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I spent part of yesterday trying to get more familiar with my new camera by taking lots of shots of the birds at the feeder outside our livingroom window.

Yesterday this feeder was very busy with Chipping Sparrows. Several would crowd onto it while others lined up and waited on nearby perches - a fence, a wooden windchime, a hanging basket and the branches of a wisteria. Some would give up and settle for scavenging for seeds on the ground below the feeder.


Given the number of birds involved, there was inevitably a lot of squabbling and jockeying for position.


After a while, the birds were so used to me that they let me approach within about 3 feet, which allowed me to appreciate just how beautiful they are - and to take some close-up portraits.











All the activity at the feeder caught the attention of other birds, including this House Sparrow, a bird that visits our yards only a couple of times a year.

Tomball and Cypress

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Yesterday Dee and I spent a couple of hours in Spring Creek Park in Tomball.

As soon as we stepped out of the car, we were surrounded by bird activity. The cloudy, gray morning was brightened up by the calls of Red-bellied Woodpecker, Carolina Wren, Northern Cardinal, Carolina Chickadees and Blue Jays. The pine trees around us had several flocks of small birds: Pine Warblers, Carolina Chickadees, Chipping Sparrows and American Goldfinch.

Dee spotted a Brown Creeper, a bird that I rarely see anywhere except Spring Creek Park. Unfortunately, it and most of the other birds were too high in the trees for clear photos, although I did get one recognizable shot of a Tufted Titmouse.


The next few minutes turned up several other species, including a Northern Flicker, an Eastern Bluebird, Yellow-rumped Warblers and Ruby-crowned Kinglets. A group of 11 Turkey Vultures passed slowly overhead, soon followed by four Black Vultures.

We spent an hour walking through the woods, only to find the latter were virtually empty of bird activity. All we saw was a flock of 20-30 Cedar Waxwings and a flight of nine American Crows. So a rather disappointing end to a morning that had started out very promisingly.

Back at home our yards were hosting most of the usual suspects, including White-winged Doves, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, House Finches and Carolina Chickadees.

Carolina Chickadee

The platform feeder, lawn and flower beds in the front yard were being worked over by some 30 Chipping Sparrows. Our female Downy Woodpecker was on the suet feeder.


As she's usually very aggressive towards competitors, I was surprised to see that she was willing to let one of the Chipping Sparrows share the feeder.

A New Hide

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I spent some time in our front yard yesterday, trying to get photos of Yellow-rumped Warblers and Ruby-crowned Kinglets with my new camera. At first I couldn't get anywhere near them. Then I realized I had the perfect hide available - my car sitting in the driveway. Birds never worry much about cars anyway and our birds are used to our car being out in the driveway. So I spent 30 minutes sitting in the car. It was cold but not as cold as outside, and it let me take photos from just 15 feet away from the elm tree that many of our birds love.

I thought I got some great pictures. But when I loded them on the computer I found that most weren't really sharp. I guess I'm going to have to take more care to hold the camera still when it has the long zoom lens attached.

Some shots of a Yellow-rumped Warbler came out okay ...


and I finally got a shot of a Chipping Sparrow not on a feeder.


Shots of a Ruby-crowned were okay but not really sharp.


Overall, the yard was very busy. Most of our regular visitors were around, plus we had two less common visitors. One was an Orange-crowned Warbler. He didn't get to stay long, though, because a Yellow-rumped chased him away.

Orange-crowned Warbler

The other was a Blue Jay. Not an unusual yardbird, I know, but one that has hardly ever appeared in our yards in the past six months. Unfortunately, this one was a long way from the car and always in deep shade.

More Eyes, More Birds

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When it comes to birding, I usually prefer to avoid groups and to go out alone or with only my wife.This leaves me freer to decide where to wander, when to start, how long to stay, etc. However, birding with a group certainly has its advantages. One is that having more eyes on the job means you usually see more birds. Another advantage is that, assuming you are with some expert birders, you end up with fewer unidentified birds on your list. A third benefit is that you almost always learn more about bird behavior.

All of these results were very evident yesterday morning when I went on a birdwalk at Sheldon Lake State Park. (In my view, Sheldon is the most undervalued birding site in the Houston area.) In just over two hours I saw 46 species and, thanks to my fellow birders, my final list didn't have any unidentified birds on it. I also learned some interesting facts, such as that Ruby-crowned Kinglets raise their red crests when they are irritated.

However, the highlight of the day for me started before I had even joined the birdwalk. On my way to the Environmental Center, I stopped to check out one of the fishing jetties. I got out of the car, heard a noise above me and looked up. There on a utility pole and just 20 feet above my head was one of my favorite birds, a Pileated Woodpecker.The bird stayed still plenty long enough for me to fiddle around with my new camera and get some decent photos.


The walk itself was very productive right from the start. While we were waiting for everyone to arrive, the trees nearby were hopping with Cedar Waxwings, American Robins, Yellow-rumped Warblers and Ruby-crowned Kinglets.

Cedar Waxwing

Then the first pond we visited had a nice selection of birds: Little Blue Heron, Great and Snowy Egrets, Anhingas, Belted Kingfisher, Ring-necked Duck and Canvasback.

Little Blue Heron

Anhinga

The next couple of ponds added Common Moorhen, American Coots, Pied-billed Grebes and more Anhingas.

Througout our walk around the ponds we were surrounded by Ruby-crowned Kinglets (many showing their crowns), Yellow-rumped Warblers and Blue-gray Gnatcatchers. As all of these are birds that tend to move around quickly and unpredictably, they were a good test of my ability to use my new camera. And I didn't do too well. It's clearly going to take me quite a while to get used to the new equipment.

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

The final section of the walk took us out to the restored prairie area behind the Environmental Center. I got a fine view of a Northern Harrier but unfortunately had to head home just before the group reached ponds that had groups of White Ibis and a range of ducks. Still seeing 46 species in a morning had certainly made the trip worthwhile.

Bird Trivia

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In 1958 Chairman Mao Tse-tung decided that sparrows were eating too much of China's grain harvest and so he declared a national war on the birds.

Over the next several months, people all over China banged pots and pans to scare sparrows and keep them flying around until they collapsed of exhaustion. One 16-year-old buy, Yang Seh-mun, became a national hero by taking a more direct approach. He killed 20,000 sparrows by climbing up to their night roosting sites and strangling the birds he found there.

Millions of birds were killed across China and their carcasses were sometimes paraded through the streets.I


The "war" was a success and the year's grain harvest was significantly increased.

However, the Chinese had ignored the fact that nature operates by a system of checks and balances. The absence of sparrows meant that there were no longer enough birds in the country to keep insect populations in check. As a result, the 1959 grain crops were devastated by a plague of locusts - and the ensuing food shortage killed some 10 million Chinese.
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Let Us Now Praise Common Birds

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Originally natives of south Texas, White-winged Doves have been extending their range northwards for the past couple of decades and they are now common residents of our area. It's a pretty unusual day when we don't see one or two in our yards, And we sometimes get 20 or 30 of them on and around our feeders. They have become so common here that I tend to ignore them and many birders regard them as "trash birds".

However, whenever I stop and really look at them, I realize that they are actually very beautiful birds. And then I remember how excited I was when I first saw one, while waiting for the Bolivar ferry in Galveston.

These two White-winged Doves were on the platform feeder in our front yard yesterday and I thought they deserved a blog entry.

Kleb Woods Action

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Lured by recent reports of lots of sparrows at Kleb Woods, I headed up there at 8:15 on Sunday morning.

Although it was cold and foggy, I was assured by the weather forecasters that the day would soon become sunny and warm.


The forecasters were wrong. It stayed foggy and distinctly cool for the whole two hours that I spent there. However, this did not deter birds from appearing in numbers.

An initial walk around the main trail produced a Red-bellied Woodpecker, Orange-crowned Warblers, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, American Crows, Blue Jays and an Eastern Phoebe.

The edges of the path were lined with scores of spider webs. Combined with the fog, this gave the place a rather spooky atmosphere and I wouldn't have been too surprised if the ghost of old Elmer "Lumpy" Kleb himself had appeared.


I moved on to walk the path up to the site's wetland area.




The wetland was quiet once a Great Egret and a pair of Blue-winged Teal had flown off, disturbed by my presence.

The hedgerow was a different story and was busy throughout my visit. Common birds were plentiful: Yellow-rumped and Orange-crowned Warblers, Carolina Chickadees, Northern Mockingbirds, Eastern Phoebe, American Robins, Tufted Titmouse, lots of Ruby-crowned Kinglets, and even more lots of Northern Cardinals.

The calls of Carolina Wrens brightened up the morning and I also spotted a Sedge Wren and a House Wren. Eight Snow Geese were just visible as they flew overhead in the fog. Then, finally, another bird that I had been looking out for over the past couple of weeks, Cedar Waxwings. Once you see Cedar Waxwings around, you know for sure that winter has arrived in southeast Texas.

I walked back to the main site to bird the area just behind the mailbox right at the main entrrance to the parking area. In the winter, this is always a great spot for sparrows.

As I approached, a crowd of Northern Cardinals and sparrows flew up from the ground and disappeared into the nearby bushes. I settled down to wait, hidden behind the electricity boxes, and it wasn't long before the birds resumed their ground feeding.

Several Northern Cardinals were the first to return but they were soon followed by Chipping and Song Sparrows. Then two species I hadn't yet seen this fall: White-throated Sparrow and Lincoln's Sparrow. Unfortunately, as you can see from the photo below, the light was really too bad for photography.

White-throated Sparrow

Overall, not a bad couple of hours' birding: 23 species, including 4 FOS (First of Season) birds.