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One of the best things about going to work (on the CyFair campus) in the winter is that I get to see Cedar Waxwings almost every day. On sunny mornings they perch on the top of trees by the nature trail.
One bird that is always present everywhere on campus is the Northern Mockingbird. I'm so used to seeing them that I rarely give them a second glance. However, the other day I just had to stop to admire this one as it took advantage of the first rays of morning sunlight.
The campus has at least one resident Great Egret. It usually keeps well away from the main buildings when classes are in session. I get to work early, though, and so I often see it near the library. On Thursday morning it looked very pretty perched right by the cafeteria
On Friday, I arrived before sunrise and was surprised to see our Great Egret exploring an area that is being cleared of vegetation preparatory to the construction of a new building.
When the sun appeared, I noticed that our resident Great Blue Heron was hanging out right at the edge of the cleared area.
Given how antisocial Herons are, I was surprised to see that this one seemed totally unconcerned by the backhoe that was ripping up trees and bushes just 50 yards away from it.
As this bird has lived on the campus for years now, I suppose it has gotten used to all the habitat destruction and building/parking area construction work that goes on there.
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Yay! The CyFair campus is finally starting to get birdy again.
For a couple of weeks now Yellow-rumped Warblers have been everywhere I go at the college.
Last Friday I thought I saw a Baltimore Oriole. As that would be a very surprising sighting so late in the year, I wondered if I'd been mistaken. However, on Monday the bird popped up again in the same place. I was able to get only a very quick and very poor photo but it is clear enough to confirm the ID.
Monday was December 7, traditionally the day that Cedar Waxwings turn up on the campus. When I got to work, I spent a few minutes searching but couldn't see any Waxwings. Disappointing! They didn't let me down in the end, though. I made a quick trip to the nature trail area later in the morning and there was our first Waxwing of the winter. No doubt lots more will arrive soon.
Also on Monday, I was leaving work when I noticed an Osprey eating a fish on top of a utility pylon across the north flood ditch. Naturally I pulled over and hopped out to get a photo. Even though I was 50 yards away and it was 120 up in the air, the bird seemed to think I was coming to steal its fish and so flew off. Those Ospreys certainly are paranoid!
I didn't have any time for birding on Tuesday but I got lucky when I came out of the building where I work to see a Great Egret perched right in front of me.
I got to work very early on Wednesday to check for more Waxwings. Unfortunately, it was really foggy.
So when 60 Waxwings appeared, this is the best photo I could get of any of them.
While I was looking for the Waxwings, I came across one of the innumerable Northern Mockingbirds that are resident on the campus. I took a quick picture, mainly to see how my new camera would handle fill-in flash. In spite of the fog, the photo came out reasonably well.
The fog started to burn off before it was time for me to start work and so I walked around the nature trail boardwalk. As I did this, I heard an odd clucking sound, rather like that made by a chicken. I'm terrible with IDing bird calls and I couldn't remember what bird it was. A minute later the bird popped out into the open and revealed itself to be a Hermit Thrush. Doh!
Further along the trail I heard one of the few bird calls I can ID: Carolina Wren. No big deal, you might think, but until a couple of weeks ago I hadn't seen or heard a Carolina Wren on campus for over five years. I'm glad that at least one now seems to have moved in. Perhaps I'll manage to see it one of these days.
One unusual (for the campus) bird that I did get to see on Wednesday was a female Downy Woodpecker. This and other woodpecker species are very common in our general area but this was only the second Downy sighting (and fifth woodpecker sighting) I'd made on the campus in 11 years.
While I'm mentioning which common birds do or do not regularly appear at CyFair, I should mention Blue Jays. I never saw or heard one here in my first eight years on campus. Then, as the area around the college was developed, a couple of Blue Jays turned up. We now have at least half-a-dozen. One of them was around on Wednesday morning.
I didn't have time to look for birds on Thursday but I got to work early today, Friday, and was greeted by eight Great Egrets perched along the railings of the bridge on the north edge of the campus. Naturally, they flew off while I was still trying to get my camera out of its bag.
A few minutes later, I was pleased to find a Spotted Sandpiper by the artificial river. (We rarely get shorebirds on the campus.) I was much less pleased when I realized that the poor thing had only one leg. It seemed to be coping well with it's disability, though, and so perhaps it will survive. I hope so.
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Although this week saw better weather on the CyFair campus, there was still a sprinkling of migrants around every day. Seven species of warblers turned up: Ovenbird, Yellow-breasted Chat, American Redstart, Black-and-white, Bay-breasted, Blackburnian and Black-throated Green (below).
Other migrants were Eastern Wood-Pewee, Great Crested Flycatcher, Gray Catbird, Chuck-will's-widow, Baltimore Oriole and Rose-breasted Grosbeak.
With so many migrants passing through, it's easy to forget to admire local residents like Northern Cardinals.
On some of my walks around the nature trail, I found it hard to pick out the movement of migrants because one or other of our winter/spring flocks of hundreds of Cedar Waxwings kept wandering through the trees or swirling overhead.
However, it's hard to resent the Waxwings' presence, given that they are such beautiful birds!
Of course, looking so good takes a certain amount of effort.
Several Western Kingbirds have turned up again this April.
Another recent arrival is a Cooper's Hawk.
I've noticed what seems to be a mating pair of Green Herons hanging around the nature trail. This morning one of them had moved across to the staff parking lot, which seems odd habitat for a heron.
Meanwhile the campus Purple Martin nesting gourds appear to be fully occupied.
I never tire of watching the Martins as they soar overhead.
I wish they would fly a little lower and gobble up some of the many mosquitoes that I encounter whenever I walk the nature trail!
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We've also had a lot of butterflies this week, including Monarchs, Common Buckeyes and Clouded Sulphurs. My favorite, though, was this Pipevine Swallowtail.
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Last Friday was the Great Backyard Bird Count day on the CyFair campus. Unfortunately, it wasn't a very productive day for birds. We counted fewer than 100 individual birds of just 18 species.
You never know where you will see birds on the campus, though. There is an ornamental pond just behind the building where I work. It doesn't usually attract birds but lately it has become a favored fishing spot for a Great Egret and a Neotropic Cormorant (below).
The cormorant is now so used to people that it happily stands and dries its wings while students and staff walk past just a few feet away.
The Great Egret is a little less brave. When too many people are around, it flies up and stands on the roof of a nearby building.
I couldn't work out why a flock of Red-winged Blackbirds has started hanging out by the faculty/staff parking lot. Then I realized that the birds have discovered the seed that I sometimes spread around there to attract sparrows. Here is one of the female Blackbirds.
On Saturday I spent an hour at Little Cypress Creek Preserve, hoping to add a couple of species to my 2015 Harris County list. As it turned out, the only new bird was a Pileated Woodpecker.
On another tree, mating Red-bellied Woodpeckers were engaged in a noisy argument.
I checked different parts of the preserve for sparrows but the only ones I saw were several White-throated Sparrows.
The Bald Eagles at the Longwood retention pond on Huffmeister Road are busy at their nest.
Like last year, the pair is raising two juveniles. The youngsters haven't fledged yet but one of them is already occasionally flexing its wings, so it won't be long before they start venturing out of the nest.
While the juveniles stay in the nest, one of their parents always stands guard nearby.
I'm looking forward to watching the young birds over the coming weeks as they grow, strengthen their wings and learn to fly.
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I was hoping that the colder weather would bring lots of winter birds onto the campus but this doesn't seem to have happened, at least so far.
One reason why we don't have as many birds as we used to is habitat destruction, with more of the campus been devoured by parking lots each year.
Another reason is that ducks and other water birds now largely shun our two retention ponds in favor of the much larger one in the new Precinct 3 park just across Barker Cypress Road. So if I want to see birds such as Ruddy Duck, Ring-necked Duck and Lesser Scaup (below), I now have to go over to the park.
The photos below show a selection of the birds I've seen on the campus this week.
Black Vulture
American Robin
European Starling
Loggerhead Shrike
White-winged Dove
Unfortunately, I haven't yet managed to photograph the flock of Cedar Waxwings that moved in over the holidays. I hope to get some photos of these beautiful birds in the next few days. I also hope that the flock will keep increasing until it reaches the size (1000+ birds) that it reached last winter and the one before that.
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After months of almost no birds on the CyFair campus, a few are starting to show up. Yesterday the trees had lots of Yellow-rumped Warblers, some White-throated Sparrows and a couple of Ruby-crowned Kinglets and an Eastern Phoebe. There was a flyover by a Northern Flicker, the second one I've seen in the past few weeks.
A small flock of American Robins flew in and argued with our resident Northern Mockingbirds over who had perching rights to which trees.
A little pishing stirred up a pair of House Wrens, one of which stayed up just long enough for me to grab a photo.
The campus lakes haven't attracted any ducks or other water birds yet this year. I suspect that any birds that do fly over our area will now ignore our lakes in favor of the larger lake in the new Precinct 3 park just across Barker Cypress Road from the college. That lake continues to attract a nice range of water birds: Pied-billed Grebes, American Coots, Lesser Scaup, Ring-necked Ducks, Ruddy Ducks, Green-winged Teal etc. It also attracts Laughing Gulls and Ring-billed Gulls (below).
The other day the grass around the lake had a small flock of American Pipits, the first Pipits I've seen since last winter.
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