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Lost Pine Warbler LbNA #52417

Owner:Lone Star Quilter
Plant date:Mar 4, 2010
Location:
City:Bastrop
County:Bastrop
State:Texas
Boxes:1
Found by: Open Space
Last found:Mar 14, 2013
Status:FFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
Last edited:Mar 4, 2010
Please notice that the Lost Pine Warbler has been moved to Buescher State Park because of the Bastrop forest fire that destroyed his nest!! Read all of the clue to find his new nesting spot.

The Pine Warbler is a medium warbler with plain olive-gray upperparts, yellow throat and breast, blurry-streaked sides, and white belly and undertail coverts. Wings are gray with two white bars. It is the only warbler that eats large quantities of seeds, usually pine. It is one of the earliest breeding warblers. They breed from southeastern Manitoba, southern Ontario, and Maine south to eastern Texas, the Gulf Coast, and Florida. They spends winters in the southern states, occasionally north to New England. Pine Warblers prefer pine forests. This particular little Pine Warbler was on it's first trip south and was really looking forward to some warm weather. Maine ain't for the birds. Unfortunately, he got separated from his feathery brothers and ended up a hundred miles from the piney woods of East Texas, where they were supposed to meet. He was getting hungry, too, and not a pine tree in sight! He could use a few good pine nuts right now. Just as he thought all was lost and decided to find a feeder somewhere that might have a sunflower seed or two, he spotted a large patch of pine trees! What luck! He didn't even ask how these mighty trees ended up in Bastrop, Texas, he was just grateful that they did. Lunch was right around the corner. When he flew in low for a good look, he noticed that this was a Texas State Park and the people that were driving in had to stop and pay a fee. Luckily, he was a bird, because he wasn't carrying any cash with him. He turned right on Park Road 1A and decided to fly into the Copperas Creek camping area to see if he could find lunch. There was a map painted on the outside wall of the restroom building, so he hovered there and studied it for a minute. Then he saw what he was looking for: Pine Warbler Trail! He turned around and hurried down the road to the tent camping area where he found the trailhead sign for the Red Trail, also known as the Scenic Overlook Trail on some maps. He flew down it for a good ways (you might want to check that map!) until he found the Pine Warbler Trail, also known as the Black Trail. He went a little too far and saw the wildlife viewing blind, so he turned back and found the right trail. I hope you don't do the same. He flew over a wooden bridge and just a little ways up the hill, he saw a trail marker on the left. He looked into the woods in that direction and saw a huge uprooted pine tree. On the back of that tree, on the ground, covered with rocks, he nestled in for a well-deserved lunch. Suddenly he felt an uncomfortable heat and looked around to see if someone was giving him an unexpected housewarming. Fire! The trees were burning! He took to the air and could see that the fire was massive and spreading. He must find a safe place to nest! Flying south, he spotted the intersection of Park Road 1C and Old Antioch Road and followed it to the edge of Buescher State Park where he saw a sign that said Turkey Run, then another that said Speed Limit 30. He stopped under the high line wires and decided to walk into the woods for a better look. He walked 400 steps from the park boundary sign to a trail sign on then right, and turned in that direction. He walked another 160 steps to a 3' stump on the left across from a Loblolly pine on the right that had a trail blaze marker about 6' up on the trunk. He took six more steps, then walked left 12 steps to a medium pine. He built his nest on the ground behind the tree and hid under a pile of rocks. Hopefully he would be safe from the fire. Now to find something to eat!