Summer at CyFair

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When I returned to look at the Western Kingbird nest on the campus last week, it seemed to be empty. There was no sign of babies, no hungry chirps and no adult guarding the nest from nearby trees or fences. So I suppose the parents have now moved the fledglings to one of our pine trees. They do this every year as soon as the young birds are old enough. Next week I'll have to track them down - which may take quite a while since we have a lot of trees on the campus.

Keeping track of our Purple Martins is much easier, because they continue roosting on the college Martin house until they finally migrate at some time in July. The photo below shows two juveniles and an adult male.

You can tell the juveniles from the adult females by the fine streaking on their fronts.

If it's easy to find and ID the Martins, getting a photo of them in flight is a lot more difficult. It took half-a-dozen attempts before I got a reasonably sharp photo.

Next week, as well as looking for the Kingbirds, I'll take a walk around the retention ponds. It's about time for our nesting Black-bellied Whistling Ducks to bring their young down to the ponds for their first swimming lessons.
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