Journey to 1000 bird species

East Texas Piney Woods      Bachman's Sparrow is a specialty bird of the Pineywoods. It is a 'Nearly Threatened' species due to loss of it's habitat. The bird is best found when it is singing. It starts singing from March mid, and it would be better for me to chase it in March rather than in April so that I can look at passage migrants in April. I had put off finding the bird until now as it is out of the way from anywhere. There is no reliable spot near Houston.  The best spot in Texas is Angelina National Forest which is 4.5 hrs away from Austin. Bachman's Sparrow       I took tea in a flask, some energy bars and started the drive Sat morning from ATX. I reached at 1:30 pm and slowly drove around Boykin Springs. I heard one singing around 3:30 pm but could not locate it. I heard another one around 4:10 pm, and I was joined by another birder visiting from out of the country. None of us could spot it, and we decided to play a tape. Out ...

Chase 3:  Little Gull with Franklin's Gull on left      The third chase was for the Little Gull. The bird was being seen periodically at White Rock Lake in Dallas. A scope would be useful, but I don't have one. Looking at ebird reports, it appeared that the bird is fairly reliable at day-break at the spillway. Low temperatures and precipitation were expected Saturday and Sunday. Saturday looked relatively better. That gave me two shots at the bird for viewing at dawn. If needed I could spend time on the banks of the lake and wait for the bird to fly or come closer. My phone started misbehaving recently, and I could not use data or gps. I struggled with the routes by putting what I see around me and the address of the final destination in the offline maps to get directions, and made it to the spillway 15-20 mins later than planned. There were other birders, most of whom I believe were targeting Western Gull. I learnt that the Little Gull was seen in the spil...