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The Brown-headed Nuthatches that moved into our yards in January now seem to have left us. It's a great shame because they are such pretty little birds. However, their presence persuaded me to start feeding peanuts and the latter have proved to be a hit with many of our residents.
Our Carolina Chickadees just can't get enough of the peanuts.
Incidentally, this is making it much easier for us to watch the Chickadees. When using seed feeders, Chickadees almost always fly in, grab a seed and fly off again as fast as they can. With peanut feeders, however, they cling to the feeders for ages while they chip away at the peanuts inside.
An Uncommon Bird
The other day I was surprised to see an Inca Dove perched on our back fence, because it's almost exactly two years since we've seen one of these little birds here. It stayed just long enough for me to snap a photo.
Inca Doves used to visit our yards fairly often but, like our Mourning Doves, they seem to have been displaced by the much bigger and more aggressive White-winged Doves.
A Sad Sight
Our feeders continue to attract several pairs of Northern Cardinals. Unfortunately, one of the males has lost a foot. So far, though, he seems to be coping well with this disability and we're hoping that this will continue to be the case.
Given that our flowers - and particularly our porter weed and esperanza - have been attracting lots of bugs for weeks, I've been disappointed not to see many butterflies. This changed the other day with a visit from a gorgeous Pipevine Swallowtail
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I took advantage of the Labor Day Weekend to drive down to Baytown Nature Center.
As usual, the bay had plenty of Brown Pelicans, Neotropic Cormorants and Laughing Gulls as well as a few Forster's Terns.
Yellow-crowned Night Herons were everywhere. Juveniles were in the ditches and in trees.
Adults were plentiful also.
Great Blue Herons (below) and Great Egrets were perched in trees all over the site.
Snowy Egrets were busy fishing.
Killdeer were everywhere but the other shorebirds I was hoping for were not. Apart from a handful of semipalmated Sandpipers I saw only a solitary Black-necked Stilt (below) and four Spotted Sandpipers (below).
If shorebirds were scarce, flowers were certainly not.
My final sighting before leaving the site was a Green Heron, a common bird here but one that I never tire of watching.
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Today is the start of the fall semester at CyFair college and so I've been too busy with work to do much birding recently. However, I did squeeze in an hour's walk at Addick's Reservoir last weekend.
I was hoping for migrating flycatchers but I didn't spot a single one. In fact, I saw only normal yardbirds (e.g., N Cardinals, Blue Jays and Carolina Chickadeees) until I reached an area with a large pond.
A Tricolored Heron and several Black-bellied Whistling Ducks (below) lifted off as I approached.
A Great Egret also took umbrage at my arrival.
A Snowy Egret was less concerned by my presence and continued catching and eating its breakfast as I watched.
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I always look forward to the second half of August because that is when Ruby-throated Hummingbirds migrate through our area on their way to Mexico and points further south.In anticipation of the hummers' arrival this year, I put up three feeders.
I didn't have to wait long for birds to start visiting the feeders. However, the very first visitor was not a hummingbird but rather a young House Finch.
The Finch spent quite a while trying to work out how to get to the sugar water, but it never succeeded.
Shortly after the Finch gave up, a female Ruby-throated Hummingbird found the feeder.
Since then we've had several more hummingbirds visiting the feeders and/or some of our plants. The most we've spotted at one time is three but I suspect that it won't be long before we start seeing half-a-dozen or more arguing over the feeders.
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The CyFair college campus continues to be quiet for "interesting" birds. I've been watching out for fall migrants - such as Yellow Warblers - but so far without luck. Of course, we still have our normal residents.
Mourning Doves, Northern Mockingbirds and Great-tailed Grackles (below) are everywhere.
There are a few Killdeer and Loggerhead Shrikes (below) also.
At home the situation is similar in that there are no migrants (except Ruby-throated Hummingbirds) but lots of residents.
Carolina Chickadees are among our most loyal birds. I don't think there is ever a day when they don't visit our feeders.
Our House Finches seemed to disappear for a while but now they are back in numbers.
The best news is that the Brown-headed Nuthatches that turned up for the first time ever in January are still making regular visits to our feeders. So it looks like they have now become residents!
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It continues to be busy in our yards. Unfortunately, though, much of the activity is down to birds that we'd rather not have.
House Sparrows are acceptable in small numbers but we often have 20+ at a time these days.
We also have way too many White-winged Doves. There are often 20-30 on the grass.
And, of course, many of them spend a lot of time trying to squeeze onto our feeders.
The next most numerous species is Northern Cardinal. I'm not sure how many breeding pairs we have but it must be several, judging by the number of young birds coming to our feeders.
One surprise visitor the other day was a young Brown-headed Cowbird. It turned up with some immature N Cardinals and so I'm thinking it was hatched and is being raised by an unsuspecting pair of Cardinals.
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Since getting back from Nevada and Utah, I haven't had much time for birding. However, on Saturday I managed to fit in a couple of hours on the Katy Prairie.
I spent an hour vainly scouring the hedgerows, fences and utility wires along Sharp Road for Dickcissels. Apart from a family of Northern Bobwhites, I saw only common birds including lots of Black Vultures and a couple of Crested Caracaras.
Paul Rushing Park was more productive. Within a few minutes I had gotten a glimpse of a Pectoral Sandpiper and good looks at four heron species: Great Blue, Little Blue, Yellow-crowned Night and Green (below).
Killdeer were everywhere and several groups of Black-bellied Whistling Ducks (below) flew over.
There were also flyovers by White-faced and White Ibis, while a young White Ibis was grazing near one of the ponds.
As always in summer at Paul Rushing, Common Nighthawks were plentiful.
Just as I was photographing one sitting on a fence, it lifted off, giving a good view of its beautifully patterned tail.
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