Peter Keyel's County Listing Guide in the Southern High Plains

General Considerations

With the exception of Lubbock, the South Plains are very underbirded. This means there is a paucity of hotspots, many rarities go unfound, and ebird tools are less helpful than in other counties. It is also an opportunity to find new birding locations and learn how to identify good birding spots. In general, most of the region is private property, with either no access, or only access from the road. Fences, signs and purple paint on trees/fence posts/etc all indicate “No Trespassing” in Texas, and the laws strongly favor landowners over trespassers. Many of the roads shown on Google maps may be private, so it is best to scout areas and have backups in case your planned route doesn’t quite work. In general, assume that TX highways, Farm-to-Market (FM) and Ranch-to-Market (RM) roads are paved, while most county roads are dirt. These can rapidly become impassible following rains, and may remain too muddy to navigate even a few days after heavy rainfall. Be careful out on county roads because AAA towing stipulates towing with “standard equipment”, which is usually from the nearest paved road. If you are half a mile down a dirt road, that will not help you. In 2016, I had better success with the Geico emergency roadside service included with my car insurance because they arranged for a 4x4 tow to extract my vehicle from mud about a mile down a dirt county road. If other insurance companies offer roadside emergency services, it is worth checking if they will tow from dirt roads. A final birding challenge is that much of the habitat is cotton fields, oil/wind land and ranching. The upside is that even small copses of trees can prove to be great migrant traps on the right day.

To find birding spots on your own, the main two draws are trees and water. Trees are most concentrated around towns, and birding the alleyways and streets can yield some good migrants or rare passerines. Outside of towns, some homes may have planted a large number of trees for privacy or as wind breaks. Birding these places should be done carefully, as people are wary of strangers lingering around. Google satellite images can help reveal large concentrations of trees. Finding reliable water is trickier. Water levels fluctuate based on rainfall, and some counties may be wet when others are drying out. Google maps does not reliably show wet areas, and not every playa may be filled under most conditions. It is possible to use Landsat imagery can show currently wet playas (within last 16 days), though some playas worth birding may only be a few pixels wide. Sewage ponds often have embankments, so observers may need to stand on their vehicle to see in to the ponds, though treatment ponds are otherwise typically good sources of water. Feedlots often have ponds visible from the road as well. Small draws (eg places that have a creek in very wet years) often hold passerines even when dry, and may be worth stopping to bird. The caprock edge is also typically better habitat.

While expert birders may get 90-100+ species in a single day of birding in most of these counties, it is probably better to expect that it will require several trips to get 100 species. For example, it took me ~10 trips to Cochran and Lamb in all seasons to get those lists barely over 100. For difficult counties, you may need to bird in all 4 seasons and hope for good migration days. Migration in the Southern High Plains is either very good or non-existent. Generally, it seems under good migration conditions, the birds mostly fly over without stopping. When fronts stall them in the area, the lack of habitat concentrates them in a few areas, which can give excellent species diversity. Migration can feature Eastern, Western or both Eastern and Western species so some species groups may require more consideration in the region than elsewhere (eg east Texas) due to the overlap of many similar species. Some species common in the eastern parts of Texas are much rarer in the Southern High Plains, so birders should be aware of different potential ID challenges. See “Similar Species” for more information.

Amarillo and Lubbock are the closest “big cities” and will have the most reasonable gas prices. Once you get out of those cities, gas prices will typically increase by 10-50 cents/gallon. Small towns may not even have a gas station, and restaurant choices tend to be extremely limited. While hotels are available in smaller towns like Muleshoe and Brownfield, most of these counties are within 1-1.5 hr drive from Lubbock. RV or tent camping is available in most counties and will provide a better shot at night birds.

Target Species

I found it helpful to have target goals for different groups of birds. The breakdown that follows is not monophyletic, and the taxonomists reading this may cringe, but it helps make things manageable. The target numbers are based on the average number of species I found across these counties with county list totals 100-120. Consequently, in some counties, you will exceed certain targets easily and fall short in other counties (Belted Kingfisher is easy in Lubbock, tough in Cochran). Passerines account for only 47 of the species because of the challenges in finding good passerine spots on the correct day of migration. In general, waterfowl, shorebirds, raptors, flycatchers, sparrows and icterids are all reasonably diverse.

Geese/Swans	2
Ducks	12
Gamebirds	2
Misc Waterfowl	2
Herons	4
Diurnal Raptors	7
Coot/Rails/Cranes	2
Shorebirds	10
Gulls/Terns	0
Doves	4
Cuckoos	1
Owls	2

Goatsuckers/Swifts	1
Hummingbids	0
Kingfishers	0
Woodpeckers	3
Falcons	2
Flycatchers	5
Shrikes/Vireos	1
Corvids	2
Swallows	3
Wrens	1
Parid/paridlike birds	2
Thrush	2

Mimids/Thrashers	2
Small taxa	3
Warbler	3
Longspurs	0
Sparrow	10
Tanagers	0
Cardinal/Buntings	2
Icterids	8
Finches/HOSP	3

Misc Waterfowl includes loons, grebes, cormorants, pelicans, boobies, etc Diurnal Raptors include vultures, hawks, osprey and eagles but EXCLUDES falcons and owls Cuckoos include Greater Roadrunner, Yellow-billed Cuckoo and Black-billed Cuckoo Parid/parid-like birds are nuthatches, creepers, chickadees, titmice, kinglets, gnatcatchers Small taxa include anis, Monk Parakeet, larks, Verdin, pipits, starlings, waxwings, Phainopepla Finches/HOSP include finches, crossbills and House Sparrow