Apart from the continuing large flock of Cedar Waxwings, our colony of Purple Martins and a few Black-bellied Whistling Ducks, the CyFair campus has been very quiet for birds. Of course, when I say this, I'm not counting the species that are always well-represented on campus: White-winged and Mourning Doves, Northern Mockingbird and Great-tailed Grackle (below).
One of our resident pair of Red-tailed Hawks has been visible most days.
I hadn't seen any Killdeer for quite a while but a few have been turning up lately. Last year a pair nested near the tennis courts and so I need to keep an eye out for nesting activity over the next few weeks.
At home I haven't seen any sign of most of our winter visitors except a Rufous Hummingbird and some American Golfinch since early in the week. However, two American Robins have begun turning up every time I water the front yard. I love watching them as they cock their heads to listen for activity below ground and then dig out any worms they hear.
After a spell of digging, our Robins tend to fly up into a tree to clean the soil off their beaks.
From underneath their plumage is particularly striking.
Weekend Trip
All being well, by the time you read this we'll be on 2-day trip to Galveston and Bolivar. We'll look in at Lafitte's Cove and High Island to see if any migrants have arrived. We'll check out the rookery at High Island and will probably also check out Rollover Pass and Bolivar Flats Sanctuary for shorebirds and terns. Although it's very early in the spring migration season, we're hoping to see at least a few interesting birds.
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Hi again
ReplyDeleteI'm still watching your blog and enjoy the great variety of wildlife you present, there are now only two months until me, my wife and a friend of us are going to Texas, Louisiana and Smokey mountain, so we are checking your June posts extra, :-),
and I wonder if there are some areas it is good opportunity for observing the swallow-tailed kite, who seems to be one of my greatest hope!
Dag Norman
I'm afraid I don't see many Swallow-tailed Kites. At present they seem to be common around Kleb Woods and High Island. You should check the Texbirds reports just before you get here: http://www.freelists.org/archive/texbirds/
ReplyDeleteThankyou, I will check the Texbirds reports, anyway, it´s gonna be very exiting, every bird and other wildlife will be something that we have not seen before, so I guess we will need some memorycards for the tour, :-)!
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