Staying near Home

.As we're in a drought, it's great that it's been raining every day recently - except that it means I haven't been going on any birding trips. Luckily the retention ponds on CyFair campus are still attracting birds, though not in the numbers they were a week ago.

Every day we seem to have a handful of Great and Snowy Egrets, the former much larger than  the latter and with a yellow (not black) bill.

Our rafts of 100-200 American Coots have disappeared and we now have only a dozen or two Coots, often hanging out near the "waterfalls".

Double-crested Cormorants are always present - sometimes only a few and sometimes 30-40. Ring-necked Duck numbers are down, too, from 100+ to only 6-7. Two Redheads have been hanging out with the Ring-necked.

Yesterday we had a brief break in the rain and I spent it in Little Cypress Creek Preserve, which is only a few hundred yards from our house. The trails were flooded but there were plenty of resident birds around - Red-bellied and Downy Woodpeckers, Mourning Doves, Blue Jays, Cardinals, carolina Wrens, Carolina Chickadees and both types of Vulture. A spotted Towhee appeared too briefly for me to get a photo but Field and Lincoln's Sparrows stayed in view longer.

A Pine Warbler was a welcome sight, since I've seen very few this winter.

Back at home our hummer feeders continue to get frequent visits from a Rufous Hummingbird.

We've now put up a total of 5 feeders and so we're hoping to attract more hummingbirds. Keep your fingers crossed for us!
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