhetorical question. Don't answer. I know there aren't many, if any, people who care to make such a claim.

As I understand, female opossums have thirteen nipples with which to nurse their young inside their pouch. After a mere two-week gestation, nearly a dozen young opossums are born in an embryonic state, about the size of a bumblebee. They then make their way into the pouch and latch on to one of the nipples that will swell inside their mouths to secure and nurse them for a solid two months. During the third month the young  will leave the pouch and ride on the mother's back except for the moments when they return briefly to the pouch to nurse. Nature is crazy, isn't it?

Anyway, after a brief focus on the opossum we redirected our attention to the owling. It didn't take long before we had several screech-owls calling. I was able to get a couple of them in my spotlight for James and Karen to see. One particular individual turned out to be very accommodating so I captured a couple of images.

Eastern Screech-owl Nicholas County, Kentucky

Eastern Screech-owl Nicholas County, Kentucky

As we were enjoying our close encounter with our new-found nocturnal friend I recognized the distant "who, who, who cooks for you" call of a Barred Owl. I brought that call to the attention of James and Karen before suggesting we make our way toward the owl's location. I could tell that the the call was originating from a location close to the cabin so we carefully made our way back in that direction. A moment later a second Barred Owl began calling. I tried for a few minutes to get us closer to them in hopes of seeing them, but it wasn't meant to be with the time we had. It was getting late and I was due to check in with my wife back in Utah so we headed back to the cabin and packed away our gear. As luck would have it the owls began calling right outside the cabin as we were leaving. But it was okay. The discoveries of the evening promised much more to discover and enjoy during future visits to Cooper's Run.

A Michigan Owl for Mom

My mom raised me to be a night owl. She and I would often visit late at night as she would be doing laundry or when I returned home from a night out as a teenager. We were in the midst of continuing that tradition this past Thursday while I was visiting her home in Battle Creek, Michigan. We were talking about my interest in wildlife photography when she told me she wanted to see a "Michigan" owl in my online photos. Well, the night was still young at 11:30 so with her encouragement I drove a few blocks to a small cemetery which I had noticed earlier in the day and thought would be good habitat for a Screech-Owl. I was a little sheepish about playing a Screech-Owl call from my phone when I arrived at the cemetery and I realized how close I was to some neighboring homes. I didn't want to draw attention by shining my light into the trees if an owl did call back to me. I had a small window of opportunity so I pressed forward with my attempt to call in an owl. Within a few minutes I heard the distant call of a Screech-Owl. A couple minutes later I saw the silhouette of the owl move across the sky above my head. The owl perched deep inside a tree that was on the other side of the fence that separated the cemetery from private property. The owl called back to me. I moved along the fence line until I found a vantage point that allowed me to put a light on the owl and capture some images.

It's not a bad image, but the owl itself looks a bit worn. I noticed a bare spot revealing skin between the owl's left eye and the bill. The whiskers are missing on that side of the bill.

The only reason I'm sharing the image below is to show the shape of the bill. These owls are between 8 and 9 inches tall and seem harmless in many ways, but when it comes time to eat, and they do eat meat, instinct kicks in and that bill does serious damage to small birds and rodents.

I had a smile on my face when I walked back into mom's home late Thursday night...well, early Friday morning. It was a memorable moment to photograph an Eastern Screech-Owl for the first time with the encouragement of my sweet mother. Thanks for supporting my interest, mom. I hope you enjoy seeing your "Michigan" owl.