Boom Year for Babies

.
As I mentioned in my previous post, this has been a great year for watching breeding birds in our area.

Things started off well with an opportunity to see a pair of Bald Eagles raising two chicks at Baytown.


Then Red-shouldered Hawks raised two chicks on Louetta, just half-a-mile from our house.


We missed seeing egrets, herons and other waders raising their young at High Island this year but did get to see Yellow-crowned Heron and Snowy Egret nests at Sheldon Lake.




Visits to Brazos Bend State Park allowed us to watch Purple Gallinules guarding their chicks while juvenile Common Moorhens ventured out alone.




Brazos Bend was also a great place to watch more young Yellow-crowned Night Herons.


We didn't spot any young Clapper Rails at Brazoria NWR this spring but did get our first sighting ever of a baby Black-necked Stilt.


Paul Rushing and Bear Creek parks also produced firsts for us: a young Common Nighthawk and Red-headed Woodpecker respectively.




The CyFair campus produced European Starling, Purple Martin and Northern Mockingbird chicks.






For the 6th year running, a pair of Eastern Kingbirds nested in the roof of the campus basketball court and raised four healthy youngsters.


At home our yards were dominated by this year's broods of House Finches, Blue Jays, Northern Cardinals and White-winged Doves.








Our other yardbird breeders included Carolina Chickadees, Northern Mockingbirds, Downy Woodpecker, Carolina Wrens and Red-bellied Woodpecker.




A young House Sparrow and a juvenile Common Grackle popped in to visit but luckily didn't stay too long.




Coming Up

Of course, we should get to see still more babies over the coming months. Many of our resident yardbirds breed more than once a year, and I'm also hoping that Black-bellied Whistling Ducks will breed again at CyFair. If we're really lucky, we may even see Least Grebes nesting at Brazos Bend again.
.