Early Birds?

I'm always reading in birding magazines and books that getting up and about early is the key to successful birding. However, I've never found this to be the case in the USA. In California, most birds didn't seem to get up until perhaps 8:30 a.m. I thought this was because west coast birds were particularly laid back but I find Texas birds often/usually stay in bed quite late also.

.

Sunday was a case in point. I arrived at CyFair at 7:15 and spent over an hour seeing nothing much except for Northern Mockingbirds and Cardinals.

.

One of many Northern Mockingbirds

.

At 8:30 I was ready to leave - and then the birds appeared! Yellow-rumped Warblers and Ruby-crowned Kinglets were busy foraging through trees and bushes, while Savannah, Vesper and Song Sparrows turned up all over the place.

.

Savannah Sparrows are a favorite of mine because their reaction to being disturbed is to fly to the top of a bush and sit there for a time. So they're easy to ID and not too hard to photograph. The one below stayed visible long enough for me to take several photos.

.

.

We still have a few shorebirds, including a Greater Yellowlegs that has been on the campus for weeks now.

.

.

A pleasant surprise was a Nashville Warbler that appeared in my camera viewfinder when I was trying to take a photo of a Pine Warbler.

Nashville Warbler