Birding at Purgatory Creek Natural Area

  Twelve hardy souls rose at the crack of dawn June 7th to begin another birding hike under partly cloudy skies. The group led by Stephen Ramirez started at the Hunter Road trail head and wound their way through grasslands, forest and open fields to the top of the spillway for some interesting sightings.
   The list, provided by Gene Majors, is impressive for the numbers of bird species we saw in less than an hour-and-a-half of travel. The only downside to the adventure was the number of mosquitoes following the recent rains.   --LJ

Melissa Millicam views through scope

1 Great Blue Heron
1 Great Egret
1 Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
1 Turkey Vulture
2 White-winged Dove
1 Mourning Dove
 1 Yellow-billed Cuckoo
1 Chimney Swift
1 Ruby-throated/Black-chinned Hummingbird
1 Golden-fronted Woodpecker
1 Ladder-backed Woodpecker
2 woodpecker sp.
4 Eastern Phoebe
1 Western Kingbird
3 White-eyed Vireo
1 Barn Swallow
1 Cave Swallow
1 Carolina Chickadee
2 Black-crested Titmouse
3 Canyon Wren
1 Carolina Wren
1 Bewick's Wren
4 Northern Mockingbird
1 Summer Tanager
4 Northern Cardinal
3 Painted Bunting
1 Dickcissel
5 Great-tailed Grackle
1 Brown-headed Cowbird
1 House Finch
5 Lesser Goldfinch
1 House Sparrow
1 Inca Dove