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As I was walking across the cricket field at Paul Rushing Park last week, a Killdeer flew up from almost under my feet. The bird stopped a few yards away and then started to wander around dragging one wing on the ground. This is a favorite strategy of Killdeer when they want to draw intruders away from their nests.
I looked down and, sure enough, there were the bird's eggs.
When I looked back up again, the Killdeer was clearly in a panic, because she had abandoned her wing-dragging routine and had started rolling violently from side to side while spreading her tail and shrieking. It was quite a remarkable display! Not wanting to worry her further, I grabbed a quick photo and then walked on.
When I looked back, she had recovered from her panic and was once again sitting quietly on her eggs.
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This Green Heron at Anahuac clearly had its eyes locked on something tasty to eat.
As it crept up on its prey, it stretched its neck out further and further.
Yes! Another successful piece of stalking.
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We always enjoy watching the House Finches that visit our yards. We currently have rather more than usual because several of the adult pairs now have fledglings with them.
Most of the fledglings have worked out that the sunflower seeds in our feeders are the things to go for. However, a few are still having problems working out what is food and what isn't. So yesterday a couple of them seemed to be determined to eat our bamboo fence.
Unfortunately, one of the young birds has developed avian pox, a disease that causes wart-like growths near the eyes. This bird had such growths on both sides of its head.
Avian pox isn't directly life-threatening but it can cause death by restricting the birds' range of vision and so making them less aware of predators. I'm afraid that was probably the case with this particular bird, because I last saw it being carried off in the mouth of a neighbor's cat.
The pox is common among House Finches, mainly because they tend to move and feed in fairly dense flocks and so to pass the disease to each other. I will move our feeders further apart to see if that helps to avoid more birds becoming infected. It will probably help, too, if I clean our feeders more frequently, using a 10% bleach solution.
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