362. Curve-billed Thrasher

Date         April 27, 2025

Location    Shipman Park, Alpine, TX

After spending the day visiting a couple of historical parks, we settled in in Alpine, TX the evening before proceeding to Big Bend. I checked the map of Alpine, and a community park called Shipman Park seemed to be our best bet to find birds. It was sort of a mixed-use park with softball fields, playgrounds, and plenty of large trees. A creek ran through the park as well. There were plenty of "wild" areas. At one point we heard a Great Horned Owl and later saw it flying away from us. There were lots of birds here.

It was very breezy since a storm was (sort of) coming in -- we never got rained on, but the wind became fierce enough toward the end of the walk that we were getting blasted by dust from the ball fields. The high winds made birding a bit more difficult since birds perched on branches were moving with the wind.

The first lifer bird in the park for me was this bird. We found it perched high in a tree on an exposed branch, singing.

Cornell: Curve-billed Thrasher

361. Scaled Quail

Date         April 27, 2025

Location    Fort Davis National Historic Park, TX

Next to the parking lot of the park was a substantial hill. We found a quail perched in a tree a little ways up the hill. I was fortunate to see a couple more walking in the common area of our lodge near Big Bend called Far Flung.

Cornell: Scaled Quail

360. Cassin's Kingbird

Date         April 27, 2025

Location    near Fort Davis National Historic Park, TX

This was on the second day of our big west Texas trip featuring Big Bend National Park and other locations. While driving south on highway 17 near Fort Davis, Logan and I saw something to the right in small open area with a few trees. We pulled over to investigate.

We spotted a kingbird that was one of the western kingbird "complex" and saw it perched and fly across to another tree. Fortunately, it called and matched the Cassin's sound. Everything else checked out (range, habitat, looks).

Cornell: Cassin's Kingbird

359. European Goldfinch

Date         March 22, 2025

Location    Illinois Beach State Park, IL

I had recently learned that this species was a newly accepted ABA species (ABA 2) and that they were commonly seen in Lake county, Illinois, the county just north of Cook county (Chicago). We went to this state park in pursuit of some interesting migrants on the shores of Lake Michigan, but the waves were high and there wasn't much there. We walked inland on one of the trails and Logan asked someone about this bird. He suggested we look by the pine trees by a nearby resort.

We had passed the resort to our right as we walked south along the beach, so we simply went back up that way. We found a few stands of tall pine trees, and upon arriving, saw a bird fly to the left and perch on an open branch of a deciduous tree (no leaves yet, of course). And there it was, easily identified.

It certainly pays to ask the locals.

[not in Cornell guide as of publication of this post]

358. Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay

Date         November 25, 2024

Location    Grand Canyon National Park, AZ

This picture is a screen grab of a video I took with my phone. Yes, with my phone!

After the Rufous-crowned Sparrow, we started the hike back up the Bright Angel Trail. Which, by the way, is probably the most arduous hiking I've ever done, at least that I can remember. Anyway, I heard a bird in a tree down the trail from me and turned back to investigate. This was a pretty easy ID.

The video capture shows him flying past me from left to right as he flew up the trail to another tree just above me on the trail. You can see the beautiful canyon wall in the background.

Cornell: Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay

357. Rufous-crowned Sparrow

Date         November 25, 2024

Location    Grand Canyon National Park, AZ

This was on the Bright Angel trail, down from the South Rim.

Mieka and I had stopped to rest at the 3-mile rest house, preparing for the climb back up. I was sitting on a boulder at the base of the house, eating something. I saw two birds flitting about the bushes nearby, probably about 10 yards away. I managed to pull out my binoculars and was getting a good look when they started flying toward me.

It eventually landed on an adjacent boulder not three feet away, just out of arm's reach. My guess is that they feed off of crumbs from all the hikers eating and resting there, so they've gotten bold. I was able to get a good look without binoculars. He stayed there for a few seconds before flying off. Range and habitat also fit perfectly.

This was the second sparrow of the year (other was Golden-crowned in Alaska) that basically fell in my lap as I was sitting on the ground eating.

Cornell: Rufous-crowned Sparrow

356. Stilt Sandpiper

Date         October 5, 2024

Location    Nygren Wetland Preserve, Rockton, IL

The photo above is the actual bird, as taken by a cell phone camera through my spotting scope lens.

Logan and I agonized over this one for quite some time. I even submitted to the What's this bird? page on Facebook. The consensus was Stilt Sandpiper. After considering range and everything else, we felt like this was a solid ID.

Cornell: Stilt Sandpiper