Few Signs of Migration

.
The past ten days have brought few signs of fall migration in our yards or on the CyFair campus. Two walks at Kleb Woods didn't produce a lot of interesting birds either.

On my first visit to Kleb the site was comparatively quiet. Lots of resident birds appeared but other sightings were limited to a Brown Thrasher and a Great-crested Flycatcher.

My second visit was to take part in last Saturday's bird walk. This produced many more birds, although most were well out of camera range.

One of the ponds had a Snowy Egret (below) as well as four Little Blue Herons, a Tricolored Heron, a Least Sandpiper and two Solitary Sandpipers.

While the area near the visitor center had Indigo Buntings and Scaly-breasted Munias, the trail north of Draper Road was the most productive part of the site, with Eastern Bluebirds (below), both species of Vulture, House Wrens, American Crows, Red-tailed Hawks (below) and my first-of-2015 Brown-headed Nuthatch. 

 

In the field beside the trail, it seemed that every cow was  accompanied by a group of Cattle Egrets.

In Our Yards
 
Back at home several Monarch caterpillars have appeared on our milkweeds.

Unfortunately, most of them disappear within a day or two, presumably eaten by birds or other predators.

Our feeders have continued to attract a large number of our resident birds as well as numerous squirrels. They occasionally attract other animals too.

I'm now looking forward to the arrival of our winter residents. I'm not sure which will be the first to arrive but I suspect that it will be Orange-crowned Warblers. Let's see if I'm right.
.

MLK Day Birding

.
I took advantage of the MLK holiday to spend a couple of hours at Kleb Woods.

When I arrived, the air was absolutely filled with the calls and songs of common residents, such as Blue Jays, Red-bellied Woodpeckers and Northern Cardinals (below).

At the top of one tree, several Tufted Titmice were singing their hearts out. 

The many seed-feeders were attracting large numbers of American Goldfinches while in some places the ground was swarming with Chipping Sparrows (below).

I finally saw my very first Downy Woodpecker of 2015, a bird I usually see in our yards virtually every day of the year. Unfortunately, this one didn't hang around for a photograph. The same was true of a flock of Scaly-breasted Munias, another new year bird.

At Home

Back at home I was surprised to find that our yards were busy. I had thought the bad weather of the first two weeks of 2015 would have brought them to our feeders but very few turned up until this weekend's better weather.

The feeders were busy with Chipping Sparrows, Carolina Chickadees, Orange-crowned Warblers and a Ruby-crowned Kinglet while the birdbath brought in several Yellow-rumped Warblers and a Northern Mockingbird. Our solitary thistle sock-feeder finally caught the attention of a couple of American Goldfinches.

There weren't any American Robins or Cedar Waxwings around but an Eastern Bluebird certainly made a nice showing against the blue sky.

.