Bird count along the Bosque River Trail August 26, 2026. Many yellow birds.

Weather - clear directly overhead, clouds all around, no wind, temp ~80 degrees at 7:00 am. About 9:30 am smoke from large brush fires out west blow through the BRT area.

Bird count - types moderate, numbers low.

Yellow birds - I saw a total of six yellow birds today. I got a good look at two yellow birds, and they were Yellow Warblers. I saw a third Yellow Warbler across the river from the first two, but it may have just been one of the first two that just flew across the Bosque. The other four birds I did not get a good look at. They seemed to be small and mostly yellow. They were in bushes and brush along the river. They flitted quickly within and between foliage. It seems likely that they were all yellow warblers. I did see one yellow bird that seemed to be a duller yellow than the Yellow Warblers.

House Finches and companions - I watched a flock of seventeen House Finches. They were scratching around on the ground south of the dam. Also flying around with the Finches were a pair of Blue Gray Gnatcatchers, a Ladderback Woodpecker, and a Cardinal. Maybe they were just randomly all in the same area. The Gnatcatchers did seem to be part of the flock of House Finches. They sat in tree branches above the House Finch flock and periodically flew down briefly to the ground. It is possible that the Finch flock was stirring up bugs which the Gnatcatchers were snatching up.

Green Heron - I watched a Green Heron attempting to fish near the footbridge. I managed to take a whole bunch of fuzzy pictures of the Heron.

Puddle 1 - Drying up quickly. I didn’t see any snakes today, and there was no Great Blue Heron. I also didn’t see any Perch. The water was muddy, so it was hard to see down to any depth, but it is possible that the predators have eaten all the Perch. There were still plenty of small black catfish in the puddle, but not as many as there originally were.

Puddle 3 and Puddle 2 - I saw three or four Perch in Puddle 2, but nothing in Puddle 3.

Bird Types - 18 - 19 Bird numbers - 74 - 75.

Number‍ ‍Type

17 House finches - one flock

15 Grackles

11 Cardinals

4 Mourning Doves

4 Small yellow birds - type unknown - possibly Yellow Warblers

3 Doves - type unknown

3 House Sparrows

3 - 2 Yellow Warblers

2 Eastern Phoebes

2 Blue Gray Gnatcatchers

1 Scissortail Flycatcher

1 Green heron

1 Robin

1 Mockingbird

1 Carolina Wren

1 Chickadee

1 Red Bellied Woodpecker

1 Starling

1 Great Blue Heron

1 Ladderback Woodpecker

1 Killdeer - heard but not seen