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The Birds:Twenty Mile High II

Last year, on June 22, I rode my bike 20 miles and counted the different birds I saw while zipping along the trails and roads in my little corner of north Austin. I intended to repeat the experiment on the same day a year later, but missed it by a day. So, here’s the birds I spied while riding 20 miles on June 23:

Northern Mockingbird… everywhere

White-winged dove, Mourning dove… poking along trailsides, but no Inca doves this time

Common grackle, Great-tailed grackle… open fields and parking lots

European starling… patrolling the medians

Great egret… hunting in the pond like a snake on a stick

Barn swallow… loads of them by the lake–riding over the dam one paced me about 3 feet above my head, a great look

Scissor-tailed flycatcher… a personal favorite, singing from a signpost

Northen Cardinal… singing from a wire

Hummingbird… most likely black-chinned, but too fast to be sure

Pigeons… flying over the parking lot

Blue jay… hard to miss from the trails and near the houses

House sparrow… waving goodbye from my driveway

Purple Martin… chillin’ on a martin house along one trail

Western Kingbird… perched in treetops on the trail where the Incas were last year

Turkey vulture… circling in the distance

American crow… kaw-kawing from the treetops

Great blue heron… looking like a statue on a pole near the golf course

Green heron… flying through a swarm of mockingbirds and scissor-tails

Swans and Muscovy ducks… feral domestics on the duckponds

This year, I saw 22 birds in 20 miles. Though I didn’t see last year’s Inca doves and snowy egret, I did catch the kingbird, hummingbird, pigeon, and turkey vulture. There are others, but I was moving too fast to really see whatever titmice, chickadees and sparrows might have been lurking in the trees.

In addition to the birds, I saw rabbits, deer, and humans.

Published inBirdsNature

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