A trip to the Caprock Escarpment and High Plains of the Texas Panhandle let me combine a family visit with birding and hiking in an ecoregion far different from my East Texas home.
Caprock Canyons State Park (above), Palo Duro Canyon State Park, and Buffalo Lake National Wildlife Refuge were my primary destinations. Dunbar Lake in Lubbock provided a first sighting of Townsend’s Solitaire for me in Texas.
Lake Theo, Caprock Canyons S.P.
Wikipedia: The Folsom tradition is a Paleo-Indian archaeological culture that occupied much of central North America from c. 10800 BCE to c. 10200 BCE.
Archeologists believe Folsum evolved from the earlier Clovis culture. The timing of Folsum technological innovation coincided with the extinction of most North American megafauna, including the bison bones found here. Whether the extinctions of megafauna were caused by climate change or over-hunting by Paleo Indians or both, is an ongoing area of study.
In transit, overnighted at Palo Pinto Mountains State Park—Texas’ newest, just opened in March 2026.
There I was fortunate to spot a Golden-cheeked Warbler, a species that breeds exclusively in central Texas’ juniper-oak forests.
(click on a frame to enlarge)