Although this is fall migration season, the CyFair campus has been quiet for birds. A colleague has noticed Yellow Warblers and Blue-gray Gnatcatchers but I haven't seen any migrants.
Our Great-tailed Grackles are resident birds and so they are going through molt at present. The males usually have spectacular tails.
At the moment, most of their tails - and the rest of their feathers, too - are less than spectacular.
And some tails are totally absent - which must be really humiliating.
We always have a Great Egret or two somewhere on campus. One of them has taken to doing its early morning grooming on a lamppost in a parking lot.
The birding trail boardwalk has been almost totally devoid of birds. One reason for this may be that our resident female Red-tailed Hawk has taken to perching over the trail.
What a stunning-looking bird she is!
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Grackles are handsome birds when fully feathered, but nothing looks rattier than a molting grackle!
ReplyDeleteI agree!
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