If at first you don't succeed.....

The Commons Ford trip had a target bird - the Blue Grosbeak. And although we saw a female on Friday evening, we were still hot to see a male. We decided to give it another go on Saturday morning, and arrived at the park around 9am.

At the bottom of the hill, where signage directs visitors to the picnic area, I heard a sound that caused me to stop and listen. "I know that sound" I said, and listened more. "That's a bird, and I know that bird" was my next whispered comment. My mind worked over the problem until I realized I was hearing a Northern Parula. But should I have been hearing one? Aren't warblers migratory? What was this bird doing here in the summer? I looked through my Travis County Birds checklist, and sure enough, they are here all year. I confirmed what I was hearing with a recording I had with me on my Treo. Yes, that was the bird! And since we knew what we were looking for, we spotted the little guy and confirmed the ID. Very satisfying!


Northern Parula (Jim deVries)
As we continued on, we encountered Isaac and Patty who are frequent visitors to the park and who had shown us where the Blue Grosbeak could be found. It wasn't long after stopping and chatting that Camille followed her ears to a singing male Blue Grosbeak! "I've got him!" she said. We all had great looks at a beautiful bird very close by. Wow!
In all, we had 23 species in two hours. Great day birding!