Night Walk

This evening we got together with some of the other volunteers and walked into Santa Ana about 7:00 p.m. for a night walk. We were hoping to see elf owls.

We birded our way to the hawk tower and saw lots of White Ibis.


White Ibis
The brown and white Ibis are immatures

We came across this Nine-banded Armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus).


The nine-banded Armadillo is the only North American mammal protected by bony skin plates. It was first reported in south Texas in the mid 1800s. It crosses streams either by walking across the bottom or by swallowing air so it can float and swim across.

We walked to the hawk tower and had a magnificent view of sunset. We saw lots of Great Egrets, Roseate Spoonbills, and Cormorants. It was very windy so we couldn't hear much from on top of the tower.


Hundreds of Great Egrets flying into a night roost.


Sunset from the Hawk Tower

About dark we walked down from the tower and stood on the tram road. We heard a Screech Owl but didn’t see it. We never did see or hear a Elf Owl. We stayed out till a little after 8:00 then started walking back. We stopped a few times to look at stars and constellations.