Rio Frio Bat Colony

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We arrived in Concan on Saturday afternoon and had an early dinner at Neal's Lodges. The food there is very good and is reasonably priced. Plus from  our table we were able to watch through the window as Black-chinned and Ruby-throated Hummingbirds flocked to feeders outside.

We weren't staying at Neal's on this trip because the accommodations are really over-priced. Also, it is irritating that the owners promise to stock the many seed feeders year-round but rarely do so.

At 7:00 Saturday evening we drove five miles down the road to join a tour to see the Rio Frio / Concan colony of 10-12 million Mexican Free-tailed Bats.

 

With several other vehicles we drove up to the cave where the bats come to have their babies every summer.

While we waited for the bats to emerge, the guide told us about the history of the cave and the guano harvesting that has taken place there for well over a hundred years. We were also entertained by scores of Cave Swallows flying in and out of the cave, by a Canyon Wren singing on top of an abandoned guano drier, and by a tarantula crawling around on the ground.

"Here come the bats," the guide said. We looked, expecting initially to see only a dribble of bats flying out. We were wrong. The bats immediately poured out in their thousands, many of them only yards above our heads.

The spectacle was overwhelming as a constant stream of bats flew out and then spread across the sky in huge clouds and streams. 

A couple of bats dropped out of the sky to land on their backs near our feet. One of them then turned over and crawled onto my sandal.

High in the sky a Peregrine Falcon  hunted among the bats.

As the sun set, the clouds of bats made a wonderful sight against the darkening orange sky.

From what we'd read before the trip, we been expecting a dramatic sight. However, the reality was even better than we had dared to hope. This really is one of the great wildlife spectacles. I put it right up there with viewing humpback whales off Maui or watching lions in Kruger National Park.

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Hill Country Trip: Part 4

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Tuesday morning I got up before (a very foggy) dawn, bought a bag of birdseed at HEB in Uvalde and drove the 20 miles up toNeal's Lodges. I spread some of the seed around the feeders near Cabin 56 and then headed back to Uvalde to collect Dee. My hope was that the fog would have lifted and birds would have discovered the seed by the time we returned.

As it turned out, it was still foggy when Dee and I reached Neal's Lodges, and so it was difficult to get photos. However, the seed had certainly attracted plenty of birds!

First up was a Spotted Towhee, always a pleasure to see. This particular bird kept returning to feed every few minutes over the hour we watched.

Next up were a couple of Black-throated Sparrows, to my mind the most beautiful of all the sparrows.

A dozen or more Chipping Sparrows constantly searched for seeds on the ground while male and female Lesser Goldfinches checked out the feeders or perched on branches above them.

A pair of Pyrrhuloxias would creep up, take a few seeds and then disappear back into the bushes.

Black-crested Titmice were among the most common visitors. Sometimes they came for water.

Sometimes they came for seed.

There were other, more common birds also, of course. Several Northern Cardinals hovered around, occasionally popping in for a snack, as did some Carolina Chickadees and House Finches.

So, although the fog had made photography difficult, our second visit to Neal's Lodges had turned out to be much more successful than our first one and that one bag of seed from HEB had certainly more than repaid its cost.
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Hill Country Trip: Part 2

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The first of our two full days in the Uvalde area dawned bright and sunny, so we drove up to Neal's Lodges in Concan. We had high hopes because the Lodges' website mentioned that they had put up even more feeders than usual this year. Well, when we got there we found that they had indeed put up lots of feeders - but they hadn't actually filled any of them!

The feeding station near Cabin 56 had only a few common birds, such as Carolina Chickaddes and House Finches.

However, further up the trail we came across a pair of Bewick's Wrens outfitting a birdhouse.

Several Golden-fronted Woodpeckers were busy nearby.

We walked down by the river and watched Lesser Goldfinch and Black-crested Titmice (below) visiting a fully-stocked feeding station  near one of the cabins.

While Dee watched the feeder birds, I followed a pair of Vermilion Flycatchers along the river bank.

I also got a look at a pair of Red-shouldered Hawks before they took flight and disappeared.

Back at the Lodges' store, the trees were busy with Cedar Waxwings.

There were several Eurasian Collared Doves around, too.

We had lunch at the Lodges' restaurant. As we were leaving, another Golden-fronted Woodpecker was kicking up a racket.

Rather disappointed with the birding in Concan, we decided to head back to Uvalde to check out the town's Fish Hatchery and to pay another visit to Cook's Slough. Surely these two sites would produce some interesting birds!
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Hill Country Trip: Day 2

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We were up early on Sunday to make our 20+ mile drive to Concan. We'd heard that Bob Rasa, a well-known local birder, was going to be leading a birdwalk around Neal's Lodges at 8:00 a.m. and we were hoping to tag along.

Bob was there when we arrived and, while we waited to see if anyone else turned up, he pointed out a Yellow-throated Warbler in the trees right in front of Neal's store. The morning was too dark and gloomy for good photos but I rather like the one impressionistic shot I got of the Yellow-throated.

When it became clear that we were going to be the only participants in the morning's walk, Bob took us down to the feeders at Cabin 56 to see what was happening there. It was busy and got even busier over the next 30 minutes.

A succession of sparrows showed up: White-crowned, Chipping, Rufous-crowned, Clay-colored and Lincoln's.

 

Lincoln's Sparrow

Black-chinned Hummingbirds buzzed around while Northern Cardinals and a male House Finch competed to see who could best brighten up the morning.

Black-crested Titmice made constant trips to the platform feeder.

 

 

 

Then one of my favorite birds appeared: a Black-throated Sparrow. We'd seen these before, at Marathon on our visits to Big Bend, but we'd never had really good looks until now. A spectacular bird!

Bob was determined to take us to see the star bird of Neal's Lodges, the Golden-cheeked Warbler, and so he and I set off to look for it. Dee stayed behind because she wasn't dressed for scrambling across rough country.


On the way to the hill where Bob hoped to show me the Golden-cheeked, he drove me down to the bank of the Rio Frio. Northern Rough-winged Swallows were zooming overhead while Canyon Wrens were calling from both sides, their calls sometimes joined by those of a Belted Kingfisher. We passed a pair of Eastern Phoebes who had built a nest in a hole in a large boulder.


Feeders at a house on stilts were attracting lots of American and Lesser Goldfinch as well as several Pine Siskins. We looked for Green Kingfisher - a bird I desperately want to see - on the river bank but saw only a White-eyed Vireo.

Back in Bob's truck, we drove across the river to a hill on the other side. For the next hour we walked and scrambled around the places where Bob had most recently seen the Golden-cheeked Warbler. Bob kept hearing the bird's soft chipping call but all we saw was a Hutton's Vireo, a bird I hadn't seen since leaving California.

Then we got lucky and had a quick glimpse of a Golden-cheeked up in a tree. Another Golden-cheeked called from the next tree over. And this time it stayed visible long enough for me to take some photos. Not great pictures but good enough to show the bird's distinctive face markings.

By now it was 11:00 a.m. and I thanked Bob and headed back to find Dee. While she and I were waiting for lunch to be served at Neal's Dining Room, I walked back to the feeders at Cabin 56. Things had quietened down a little there but I noticed that a pair of Bewick's Wrens were nesting in a dead tree only feet from where people sit to watch the feeders.

At 11:30 we stopped birding to have (a very good) lunch a Neal's. It wasn't quite the end of our birding, though, because right outside the dining room I looked up to see a Golden-fronted Woodpecker climbing around in a tree.

The woodpecker was our final bird at Neal's. After lunch we set off on our drive back to San Antonio, where we were staying the night. However, we were hoping for some more good sightings on Monday morning, when we intended to visit Mitchell Lake before heading home.
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