This is part of a report from the  Austin Bastrop River Corridor.  This area of the Colorado River is about 30 minutes West of Smithville. 

 September Travis County River Monitoring Trip Results – Sept 5 –

 Location:     Austin Colony – Webberville

Observation date:     9/5/09

 

 

It rained on us; first thing when we were doing the shuttle.  The river was a dirty brown muddy color and running fairly quick.  We think there was lots of runoff from last nights rain over downtown that filled up Waller Creek and Shoal Creek.  After the rain we were treated with overcast skies for the rest of the ride down to Webberville.  For the first time in a long time I did not use any suntan lotion.  Oh birds, you want to hear about the birds.

 

We have three very good sightings for the day.  While still preparing our boats at the put-in a Tricolored Heron flew upstream.  Later in the morning we got an Anhinga.  Finally there was that Olive-sided Flycatcher, we will put that one in the good sightings list also.  We also got a Yellow Warbler and several Empidonax Flycatchers.  Owls are always fun and we got two Great Horned Owls.

 

In the migrant column we got Baltimore Orioles, Yellow Warbler and Empidonax Flycatchers.

 

In the ‘we-should-of’ category we missed most ducks and we had no migrating hawks.

 

In all we got 49 species.

 Number of species:     49

 Black-bellied Whistling-Duck     1

Anhinga     1

Great Blue Heron     12

Great Egret     5

Snowy Egret     6

Little Blue Heron     2

Tricolored Heron     1

Green Heron     24

Black Vulture     32

Turkey Vulture     28

Osprey     1

Red-shouldered Hawk     4

Crested Caracara     4

Killdeer     3

Spotted Sandpiper     28

White-winged Dove     48

Mourning Dove     8

Yellow-billed Cuckoo     3

Great Horned Owl     2

Chimney Swift     7

hummingbird sp.     2

Belted Kingfisher     5

Red-bellied Woodpecker     14

Downy Woodpecker     3

Olive-sided Flycatcher     1

Empidonax sp.     3

Great Crested Flycatcher     3

Western Kingbird     11

Eastern Kingbird     8

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher     3

White-eyed Vireo     26

Blue Jay     6

American Crow     14

Northern Rough-winged Swallow     6

Cliff Swallow     12

Barn Swallow     100

Carolina Chickadee     26

Black-crested Titmouse     16

Carolina Wren     22

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher     18

Eastern Bluebird     9

Northern Mockingbird     5

Yellow Warbler     1

Northern Cardinal     78

Red-winged Blackbird     25

Common Grackle     26

Great-tailed Grackle     12

Baltimore Oriole     18

House Finch     2