Knox County, 3/4/10

Wednesday morning there was a report on Texbirds of Pinyon Jays being seen around Truscott Brine Lake in Knox County which is about a hundred miles north of Abilene. Needing this bird for my Texas list I packed up the car and took off. Well I put in about six hours looking through the area junipers to no avail. The problem is, though the area superfically looks like a good place for Pinyon Jays, it lacks the all important Pinyon Pines the jays feed on. I expect the Pinyon Jays checked it out and moved on. They are known for roving long distances when local food supplies are short. They could have been anywhere in the thousands of acres of cedar breaks.



But there were plenty of other cool birds to look at. The junipers attracted hundreds of Montain Bluebirds and Cedar Waxwings though I'm not sure if there were any fruit on them. They seemed to be mainly hanging out around the ephemeral puddles on the adjacent cattle pastures.













Gadwall X
American Wigeon X
Northern Shoveler X
Redhead X
Ring-necked Duck X
Lesser Scaup X
Bufflehead X
Common Goldeneye X
Red-breasted Merganser X
Ruddy Duck X
Horned Grebe X
Eared Grebe X
Double-crested Cormorant X
Great Blue Heron X
Bald Eagle X
Northern Harrier X
Cooper's Hawk X
Red-tailed Hawk X
American Kestrel X
American Coot X
Sandhill Crane X
Killdeer X
Rock Pigeon X
Eurasian Collared-Dove X
White-winged Dove X
Mourning Dove X
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker X
Ladder-backed Woodpecker X
Northern Flicker X
Eastern Phoebe X
Loggerhead Shrike X
American Crow X
Black-crested Titmouse X
Bewick's Wren X
Ruby-crowned Kinglet X
Eastern Bluebird X
Mountain Bluebird X
American Robin X
Northern Mockingbird X
Curve-billed Thrasher X
European Starling X
Cedar Waxwing X
Spotted Towhee X
Rufous-crowned Sparrow X
Chipping Sparrow X
Field Sparrow X
Vesper Sparrow X
Savannah Sparrow X
Song Sparrow X
Lincoln's Sparrow X
Harris's Sparrow X
White-crowned Sparrow X
Dark-eyed Junco X
Northern Cardinal X
Red-winged Blackbird X
Eastern Meadowlark X
Western Meadowlark X
Great-tailed Grackle X
Brown-headed Cowbird X
Pine Siskin X
American Goldfinch X
House Sparrow X