Bird count along the Bosque River Trail June 14, 2026

Weather: Clear to the south, mostly overcast to the north, eventually clearing, light wind, humid, temp ~ 75 at 7:10am, upper 90s eventually.

Event 1: Saw a Summer Tanager sitting in the large tree in the hayfield, with four Brown-headed Cowbirds.

Event 2: Pretty exciting. I think I saw a River Otter (not a bird) today. It was in the river next to the south loop trail. I saw a disturbance in the river and saw a head appear soon after. The head appeared and disappeared several times. It looked like an Otter through my binoculars. I managed to get three pictures before the “Otter” disappeared. One pictures is good, but the other two are blurry. The “Otter” was about 100 feet away from me. I am sending the pictures into the Biology Department at Tarleton. I hope it is an Otter, but there is some chance it isn’t. I know it’s not a nutria or beaver as the backs of these critters show when they are swimming. Only the head of the “Otter” showed above the water. Otters haven’t been seen in this part of the Texas for about 100 years.

Types of birds: 29 Number of individual birds: 115

Bird number ‍ ‍Type of bird

18 Cardinals

15 Robins

9 Grackles

8 House Sparrows

6 Barn Swallows

5 White-winged Doves

4. Mississippi Kites

4 Brown-headed Cowbirds

4 Mourning Doves

4 Mockingbirds

3 House Finches - 1 male - 2 females

3 Bluebirds

2 Scissortail Flycatchers

2 Western Kingbirds

2 House Wrens

2 Chickadees

2 Eastern Phoebes

2 Bluejays

1 Black-belly Whistling Duck - flying

1 Killdeer - flying

1 Turkey Vulture

1 Summer tanager

1 Hawk - type unknown - heard but not seen

1 Belted Kingfisher

1 Least flycatcher

1 Red Shouldered Hawk

1 Carolina Wren

1 Great Blue heron

1 Blackbird