Michigan Hummingbird Guy: West Texas, The Panhandle, and Home

On Tuesday, March 6, we headed north from Uvalde to the Lost Maples State Natural Area. The area gets its name from the Bigtooth Maples that are found here; a Rocky Mountain species that is very sparsely distributed here at the southern end of its range. Most of the deciduous trees had no leaves, nor any flowers, but the maples were easy to spot against the canyon walls as they had abuntant, though small, yellow flowers.

Bigtooth Maple

We hiked portions of two of the trails into canyons where, quite expected, we heard several Canyon Wrens calling from the cliffs above. There were also several Carolina Wrens and, once I tracked down one singing bird it was obvious that there were several Hutton's Vireos singing there as well. One bird singing from on the ground was a Rufous-crowned Sparrow that cooperated for photos.

Rufous-crowned Sparrow

This park is known as a breeding area for endangered Black-capped Vireo and Golden-cheeked Warbler. It being early March, we weren't expecting either species, but in fact there were at least a half-dozen warblers singing including one that gave us good, though brief views. If any Black-capped Vireos were present, they weren't in evidence visually or through song. The trails were interesting for the plants that were in bloom here, including what is sometimes called "Texas Mountain Laurel", though most often it is called Mescal Bean which makes more sense as the flowers are certainly indicative of of the pea family and not laurels.

"Texas Mountain Laurel" or Mescal Bean

A common flower growing all over the ground, and even on the rocks, was the Basket Anemone, named for the shape of its flowers.

Basket Anemone

A bright yellow flower caught our eye, and was a species we'd seen before, Narrowleaf Gromwell.

Narrowleaf Gromwell

The morning had started out cold, but by the end of our hikes there were butterflies beginning to get active. One of these was a species of duskywing. These butterflies are a bit of a jinx for me, as I have photographed them many times but every time I get them home to identify, they always turn out to be Juvenal's Duskywing. Indeed, that's what this one looks like too even though we were at the southwestern edge of their range.

Juvenal's Duskywing

A similar jinx occurs with the fritillaries, though we have seen a few species in the western U.S. But so often, they turn out to be a fairly widespread southern species, the Variegated Fritillary.

Variegated Fritillary

From here, it was a long drive to our next planned locations in West Texas, and we were running short on time, so we dead-headed it for the rest of the day, only to find out that our intended stop, at Balmorea, had no hotels or motels. So, we continued westward to Van Horn for the night.

The original plan was to visit three areas in West Texas; Big Bend National Park, the Davis Mountains, and Guadeloupe Mountains National Park. But being short on time, we had to decide on just one to visit, and since it was the only place we hadn't been before, it was easy to choose the Davis Mountains.

So, on Wednesday, March 7 we struck out through arid grasslands, dotted with Yuccas and one very prominent cactus, the Chainfruit Cholla.

Chainfruit Cholla

Another small cactus was found near a fence line, a species of Hedgehog Cactus (Echinocereus sp.) but would only be identifiable (by me anyway) if it was flowering.

Hedgehog Cactus (Echinocereus sp.)

We had hoped to find grassland species in these areas, including longspurs that would be new for our Texas list, but it was quite windy (again!) and not much was in evidence.

On our way to Davis Mountains State Park, we stopped at the Madera Canyon picnic area, where The Nature Conservancy had a preserve with some trails. We walked part of one trail, finding Canyon Towhees as well as a Spotted Towhee.

Canyon Towhee

We arrived at the Davis Mountain SP where we immediately headed for the feeders in hopes of seeing Montezuma Quail. When we got there, we were greeted by quite a herd of perhaps 15 Collared Peccaries that were taking advantage of the free food.

Collared Peccary

At one point we were a bit concerned as the Peccaries were essentially surrounding us, and this isn't a critter to be trifled with. I wish I could say that these photos were taken with a 400mm lens, and cropped, but I had to back up with the lens at 120mm just to get them in frame!

Collared Peccary

With so many Peccaries, as well as more than a half-dozen deer that strolled through the feeding area, it was clear that there was an ample prey base for the Mountain Lions we'd seen warning signs about at the park entrance.

Collared Peccary

Needless to say, with so much mammalian activity the hoped-for Montezuma Quail did not appear, but there was a good variety of other birds at the feeders.

Acorn Woodpecker

Canyon Towhee

Chipping Sparrow
(Clay-colored and Brewer's were also present)

Ladder-backed Woodpecker, female

Lesser Goldfinch

Rufous-crowned Sparrow

Western Scrub-Jay

White-crowned Sparrow
(probably the Rocky Mountain subspecies)

White-winged Dove

We left the park, minus encounters with Montezuma Quail (darn) or Mountain Lion (whew! darn!), and took the "scenic loop" road back north, which lived up to its billing.

Davis Mountains

We headed north into southeastern New Mexico where we spent the night.

On Thursday, March 8, we headed east into the Texas Panhandle. We were hoping to see longspurs and possibly other grassland birds here, but it turned out to be the windiest day so far, with sustained 30 mph winds with a few higher gusts. Even so, we decided to see what the Buffalo Lake National Wildlife Refuge had to offer. The right type of grassland was present, with a very needle-leaved Yucca growing in the grassland.

Buffalo Lake NWR

The species we were looking for were on the bird checklist, but it was very difficult to walk around without getting blown down, so after driving the loop road our list for this area was only about a half-dozen species. So, it was on to our final Texas destination, mainly for scenery, Palo Duro Canyon State Park.

Palo Duro Canyon

From here we headed east into Oklahoma, where we again did not find any longspurs probably because the high winds from yesterday continued, and we drive through about six small hailstorms on the way.

On Friday, March 9, we headed northeast through Oklahoma to Missouri. Today was mainly a travel day, to get as close to home as possible, but one stop was made at Bennett Springs State Park in central Missouri in the hopes of finding a lifer salamander. We walked the trails and flipped a lot of logs, but apparently the Western Slimy Salamanders weren't active yet. We were serenaded by a Great Horned Owl off in the distance, even though it was mid-day, and there were a few wildflowers in evidence.