From Jason Bonilla, Houston Audubon Society:

Hi all. We had a good morning of birding today at Woodland Park with 29 Taxa recorded. The highlight for me was Purple Finch, a new bird for the park. This bird is now a rare bird for our area though this winter seems to be the year for them. There have been several Purple Finch sightings around at least Harris, Fort Bend, and Brazoria counties this winter. Keep your eye out at your feeders this winter for them. You are more likely to see the female type (which is what we saw) since immature males look similar to the females. The full bird list from today is below and spreadsheet for all years attached. Our next Woodland Park survey will be on Saturday January 19th at 7:30am next year.

PS, the Central Houston Christmas Bird Count is tomorrow, Monday December 17th. If interested, let me know and I'll put you in contact with the organizer to get signed up. Our area team is meeting at Woodland Park at 7:00am tomorrow. We will bird until the count down dinner which will be held at Houston Audubon's Sims Bayou Urban Nature Center at 6pm. You can participate as much or as little as you wish and you don't have to attend the dinner if you don't want to but will need to rsvp if you are attending the count down dinner.

Happy Holidays! Jason

White-winged Dove - 25
Morning Dove - 8
Neotropic Cormorant - 1
Neotropic/Double-crested Cormorant - 2
Great Egret - 1
Osprey - 2
Cooper's Hawk - 1
Red-tailed Hawk - 1
Belted Kingfisher - 1 (perched with a wiggling little fish in it's bill)
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker - 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 4
Downy Woodpecker - 1
Northern Flicker - 2
Blue-headed Vireo - 1
Blue Jay - 10
Tufted Titmouse - 1
Carolina Wren - 3
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - 3
Red-vented Bulbul - 5
Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 5
American Robin - 15
European Starling - 3
Cedar Waxwing - 50
Purple Finch - 2
American Goldfinch - 14
Great-tailed Grackle - 50
Orange-crowned Warbler - 3
Yellow-rumped Warbler - 5
Northern Cardinal - 7