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Travel with BirdNote to Texas Hill Country

BirdNote Gallery

December 5, 2018

In April 2019, we teamed up with Victor Emanuel Nature Tours for a wonderful trip to the Texas Hill Country!

In a state brimming with natural history and cultural attractions, few regions of Texas hold greater allure than the famed Hill Country and surrounding area.

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Late April is a marvelous time to be in Central Texas, with moderate temperatures prevailing and a landscape festooned in wildflowers. Shorebirds and wading birds are easy to find around area lakes and ponds, while a pageant of migrant hawks, flycatchers, swallows, vireos, and warblers is surging northward.

Diversity was a theme of this trip—diversity of natural history, landscapes, and culture. Several days were dedicated entirely to birdwatching and nature while other days included elements of history, culture, and sightseeing.

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On the schedule were visits to Enchanted Rock State Natural Area and Mitchell Lake Audubon Center. One of our field trips was specially dedicated to finding the two most sought-after birds of the region: the endangered Golden-cheeked Warbler and the recently delisted but still vulnerable Black-capped Vireo.

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There was an excursion to the Frio Bat Cave to witness one of the continent’s greatest wildlife spectacles: the nightly emergence of nine million Brazilian (or Mexican) free-tailed bats.

On the cultural front, we spent an afternoon at the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library in Austin, stopped at a native-seed wildflower farm followed by wine tasting at a Hill Country winery, explored Texas’s German-American heritage in attractive Fredericksburg, and had a grand finale trip to the Alamo in San Antonio.

Kate Godman from BirdNote hosted this trip. Guiding our activities was Kitty Coley and Erik Bruhnke from Texas-based Victor Emanuel Nature Tours.

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A non-tax-deductible portion of the proceeds went toward the support of BirdNote’s programs.

Check out these BirdNote shows about the Texas Hill Country and some of the bird species found there:

A City Learns to Love Its Bats - Interview with Merlin Tuttle
Crested Caracara: Mexico's National Bird? Not Quite, but Close.
Mississippi Kites: Buoyant in Flight
The Painted Bunting: A Small Bird with a Big Presence
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher: Showing Off for the Ladies
Texas Hill Country Conservation

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Photo credits:

Enchanted Rock © sbmeaper1 CC
Black-capped Vireo © Kevin Zimmer
Mexican free-tailed bats © USFWS/Ann Forschauer CC
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher - Alan Schmierer CC
Painted Bunting © Greg Lavaty
Golden-cheeked Warbler © Greg Lavaty

TagsTexas

More About These Birds

Golden-cheeked Warbler (Dendroica chrysoparia)

Dendroica chrysoparia

Black-capped Vireo (Vireo atricapilla)

Vireo atricapilla

Birds connect us with the joy and wonder of nature. By telling vivid, sound-rich stories about birds and the challenges they face, BirdNote inspires listeners to care about the natural world – and take steps to protect it.

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