Nob Hill Greenbelt - Carrollton, Texas (1 Viewer)

tramsey8 · Sep 29, 2007

My home patch, The Nob Hill Greenbelt, is a very accessible city park just a short walk from my home. Go to www.greenbeltfriends.org for a detailed description of the park. Fall may have started this week, but it still feels like Summer here in North Central Texas. The migrants haven't started arriving yet, but I want to start this thread now so I'll have the routine down when the big flocks start streaming in. Most of the Summer birds have already left the area. The Western Kingbirds that were everywhere just a few weeks ago have vanished. I haven't seen any Scissor-tailed Flycatchers in a few days, the attached photo is likely the last one I'll get this season. The Yellow-crowned Night Heron might also be the last of the season. It's not of great quality, I included it because it's the first time I've seen one hunting Crawfish. Soon the Hawks, Ducks, Geese, Grebes, & more will arrive and I will probably be posting every day... until then I'll post some of my Summer pics every few days to keep in the habit.

Have a good one!
Tracy

Lisa W · Sep 30, 2007

Nice shots, Tracy. Tried to get a shot of a Scissor-tail this summer at White Rock Lake, but the day (all my days in Dallas, actually) was very gray and rainy.

tramsey8 · Sep 30, 2007

Thanks Lisa! We did have an extraordinary amount of rain this year. I just don't have the equipment or experience to squeeze any decent bird photos out of the low light conditions we've had so much of this year. The birding has been fantastic, but I've seen alot of great birds that I never got a quality shot of. It's been a very frustrating year in that regard. Sorry it rained while you were here, but next year will probably be bone dry, so come on back & try it again.|

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My 2 sons & I took a drive thru the Greenbelt aound 10am on our way to a Soccer game. Here are the results of a 1 mile trip down Crooked Creek road:
1. Great Egrets – 5
2. Red Tailed Hawks - 2
3. Little Blue heron – 1
4. Scissor-tailed Flycatchers – 2 (thought they had left already)
5. Northern Flicker - 1
6. Mallards - 17
7. Mockingbirds – 2
8. Starlings - ~12
9. Crows -3
10. Rock Dove – 4
11. Mourning Dove – 3
12. White wing Dove – 2
13. Great-tailed Grackles - 7

Later, at my sons game we also saw a Swainson's Hawk, 7 more Great Egrets, & 1 late season Snowy Egret.

Lisa W · Sep 30, 2007

That is an impressive list for a drive-thru!
I go back to Dallas every summer, usually in June to visit Mom and sibs. The last 2 years have been unusually rainy. Didn't try to bird any in previous years, just this past summer. Hopefully, next year will be better.

tramsey8 · Oct 2, 2007

Today's drive-by was pretty much the same as Saturday... with a few notable additions:

The Mallard population has grown to about 50 birds
1 Coot (only the 2nd one I've ever seen in the Greenbelt)
1 Pied-billed Grebe (1st I've seen since early Spring)

Didn't have the camera with me today... these are from last winter.

Lisa W · Oct 2, 2007

Nice shots, Tracy. We get Coots here in the winter, but haven't seen a Pied-billed yet.

tramsey8 · Oct 2, 2007

Thanks Lisa!
I wish I new why Coots are so rare in Nob Hill when all the other water birds seem to love it here. Most of the other ponds/creeks in town have an abundance of Coots. I don't know much about the habits of Coots, so I'd be very interested if anybody would like to share their opinions on this.

The Grebes are odd little birds & easily the most challenging bird I attempted to photograph last winter. There are 3 ponds & 1 large creek in the greenbelt... & there were 4 Grebes total last Winter. They didn't seem to mind the company of ducks at all, but I never saw 2 Grebes on the same body of water at the same time. I could find one any time I wanted... but getting close enough for a good shot was almost impossible.
The photo above was the first time I'd ever seen a Grebe. I didn't have a clue what it was when I accidently crept up on it while looking for puddle ducks in a secluded part of the creek. I now know the only reason I got off a shot was that the water was too shallow for it to dive. I tried all winter long & never got a better shot. I'll get one this year |

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tramsey8 · Oct 3, 2007

More "Drive By" Birding

Only made 1 quick trip through yesterday. The city had just mowed all of the non-protected areas of the park, so many of the usual birds were hiding out in the deep woods.

1 Red-tailed Hawk
2 Great Egrets (in the tallest trees they could find)
1 Snowy Egret

I HATE mowing days... with 1 exception: If you are lucky enough to be at the Elm Fork Nature Preserve when the city starts mowing the adjacent park area. The preserves resident Hawks have been known to swarm the mowers feasting on the fleeing rabbits, rats, mice, snakes etc.
One of the mowers told me that the Hawks start congregating as soon as they hear the engines, & usualy "attack" when they hit a particular field next to the river. He said it never lasts for long & the number of birds varies depending on the season & how long since the last mowing.

I have only witnessed the full spectacle once... & I was at Soccer practice without my camera :C I watched Coopers, Sharpies, Red-tails, Swainsons, & one very brave Loggerhead Shrike go absolutely bonkers for about 10 minutes. At first it reminded me of sharks in a feeding frenzy... but once everybody had caught their lunch they vanished as quickly as they had appeared. After that day I've made sure to take my camera whenever I'm going near EFNP. I managed to catch the very end of the event one other time, but all I got was some fuzzy pics of a Red-tail & a Shrike fleeing the seen of the crime. I'll try to find the fuzzy photos & post the evidence when I get home.
EDIT: added the "photographic evidence"(wish I'd gotten the tractor/mower in the shots) & my 1st ever Swainson's Hawk taken a few minutes after the feeding frenzy.

Here is a link to the Elm Fork Nature Preserve

Lisa W · Oct 4, 2007

I'd love to see the "feast" next time I'm home I'll have to go by and visit the preserve.

tramsey8 · Oct 4, 2007

Yesterday's drive down Crooked Creek was dominated by the usual large numbers of Starlings, Grackles, & Doves, plus a pair of Great Egrets, & 1 Pied-billed Grebe. The Nob Hill Greenbelt is split down the middle by a fairly large creek/drainage. East of the creek is mostly grassy meadows with the occasional stand of trees (mostly Mesquite) & bordered by Crooked Creek road. This side of the creek also has 1 small & 2 fairly large ponds, & this is where I do most of my birding. The West side of the creek is a heavily wooded area bordered by Cemetery Hill road. Yesterday I decided to take a short walk through the wooded side of the park. I didn't have much time, but I felt the need to try something new. Unfortunately a group of school kids decided to take a shortcut thru the woods on their way home & spooked everything in that section of the park. I continued thru the forest untill I hit the creek where I watched a group of 15 Mallards splashing around. I headed South along the creek & came upon a Great Blue Heron fishing in a deep pool. I cut back into the trees so I wouldn't disturb his meal & kept heading South looking for the trail I knew would lead back to the road & my car. As I exited the woods a quarter mile South of my car, my old friend the Sharp-shinned Hawk whizzed by about 15ft above my head & circled a few times before she headed East across the creek. I hadn't seen her around since April & was very happy to see her turn up again. Watching this Sharpie & a Kestrel fueding over hunting territory last Winter is what got me hooked on birding to begin with. I think I saw a Kestrel in this same general area last week... so things should start getting a little more exciting around here soon. I definitely won't come back to this area again without my camera.

tramsey8 · Oct 5, 2007

Drive-by plus short walk

Stopped at the North end of Crooked Creek yesterday & rolled down the window to listen for a little while. Every other bird sound was drowned out by what had to be a Belted Kingfisher... so I took a short walk trying to get a look at him. Here's my list from a 1 mile drive-by plus a 100 yard walk:

Great Egret - 4
Snowy Egret - 1
Little Blue Heron – 1
Red-tailed Hawk – 2
Mourning Dove – 3
White-winged Dove – 2
American Crow – 5
Blue Jay – 4
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher – 2
Mockingbird – 3
European Starling – 15
Red-bellied Woodpecker – 1
Eastern Wood Pewee – 1
Mallard – 30 (heard many more in the creek but couldn’t get visual)
Belted Kingfisher – 1
I have my camera with me today & I'll try to get a shot of him after work.

Have a great day!
Tracy

tramsey8 · Oct 9, 2007

Late Report

The weekend was crazy with Soccer games & Cub Scouts so I'm just now posting Friday's report. The list was almost identical to Thursday, with a few exceptions.

I wasn't able to locate the Belted Kingfisher again.

The Sharpie streaked by once with the Kestrel in hot pursuit... very happy to see them up to their old antics.

I took a detour thru a small section of woods that I have ignored up to this point... & was rewarded with a lifer|

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Counted 5 Eastern Phoebes... it was a little dark & I didn't get any outstanding photos... but here's the "proof" on the lifer.

tramsey8 · Oct 12, 2007

Between sick kids, Cubmaster duties, & working late... not much time for birding this week. But on my way home yesterday, as I passed thru the greenbelt, I saw this Red-tailed Hawk in a tree near the road. As I opened my sunroof to get a few quick photos, I heard a familiar bird voice. I brought my camera up just in time to catch a Kestrel swooping in on the Hawk. Unfortunately only one shot of the action shows anything but fuzzy blobs |=@|

tramsey8 · Oct 25, 2007

Flooding in the Greenbelt

Not much but sadness to report from Nob Hill the last week or so. On October 15th we had a major flooding event that devasted much of the greenbelt. We didn't loose many trees (or any homes, praise be to God)... but much of the area around the stream was swept clean leaving nothing but the larger trees. All of the ground cover is gone... including the 3 large protected wildflower areas that "Friends of The Greenbelt" have worked so hard on for the last couple of years. Longtime residents all agree that they have never even heard stories of the creek level being so high. The North end (the widest section) of the creek rose 10-15 feet & diverted into the North pond. The photo below shows the water flowing out of the South end of the pond back into the creek. Under normal conditions, this section of the creek is about 25 feet below the pond level, & the water is not even visible from where this photo was taken. Notice the Mallards sitting in the calm area on the nearside of the creek... I hope the rest of the wildlife managed as well.

The good news is that the flood occured after most of the Summer birds had left, & before the Winter migrants had arrived.

The first migrant ducks arrived yesterday... 26 American Wigeon.

tramsey8 · Oct 29, 2007

I took a couple of Webelos patrols to a district campout this weekend. It's amazing how scarce birds can become when your surrounded by several hundred Cub Scouts. Friday afternoon while waiting at the school for all the scouts to arrive for our camping caravan... we watched a Kestrel using the volleyball net as a hunting perch. I was surprised at how many people didn't realize we had Falcons in right our back yards. That Kestrel was pretty much the last bird I got a decent look at for the rest of the weekend.

Just one note concerning Nob hill Greenbelt: saw one lonely Canvasback while driving thru the greenbelt on the way to the school Friday. The Cans' didn't arrive in the greenbelt until December last year... I think this guy must have misread the migration memo.

tramsey8 · Oct 30, 2007

I've been looking for that lone Canvasback that I saw last week, but I guess he's moved on. Yesterday I noticed a single female Green-winged Teal mixed in with all the Wigeons, another early bird. I'm supposed to conduct a birding tour of the Greenbelt for one of my Cub Scout Dens this weekend. I'm hoping we'll get another cold front before then to drive some more ducks our way.
Here are a couple of shots of a young Red-tailed Hawk that practicaly posed for me last Thursday.

tramsey8 · Nov 2, 2007

New Lifer!!!

It only took about a 3 minute walk yesterday to score a new Lifer! I had a few minutes to spare before a meeting at the school, so I stopped the car & walked down to the creek. I heard a call that at first sounded kinda similar to all the Wigeon's whistling. When I listened closer I knew it was something I'd never heard before... so I had to go investigate. From a distance all I saw was Ducks & a few Killdeer... but as I got closer I realized that 2 of the Killdeer were much larger than the others. They turned out to be a pair of Greater Yellowlegs. I got a couple of photos but it was getting dark so they aren't that great. I'll add them when I get home.

Lisa W · Nov 3, 2007

Saw the Yellowleg on the ID forum, good lifer. Hows the Greenbelt looking, has the water receded to normal levels? I'm probably going to feel dumb later, but may I ask what your avatar is? Very colorful looking, but my old eyes can't seem to figure it out.

tramsey8 · Nov 3, 2007

Lisa W said:
Saw the Yellowleg on the ID forum, good lifer. Hows the Greenbelt looking, has the water receded to normal levels? I'm probably going to feel dumb later, but may I ask what your avatar is? Very colorful looking, but my old eyes can't seem to figure it out.

Thanks Lisa,
The Greenbelt is starting to recover. The ponds are very full & the tall grasses along the creek are flattened... but it hasn't seemed to bother the birds much. I'm leading a birding tour Saturday morning for one of my Cub Scout dens, & then we'll be helping "Friends of the Greenbelt" clean up the wildflower areas that were washed out by the flood.

My avatar is very special to me. It was created from my very first encounter with an American Kestrel. To date, that particular Kestrel is still the most beautiful animal I've ever seen in the wild. And that single bird is the one that hooked me on Birding. It was a dark dreary day & the pics weren't very good quality, but they are the photos that mean the most to me.
Here is the (cropped) original photo.

Lisa W · Nov 3, 2007

Tracy,
I can see the Kestrel in the larger photo. Think the colors in the Avatar threw me off. A very nice bird to get you involved with birding. The bird that started it for me was the Elegant Trogon. A friend wanted to see it, so we started looking - took me 3 years to finally glimpse it and another 2 to get a decent shot. We are lucky in that this is as far in to the States as it comes. We have a very few every spring and summer in the mountain canyons. He's a very colorful bird as you can see.
Have fun with the scouts, maybe one or two will become lifelong birders based on your walk!
Lisa

Nob Hill Greenbelt - Carrollton, Texas (1 Viewer)

I know just enough about birds to sound stupid mos

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I really need to get out and bird more

I know just enough about birds to sound stupid mos

I really need to get out and bird more

I know just enough about birds to sound stupid mos

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I really need to get out and bird more

I know just enough about birds to sound stupid mos

I know just enough about birds to sound stupid mos

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I really need to get out and bird more

I know just enough about birds to sound stupid mos

I know just enough about birds to sound stupid mos

I know just enough about birds to sound stupid mos

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I know just enough about birds to sound stupid mos

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I know just enough about birds to sound stupid mos

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I know just enough about birds to sound stupid mos

I know just enough about birds to sound stupid mos

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I know just enough about birds to sound stupid mos

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I really need to get out and bird more

I know just enough about birds to sound stupid mos

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I really need to get out and bird more

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