Winter Weekend Birding

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Saturday morning I spent an hour at our nearest birding site, Little Cypress Creek Preserve. It was busy with common birds but not much else. However, I did see my first Golden-crowned Kinglet of the year as well as a pair of Red-shouldered Hawks.

On Sunday we drove down to the San Jacinto Monument in hopes of seeing the Long-tailed Duck that has been hanging out there for several weeks. It would be a life bird for me. From the parking lot and the boardwalk I spotted a flock of scores of American White Pelicans (below) plus several new year birds - Vermilion Flycatcher, Brown Thrasher, Roseate Spoonbills, Green-winged Teal and Mottled Duck.

From the end of  a park road I walked out to where two other birders were scoping the bay. One of the birders, Paul Sellin, had the Long-tailed Duck in his scope and let me view the bird. Unfortunately, the duck was too far away for a photo, which was also true of other new year birds I could see - American Avocets and Long-billed Dowitchers.

We drove on to take the Lynchburg Ferry across to Baytown. The beach near the ferry landing had many Laughing Gulls and several more new year birds - Sanderlings, Herring Gulls, Forster's Terns and Royal Terns.

Just after disembarking from the ferry, we had a good if brief luck at a coyote trotting across a grassy area.

Baytown Nature Center was fairly quiet when we arrived and so we had a picnic lunch in the hilltop pavilion. In the distance an Osprey was standing on a partially completed nest while closer to hand a Loggerhead Shrike was hunting.

A Great Egret walked slowly through the water on one side of the hill.

We watched a Brown Pelican fishing on the other side of the hill.

After lunch we strolled along the bayside trail looking for the Eared and Horned Grebes that have been seen many times over recent weeks. We had no luck with the Grebes but I added to my year list with distant views of a Tricolored Heron and a pair of Hooded Mergansers (below).

The walk also produced flyovers by Great Blue Herons and distant looks at some Northern Pintails.

We saw what at first glance looked like a two-headed Red-eared Slider!

 

We did a quick drive out to the furthest jetty but  saw only Great-tailed Grackles.

On our way out of the park we stopped to admire a distant Belted Kingfisher (below) and an Osprey lunching on a fish.

Nearby a Snowy Egret was resting by the edge of a pond while another Snowy was rushing about trying to scare up fish.

Our final sighting was of a Killdeer and a Spotted Sandpiper (below).

All in all, it wasn't a great day's birding. However, we had seen some interesting birds, including one lifer (Long-tailed Duck) and 13 other year birds, taking my 2013 total to 108 species.
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Pleasant Days (and Birds) Return

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After a week of cold, wet and windy days, better weather returned to our area on Wednesday. It has still been cold but it has been dry and we have had blue skies. In other words, it has been the kind of weather that brings birds to feeders.

The Brown-headed Nuthatch that surprised us when it arrived last week has been turning up again - and I still get excited whenever it swoops in to grab a seed.

Its Red-breasted cousins are even more regular visitors to our feeders. We have at least two of these Nuthatches and I suspect we actually have more.

Pine Warblers haven't reappeared yet but Yellow-rumped Warblers come every afternoon. Orange-crowned Warblers (below) fly in to our suet feeders first thing every morning and keep visiting until dusk each day.

Our one Ruby-crowned Kinglet is a frequent visitor, too. He seems to have gotten used to our presence but usually waits until there are no other birds around before he comes to get some suet.

On most days we see one or two Chipping Sparrows, and the male Rufous Hummingbird that I featured in my Wednesday posting turns up sporadically throughout the day.

American Goldfinches are rarely absent from our seed feeders. Sometimes they come in flocks and sometimes in smaller groups of 2-4 birds.

The Goldfinches are sometimes accompanied by a Pine Siskin or two.

Our year-round residents have been comparatively infrequent visitors to our yards, perhaps because they are discouraged by the presence of so many migrants. Carolina Chickadees are an exception, though. 

So, too, are Carolina Wrens and, of course, House Sparrows.

Our Downy Woodpeckers are also an exception, The female tends to hunt for food in our mulberry tree while the male (identifiable by the red dot on the back of the head) prefers to spend large parts of each day munching on suet. 

One species that has been noticeably - and regrettably! - absent from our neighborhood so far this winter has been Cedar Waxwings. I'm hoping some appear soon. I'm also hoping that Waxwings will move onto the CyFair campus. This year I have seen only a handful there, whereas in other winters we have always had flocks of 300-600 of these beautiful birds.
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(Almost) Wordless Wednesday

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We still have a male Rufous Hummingbird in our yard. Unfortunately, the miserable weather and low light make it impossible for me to get really sharp photos!

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Cold and Windy Birding

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Yesterday morning I dragged Dee out to do a couple of hours birding in cold and windy weather, mainly because I wanted to add some more species to my 2013 list for Harris County.

Our first stop was at Sheldon Lake, where we almost immediately saw an American Bittern flying from side to side of the first fishing pond. Other new birds that we turned up on our walk around the Environmental Center area were Anhinga, Double-crested Cormorant, Laughing Gull and Snow Geese (below).

We decided to move on to Baytown Nature Center as several interesting birds had been reported from there during the past few days.

The wind was blowing hard as we drove towards the fishing pier at the end of the road. On the way we passed several Brown Pelicans, a Belted Kingfisher, a Mallard and a Snowy Egret.

The water was rough on the bay and all that I could see from the pier were a couple of hundred Lesser Scaup and a score or so Ruddy Ducks, all too far away to photograph.

We drove back and parked near the hummingbird garden, from where we watched an Osprey kiting as it fished the choppy waters.

Other birders had spotted Eared and Horned Grebes but the only grebes we saw were two Pied-billed Grebes. However, they were accompanied by a Common Goldeneye (below), another new bird for 2013.

As neither of us likes cold weather, we left Bayiown after only 30 minutes and headed home. It hadn't been the most pleasant or productive of outings but we had seen a few good birds and I had boosted my year list from 82 to 93 species. 
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Lately at CyFair: Part 2

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The Nature Trail has been quiet so far this year except, of course, for Northern Mockingbirds.

A few Yellow-rumped Warblers have turned up here, as well as at other places around the campus.

A couple of Pine Warblers sometimes tag along with the Yellow-rumped.

There were several sparrow species on the campus in December. Now we seem to have only Savannah Sparrows.

A solitary American Pipit tends to graze alongside the Savannahs.

White-winged Doves are never scarce. This tree held more than 50, as well as a score of European Starlings.

Our resident Great-tailed Grackles exploring the grass verges of the campus roads are often joined by small groups of Eastern Meadowlarks.

Meanwhile the Great-tailed Grackles which prefer to hang out in the parking lots sometimes enjoy the company of Ring-billed Gulls.

We seem to have at least a couple of Eastern Phoebes, too.

All in all, though, this winter has been a poor one at CyFair as regards both the number of species and the number of individual birds. It looks like another cold front is heading our way and so maybe things will improve soon!

P.S.
While I was drafting this post yesterday morning, it struck me that I hadn't seen any Snowy Egrets at the college this year. (We normally have at least one resident Snowy.) Then, as I was leaving work in the afternoon, I spotted more than a dozen sharing the waterfall area with a similar number of Great Egrets.

The Greats flew off as soon as I got out of the car.

The Snowy Egrets lined up to have their photos taken.

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Lately at CyFair: Part 1

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A heavy workload and bad weather have kept me from doing much birdwatching at LSC-CyFair so far this year. However, I've managed to fit in a few quick walks or drives around the campus and have seen quite a few birds.

While I've caught only brief glimpses of a Red-shouldered Hawk and an Osprey, I've seen our resident Red-tailed Hawks every day. The female - who is huge - has taken to perching on lightposts near the main entrance to the college.

Another bird that tends to hang out near the entrance is this Loggerhead Shrike, one of several that live on the campus.

We don't often see American Kestrels at the college but this one has been around for a week now.

The retention ponds on Barker Cypress Road have been largely empty of birds except for a handful of female Lesser Scaups. The only other ducks I have seen have been Black-bellied Whistling Ducks passing overhead.

The ditch along the north edge of the campus has been very productive. The other day it had a Wilson's Snipe, a new bird for the college list. (A flyover by seven White Pelicans was another addition to the list, which now stands at 157 species.) 

The ditch always has a couple of Great Blue Herons and several Great Egrets (below).

The ditch attracts White Ibis, too.

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