Texas Panhandle
Bird Nerd

A beautiful, buff-colored bird has sparked birdwatcher's interest in Buffalo Lake National Wildlife Refuge this winter. The juvenile Northern Shrike was first spotted at the beginning of November, and he has been entertaining birders ever since. I first saw this photogenic Shrike on November 10 when I traveled 30 minutes south of Amarillo to Umbarger specifically to try to spot him. I thought I would have to spend some time hunting for him, but he was at the front entrance to

For 120 years, birders have been trudging out into fields, lakesides, mountains and beaches as citizen scientists to record the types and numbers of birds seen in their area at Christmastime. So times have changed a bit. There was no trudging across any kind of field or mountain when Rohn and I participated in the 2019 Audubon Christmas Bird Count in Amarillo. In fact, we birded from the comfort of a Lexus RX350 with heated seats, mostly in a gated lakeside community. Boy, I

While huge flocks of blackbirds are not uncommon, particularly in agricultural settings, I was startled in early October 2019 by more than 1500 blackbirds with one thing in common--yellow heads. When I first saw this huge flock of blackbirds (a "murmuration" in birding terminology), I just assumed that they were our common red-winged blackbirds. The birds were flying away from me, so I took a few pics and watched them twist and turn like a school of fish evading a shark. Then

Playa lakes provide water, food and shelter to migratory and local birds and have become one of this bird nerd's favorite destinations. The first places I visited when I started birding in 2019 were two playa lakes in Randall County. One was on Sundown Lane at I-27 and the other was on Helium Road west of Hillside Christian Church. That's where I first saw elegant Black-necked Stilts and American Avocets. Clown-like Killdeer populate almost every playa lake in the Texas Panh

A herd of fascinating non-native North African barbary sheep roam the canyon, but they are seldom seen in the state park. The sheep (who, per their DNA, are really more closely related to wild goats) are well-adapted to arid, rugged landscapes like Palo Duro Canyon. The story is that they were introduced to Texas in the 1940's by ex-GI's who had served in North Africa in WWII and realized the aoudad's potential as a game animal in our state. Like most introductions of non-nat

The Texas Panhandle is just a blank canvas on which God paints a new masterpiece every day. Growing up in Arlington, Texas, I thought beauty meant the cool grey shade of a post oak tree, the relentless green of St. Augustine grass, the mossy blue of the Brazos River at Granbury where I attended summer camp, and the bright fuschia of the ubiquitous crepe myrtle trees lining every road in the area. But the Texas Panhandle, where I have lived since 1987, features more earthy ton

The bird blind at Palo Duro Canyon State Park yields a treasure trove of interesting local birds.

Someone needed to tell this bird it was the middle of November and he wasn't supposed to be here. I was birding at Palo Duro Canyon State Park early in the morning of Saturday, November 16, 2019. I spotted this little bird along the Comanche Trail, which runs behind Hackberry Campground along the creek and is one of the best birding trails in the park. Typical for a warbler, this bird was incredibly difficult to photograph at all, much less photograph well, because warblers a