After my visit to Hornsby Bend yesterday, I had a few minutes before meeting R for lunch.

I parked at Auditorium Shores, which is a good place to walk around and look at the ever-changing skyline except for the fact that the whole area smells like dog crap. Why can’t people just pick up after their dogs?

Avoiding the mines, I walked to the Stevie Ray Vaughn statue where I took this obligatory Austin photo.

Official Stevie and Austin cliché photo

Hard to believe I’ve been here longer than that statue and I’m only just now doing the Stevie-Ray-and-skyline shot. Maybe there’s something to be said for leaving things for oneself to do.

Red-winged Blackbirds

After the statue, I followed a small flock of Red-winged Blackbirds west for a few yards trying to get a closer shot of one.

I was pleasantly surprised to see them as I had hoped to see more than just the one at Hornsby.

Red-winged Blackbird

Then one came right at me!

Red-winged Blackbird in flight

Aside from the red-wings, I also saw some Gadwalls, American Coots, Great-tailed Grackles, Rock Doves, and a Yellow-crowned Night Heron fishing on the far shore.

High above the night heron, one of the new condos was also visible.

Downtown Austin condo

Not bad for 20 minutes waiting around.

I meant to post this on yesterday’s Hornsby Bend post, but somehow, I forgot.

A dragonfly at Hornsby Bend

It’s just a dragonfly that happened to land and pose right in front of me but just far enough away for me to focus.

I left early this morning hoping that it wouldn’t be raining at Hornsby Bend, and despite a few quick showers on the toll road, it turned into a nice day with overcast skies and a steady cool breeze.

The egrets, herons and other waders I’d watched over the summer had all moved on, but the ponds were filled with ducks.

A clusterduck, mostly Northern Shovelers

I saw hundreds of Northern Shovelers as well as a few Blue-winged Teal, Ruddy Ducks, and some Lesser Scaup. Along with the ducks, there were numerous American Coot and even a couple of Least Grebes.

Northern Shovelers

I drove along the ponds, studying the ducks. The male Northern Shovelers are transitioning into their breeding plumage, which they do in November, so some of their breasts were a bit streaky.

American Coots

Other than the ducks, I saw some flocks of some kind of sparrows (I think) that I couldn’t ID and a single Red-winged blackbird, which surprised me after the huge flocks of them I had seen over the summer.

Eventually, I decided to hike down the river trail to the lookout over the Colorado. I could hear Northern Cardinals and Carolina Chickadees, though I didn’t see either.

River Trail

Walking along the trail, I spotted a few Carolina Wrens and a Northern Mockingbird as well as small brown birds that darted about, defying easy identification.

I watched the sky for hawks and eagles, but saw only vultures, both Turkey and Black. When I reached the river, a Double-crested Cormorant noisily flapped off away from the bank.

I didn’t see many more birds, but the trees looked especially good. There are three amazing trees that I always have to stop and look at and today, I had all my gear so I took a few pictures.

These are some of my favorite trees in Austin.

Tree at Hornsby Bend

Another tree at Hornsby Bend

Yet another tree at Hornsby Ben

Closer to the previous tree

After taking this last picture, the wind picked up along with the kawing of a crow. I listened and a few more crows picked up the cry. I watched the sky and saw 3 American Crows hurrying towards a spot behind the tree I had been photographing.

Assuming they were mobbing, I looked around for a hawk and sure enough, I caught a fleeting glimpse of a hawk’s silhouette as he swooped out of the tree and towards the river.

By the time I got back to the car, the wind had picked up and it looked about to rain so I called it a morning and a good one at that.

The creek that runs along our trail

It never ceases to amaze me that even after four years, I’m still discovering little things in our neighborhood.

Over the summer, I stumbled upon a side trail leading to the small creek that feeds the nearby pond. A wooden footbridge connects our neighborhood with the one next to ours.

In the summer, it was a good place from which to spy hummingbirds and woodpeckers. Now that it’s the season that passes for autumn around here, it’s a good place to watch the leaves almost change color.

Sunrise after Cold Front

There’s nothing like the morning clouds after a good cold front. Especially nice because of the fall back from Daylight Savings Time, the sun is in a slightly different place when I get to work.

Those changes affect seeing and so the ordinary jumps out unexpectedly making it all seem new.

When the typical turns atypical, the camera comes out and something as fleeting as clouds and sky is suddenly frozen.

The little pond down the street is a great place for finding birds like this Great Egret.

As big as these guys are (4′ foot wingspan) they can be easy to miss sitting as they do stone still in the tops of trees.

Remembering to look where you think you’ve already looked can be the difference between looking and seeing.

A lizard on the garage

I saw this guy climbing along the house a few months back and happened to have my camera. Unfortunately, I cropped off most of his tail. Need to pay more attention to framing instead of thinking, “!Whoo hoo! A lizard!” That’s the trick of shooting animals, though. Slow down. Relax. Get the right shot.

Their tails do grow back, but I’m not sure it will show up in the picture.

The birds are singing a bit more and thus calling to be found. This mockingbird on one of the neighborhood trails especially so. He let me get pretty close before he took off, leaving me with perhaps my best mocker photo.

On Sunday R and I went to Hornsby Bend. On the river trail, we got a good look (and lousy shot) of this Crested Caracara perched high above the Colorado. We could hear, but not see, Blue Jays screeching at him from the nearby trees.

On the drive out, we had to stop for this Western Diamondback Rattlesnake, taking its time crossing the road.

After 20 years in Texas, this is the very first rattlesnake I’ve actually seen (heard lots of them, though). Strangely enough, the previous weekend, my brother was telling me he had just seen his first ever rattlesnake.

Halfway across the road, it stopped and started rattling. Not wanting to run over it and thus deprive the caracara or one of the many hawks swooping around the area of a tasty meal, I eased the car around it, but not before taking a few pictures.

Hopefully, it will be another 20 years before I see another one.

On the way out, with hawks screeching overhead, I spotted this Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, one of my favorite birds. I took his picture, figuring this might be the last one I would see until April.

Of course, I’ve seen quite a few on the way to work the past few days, but they’ll be heading south soon.

Despite George’s concern, this blog is not gone, to the birds or otherwise. The owner’s just livin’ more in the analog world lately.

I spent a fair amount of time this summer hiking and birding and reacquainting myself with the various trails and walks around Austin. A favorite of mine was Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge, where my dad and I spent a morning exploring and not seeing the Golden-cheeked Warbler or Black-capped Vireo, the birds for whom the NWR exists. It was late in the season, though, and we did get some nice walks.

And, now, school starts up again, and perhaps more regular blogging. And not just about birds either, although this post may go to the birds, specifically these Black-necked Stilts that shot me the stink eye for making them get up off the road at Hornsby Bend last week.

Every summer, I search for new places around Austin to hike and look at birds and other wildlife. This summer, I stumbled upon The Hornsby Bend Bird Observatory, located at the City of Austin’s Biosolids Management Plant/Center for Environmental Research.

It’s right on a bend in the Colorado, and the combination of river and the treatment ponds draws a huge variety of birdlife such as this Black-necked Stilt.

There are trails along the river, and a road that winds around the ponds so you can walk or drive, which can be nice for bird watching since your car can be used as a blind, which is useful for observing more skittish birds like this Snowy Egret.

I’ve visited three times over the past few weeks, and have seen the following birds (*’s by new ones):

• Northern Cardinal
• Black vulture
• Northern Mockingbird
• Little Blue Heron
• Barn Swallow
• Cliff Swallow
• Great-tailed Grackle
• Snowy Egret
• American Coot
• Spotted Sandpiper *
• White-eyed Vireo *
• Killdeer
• Black-necked Stilt *
• Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
• Red-winged Blackbird
• Brown-headed Cowbird *
• Mourning Dove
• Green Heron

In addition to these, I saw a few “mystery ducks” that looked like Blue-winged Teal, but not quite, as well as a bunch of “peeps” (small sandpipers) that I was unable to distinguish, lacking as I do the birding chops to distinguish between the Semi-palmated, Least, and Western Sandpipers. Oh, well, I guess that gives me a reason to go back.

When my Dad and I went last week, we saw huge flocks of Red-wings and Swallows as well as large numbers of Egrets and Little Blues. I can’t wait to see the birds that show up once migration begins.

It’s not all pretty birds, of course. There are pretty spiders like this graden spider also.

The spiders are good as there are very large flocks of gnats, flies and other bugs around those ponds. When we got back in the car to leave, it was like sitting in a plague of insects. But closing the car up in the heat for an hour while we stopped for lunch cooked them pretty well.