Katy Prairie Towhee

.Hearing that Jim Hinson was still finding Green-tailed Towhees at the Cypress Creek bridge on Sharp Road, I drove out there yesterday morning. As it happened, Jim was there when I arrived and we spent some time birding the creek banks together. 

The south side of the road was busy with White-throated and White-crowned Sparrows, as well as with several other birds - Northern Cardinals, Carolina Chickadees, Northern Mockingbird, Downy Woodpecker, Red-bellied Woodpecker and Brown Thrasher. Before I got there, Jim had been watching a Spotted Towhee, but this was now nowhere to be seen!

We moved over to the north side of the road and Jim almost immediately called up a Green-tailed Towhee, which perched in full view for a couple of minutes. 

As soon as the Towhee disappeared, a group of Chipping Sparrows turned up and brought with them a Dark-eyed Junco. 

Surprisingly, that's only the third Junco I've seen in Texas. (Of course, I saw a lot more of them in California on the weekend. But I'll start reporting on that trip tomorrow.).
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