.
About once a week I take a rather indirect route to or from work in order to do some from-the-car birding on the Katy Prairie. Although very little now remains of the original prairie, once a vast area of tall grass and scattered wetlands, it is still a great area for seeing birds and even a very short visit is certain to turn up something interesting. At this time of year, the main attractions are raptors and sparrows, and both types of birds were plentiful when I took my indirect route to work on Tuesday.

As usual, many of the utility poles along the road were providing perches for Red-tailed Hawks, birds I never tire of watching. Most of the hawks fly off as soon as you stop the car to look at them, but this one was less skittish.

Red-tailed Hawk

It is rare that I don't see at least one crested Caracara and Tuesday was no exception.

Crested Caracara

The utility wires make excellent perches for American Kestrels and also for some of the numerous Loggerhead Shrikes that are resident in the area.

Loggerhead Shrike

Roadside fences and hedges are normally busy with sparrows. Although most of the sparrows I see there are Savannah Sparrows, I always check out the flocks in case other species are mixed in with them.

Savannah Sparrow

For some reason Field Sparrows like hanging out with Savannahs and, sure enough, this was the case on Tuesday.

Field Sparrow

.