Texas trip - W. G. Jones State Park - 23 March

At a site just north of Houston is a site that contains the westernmost populations of two birds I missed on last summer's east coast road trip, Red-cockaded Woodpecker and Brown-headed Nuthatch. This being probably my last opportunity to catch up with these I took a detour and spent the morning tracking them down. The woodpecker was easy enough. The nesting colonies are well marked (green rings painted on the base of the trees). They are pretty quiet, but woodpeckers stand out and I got views of 4 different birds.

The nuthatch was much harder, though I did eventually catch up with one exploring a nesting box (which I'm pretty sure was intended for the Eastern Bluebirds in the area.

On the way north I spotted a Swainson's Hawk hunting over a field.

Red-cockaded Woodpecker. The red cockade is the only thing separating males from females, but it's virtually invisible, so I've no idea of the sex of this bird. Quite nice though!

Brown-headed Nuthatch.

Swainson's Hawk.