Nalle Bunny Run Group Walk 2022-06-26
Out of ten people who signed up, only four actually showed up for a group walk on Hill Country Conservancy's Nalle Bunny Run wildlife refuge this morning that I co-led with HCC staff member Carolyn Stephens. Here are some highlights.
We never know what we'll find when we open the lid covering the natural spring on the property. This morning there were half a dozen little snakes! All but one were these Western Ribbonsnakes. (I'd love to know if they are actually the Orange-striped Ribbonsnake subspecies!) My guess is that they were all siblings.
The other snake was this stunning Black-necked Gartersnake, that we didn't even notice for a few minutes despite its bring colors!
A few weeks ago Carolyn briefly saw a male Painted Bunting on the preserve, so I was keeping my eyes and ears open for one. On the sandy prairie area I started to hear one, and we briefly saw it and a female foraging low near the lake. But they both left the immediate area and seemed to ignore my playback of recorded songs trying to bring the male back into view. But a few minutes later when we'd moved on a bit, I started hearing the male singing again. I spotted it and we all got distant but fun binocular views of him singing at the top of a grape-vine-covered hackberry!
We got some good close looks at dragonflies this morning as well. My favorite was probably this female Checkered Setwing we saw while making our way across the sandy prairie before we headed back into the woods.
I recorded 25 species of birds and here's my eBird checklist.
All my iNat observations are attached below, and here are the same photos on Flickr.
