Highlights:
- Easy to explore large Live Oak motte
- Small lake with mudflats for shorebirds
Trail Length: ~.5 mi.
The Location
Devine Lake Park is a small, easy to walk city park. It features public restrooms, a partially shaded sidewalk to the water, and benches along the shoreline. In between the parking lot and the water is a large group of mature Live Oaks that provide a nearly solid connected canopy.
This park is popular with dog walkers and families with young children due to the playground near the lake.
Birding Recommendations
There’s two main areas to check: the oak motte and the lake. Start behind the restrooms adjacent to the parking lot and work your way through the trees. There’s no understory so walking is easy. You’ll find an assortment of passerines flitting through the leaves. Spend extra time here during migration looking for vireos and warblers.
The lake itself hosts the expected ducks, herons, and egrets. If the waterline has had time to recede since the last rainfall then small mudflats are created. These can be great for shorebirds. Migration can bring Phalaropes, Dowitchers, Godwits, and all the expected peep species.
Only the southern portion of the shoreline is accessible, the rest must been scanned from a distance. Although the lake isn’t particularly large you’ll need a scope to adequately scan the middle and distant areas of water and shoreline.
Overall, Devine Lake is a great little park that packs a punch. Migration periods are especially productive, and there’s always something to look at along the lake edge.
Happy Birding!
