Most blogs have some sort of theme: species, seasonal, rarities, or trip. This blog is none of the aforementioned. I have a hodge podge of interesting photos I wanted to share with you that others have sent in. Such as this photo of a Loggerhead Shrike taken by Joe Thompson: Joe happened to find the […]

So there we were Saturday morning, happily cruising along a Haskell County road when perched atop a double utility pole was a hawk-like shape: “Stop the car!” “That’s not a Red-tail!” Screech! Everyone grabs their bins and sees: “Oh, Wow!” We gotta get the scope on this one!” A Prairie Falcon! A life bird for […]

It is our passion to highlight the avian populations of the Big Country, to chronicle their annual migratory movements or to highlight avian behavior. This week’s post covers both situations. With the strongest of cold fronts moving into the Big Country this fall, I captured the frontal passage at Lake Kirby (above). While the cold […]

Last year (2007) at Dyess AFB, TX, a beautiful white morph Red-tailed Hawk decided to overwinter on base: Last Friday (October 17, 2008) I photo’d another white morph Red-tail. If it is the same hawk that hung out last year, it is showing site fidelity. With birds, site fidelity is when they complete their migration […]

I bet you thought I was never going to post again. Uh…me to! But here I am to let you know what happens when you throw up a portable blind and watch the birds on the move in the Big Country. Warblers began their migration at the end of September and I caught a few […]

Big Country birding has been soooooo quiet this past week, even a little dead except for the occasional hummingbird fight at the feeders. A few warblers are passing through, mainly Yellow, a few Wilson’s and now a Nashville or two. But on this morning’s field trip to Oakwood Trails, our group spotted this dark-headed woodpecker: […]

Once again, Lake Kirby has produced a couple of more rarities for the Big Country. This Caspian Tern (above) was spotted and photographed August 30, 2008, by Lorie Black. A week later (September 6), another Caspian Tern was seen but with a juvenile: Lorie thinks this is a different adult tern from the one seen […]

There is an almost albino (leucistic) hummingbird in Abilene, Texas. It is coming to a feeder at a private residence in south Abilene. If you are interested in seeing this bird, please contact us through this web site and a field trip will be arranged. More photos can be seen here.

A birder sent me a couple of pictures of an oriole he thinks is Hooded. It does appear to have a larger bill than Orchard and he said the overall size was clearly larger than any Orchard he’d seen before. The bird was seen at Lake Kirby in the weeds next to the dam. It […]

Yesterday I opened up my inbox to discover an e-mail from a Big Country Audubon member who claimed to have seen an American Woodcock. Baloney! He saw a snipe. But when he sent the promised pictures, I was in SHOCK! How could this be? Woodcocks are nocturnal (he saw it during the daylight), they are […]