White Rock Lake

After flipping through my Birds of Texas field guide this morning, I had an itch to go out and see some birds! Even though it's another scorcher in Dallas today, we headed over to White Rock Lake to see if any birds were braving the heat as we were.

We were excited to see a few things, including this tricolored heron. They are not common in our area, but they are usually found along the gulf shore.

Wading Extravaganza

We decided to get up early (well, early for me on a Saturday morning!) and go to the drying beds in Arlington. It had been several months since we visited, and we weren't sure how much we would see given the extreme temperatures and drought we've been experiencing.

However, we were pleasantly surprised! There were hundreds of barn swallows and kingbirds, acrobatically snatching their buggy snacks from the sky. The red-winged blackbirds were in abundance as well, enjoying the sunflowers that were lining many of the banks of the drying beds.


There weren't as many ducks out today, but we did see some black-bellied whistling ducks, like the couple pictured here.


But the best part was the wading birds.

We saw several Little Blue Herons. The first one below is a juvenile in its mottled phase. The little blue heron is completely white as a baby, and it goes through this splotchy stage as it changes to blue. An adult little blue is pictured below the mottled one.



And then we saw three new birds: the White Ibis, the White-faced Ibis, and the Black-necked Stilt.












There were lots of ibises and stilts, and we enjoyed watching them feed in the water and awkwardly fly through the air. I had been really missing birding with this oppressively hot weather, and this morning served to give me my fill! At least for a few days... :)