Llano river state park, Texas

Great variety there, Gary and nice shots. Well captured! Any idea what the birding is like there in the winter? We spend Jan-Mar outside CC area in Port Aransas and always head up to Austin for a bit to visit friends. That might be the place to be during Spring Break-pure chaos on the Gulf!

Very pretty shots. My favs are the bunting, the male tanager and the oriole.

Thanks for all the great comments. These are very easy to take there. Just point and shoot really.
Rog, I asked about the winters. She said it was slow this last winter for migration. I have not been here in the winters. I travel in the winter so cannot really comment first hand. But if you are in CC did you go to Falcon state park in the winter. I hear it is just amazing. As well as the CC area.

Beautiful shots and birds Gary! We travel to Kerrville a couple times a year and have been to several parks throughout the area to see these birds. I haven't made it to Llano River SP yet but now you have helped me make up my mind. And only 4 dollars!

Beautiful series Gary.

amazing variety. i gotta get out and shoot more.

Yep, it is literally a hot spot now for birds and weather.
Brad if you are in Kerrville you are within shouting distance of the Llano park.. Worth the short drive for birding. Don't forget to go look by the river there. I saw a Vermilion flycatcher there. Beautiful bird. Didn't get a shot of it though.

Great set with some real beauties...nice!

Great set. Maybe a good place to go later in the year when it cools off some! LOL

gary1952 wrote in post #14630613
Thanks for all the great comments. These are very easy to take there. Just point and shoot really.
Rog, I asked about the winters. She said it was slow this last winter for migration. I have not been here in the winters. I travel in the winter so cannot really comment first hand. But if you are in CC did you go to Falcon state park in the winter. I hear it is just amazing. As well as the CC area.

Thanks, Gary-I'll have to look up Falcon. We subscribe to the weekly Port A paper and just read this AM that it was voted the best birding small town and Corpus the best large city, so we're in the right place.

Falcon Lake State Park is about 180 miles west of Corpus Christi, so that would be a pretty long day trip!! All kidding aside, the Corpus Christi/Port Arthur area is dynamite for birding. Falcon Lake State Park is also good, but not really close.

Mark

I was going to say that nust be the only water hole for quite a ways, excellent set, Well done!

Yea, Mark. It's an overnighter for sure. I drove from CC straight to Falcon and I think it took about 5 hours pulling my pop-up. Harlingen is another great place and about 100-130 miles from CC. I drove down there also. But could not find a state park for camping. And the big parks were all closed or I could not get anyone at the gate. Kinda strange. So I didn't get to bird Harlingen.
On the way to Falcon and in Falcon I saw the Crested Caracara, a beautiful bird. Very common along the road there. It shows to be in this area on the map. But I have never seen it before?
Anyway that is for the next trip.

Crested Caracara used to be a South Texas bird, but they have really increased their range to the north over the past thirty years. They've gotten pretty common up into Central Texas and beyond.

We used to camp at Bensen Rio-Grande State Park, but they closed the campground due to impacts on the habitat and converted it to a day-use only World Birding Center. Great place to bird, but no RV camping.

If you get down to the Harlingen area again, you might look into Adolph Thomae Jr. County Park near Arroyo City. This small park sits right on the Arroyo Colorado out east of Harlingen and is a very good birding park. Or if you want to stay on the south tip of South Padre Island, try Isla Blanca County Park. It is much larger and more "commercial", but will get you in the middle of another great birding area!

Mark

great series, Gary