Monday, May 09, 2016

Migration nearer Home

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Floods, work and preparations for selling our house have conspired to prevent us from doing another birding trip since our weekend visit to High Island, Bolivar and Galveston. So I've been restricted to occasional birding in our local area.

On a trip to apply for my first US passport I fitted in a half-hour of birding at Warren Ranch Lake, where the trees by the road had a few migrants.

Yellow-rumped Warblers were looking very spiffy in their breeding plumage. 


An Eastern Wood-Pewee was flycatching from a branch.



Nearby I spotted my first Ruby-throated Hummingbird of the year.



Some days later we made a brief visit to the Edith L Moore Nature Center. Apart from a couple of Swainson's Thrushes, the only migrant we saw was this beautiful Black-and-White Warbler.






Early May is usually a good time for spotting migrants on the CyFair campus and this year was no exception. During my final days of work at the college a few short walks around the nature trail turned up a nice selection of birds.

There were two vireo species: Red-eyed and Warbling.





Baltimore Orioles appeared on several different days.



Two Summer Tanagers turned up several days apart.



The seven warbler species I saw included a couple of Chestnut-sided Warblers.





On several days Magnolia Warblers flitted around the trail. 





American Redstarts also passed through on several days. 


I was disappointed to see only one Rose-breasted Grosbeak, and that a female.


However, my disappointment disappeared when a male Rose-breasted Grosbeak decided to make use of the suet feeder in our front yard. That was a nice addition to our list of yard birds!





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