Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge (pt 1), Texas

Posted bymatt93111Posted inUncategorizedTags:, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Last weekend we took a trip north from Dallas to the Texas – Oklahoma border to the Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge. Situated close to Sherman, the refuge is over 11,000 acres squared and is famous as a haven for migratory birds. All year round you can visit here and see a whole plethora of different wildlife. There’s a range of trails you can take which wind through the woods, and also past a lot of pools which are perfect environments for the birds. As well as that you can also drive their scenic road all through the wetlands and see the birds from the comfort of your own car. In the winter the refuge is most famous for the migratory geese which arrive in the thousands. Unfortunately i haven’t had chance to edit the photos I took of them yet, so I will do another post soon of this place as it really was an incredible place to visit. With this post i’ll just share a photos of other birds which we encountered here.

I’m very new to the world of bird watching so feel free to correct me if mis-identify their species. This one i believe is a Great Blue Heron. Driving down through the reserve there were a lot of them in the shallows of the water. I think they are resident here in Texas all year round. They seemed pretty tame, you could get quite close to them without them flying away. I love the darker blue colours on their wings, certainly interesting creatures.
A few ducks enjoying the company of the Heron.
One thing i’ve realised trying to get into bird watching is how difficult it is to identify birds in another country. I’m sure there’s some overlap with birds back in England but a lot of them here I’m totally unfamiliar with. So if i do get their species wrong please do correct me as i’d love to know what they actually are. This i believe is an Eastern Phoebe. At the refuge we did one of the trails through the woods. As we arrived so early in the morning there was literally nobody there, managed to see this guy through the trees though as we waited for his breakfast by a pool.
I think this is an Eastern Bluebird, it was just sitting in a tree on the edge of one of the trails. I’m really looking forward to going back here in the Spring as apparently this is an amazing time of year to see the birds in North Texas. Hopefully if we can pick a drier day we’ll be able to walk more of the trails as unfortunately when we visited recently they were incredibly muddy from some storms earlier that morning.
You can see here what the trails look like through the wild brush. All over the refuge whenever you look up there were a lot of birds of prey. From other images i’ve taken and zoomed in i think i had some photos of Northern Harriers & Turkey Vultures but they didn’t turn out as well as i hope. Bald Eagle’s are resident here though all year round so if you ever decide to visit you’ve got a reasonable chance of seeing one.
Here’s an Egret flying by towards Lake Texoma. Interestingly Lake Texoma is one of the biggest Resovoirs in the USA, it was constructed in 1944 by German POWs based in Texas.

Published by matt93111

Howdy, my name’s Matt. I'm originally from England but now live here in the Great State of Texas. Since moving here I thought it would be fun to try something new and enter the world of photo blogging.

4 thoughts on “Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge (pt 1), Texas”

  2. Thank you for sharing your beautiful pictures and commentary of the area. We must come for a visit. Look forward to seeing more pictures of this and future trips.

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