Spring Creek Park

.Yesterday morning I drove up to Tomball to spend an hour or so birding in Spring Creek Park. I was hoping to add to my year list three birds that have recently been seen in the park: Red-headed Woodpeckers, White-breasted Nuthatch and Brown-headed Nuthatch. As it turned out, I didn't manage to see any of these three species but I still had an enjoyable time.

The most common birds were American Robins, most of which were foraging the grassy areas.

Resisting the urge to head north, a few American Goldfinch were hanging out in the trees next to the resident Eastern Bluebirds.

I spent a lot of time watching a pair of yellow-shafted Northern Flickers.

To my surprise, the Flickers were spending nearly all their time on the ground, which is not a behavior I associate with woodpeckers.

It took me a while to realize that they were feasting on ants.

As I was leaving, I managed to get a quick photo of a Spicebush Swallowtail, one of my favorite butterflies.

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Thanksgiving Birds

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Took a quick drive up to our Tomball campus this morning to see the pair of Hooded Mergansers that spend the winter on the pond there. The light wasn't good but the birds still looked beautiful!

Happy Thanksgiving!
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The Element of Chance

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One of the things that makes birding exciting is that you can never be sure what bird is going to turn up where. This was brought home to us ten days ago when Dee and I saw a White-breasted Nuthatch in Spring Creek Park in Tomball.


The element of chance came into play again yesterday when we were in Spring Creek Park again, this time on a very dark and damp morning. We were parked next to the area where we had seen the White-breasted Nuthatch about 10 days before and we were about to leave after I had done some unsuccessful searching for Brown-headed Nuthatches. A truck pulled in and parked next to us and a man got out and walked across the road to the trees. As he was carrying binoculars, I walked over to him to ask if he was looking for the White-breasted Nuthatch. He was. I told him where we had seen it and he walked over to the area.

A few minutes later, I was standing by our car when I heard a Nuthatch. Right on cue, Dee said, "There it is. Right in front of you." Sure enough, the White-breasted was walking up a tree trunk not 20 feet in front of our car and the other birder's truck. 

I grabbed a quick photo and turned around to alert our fellow birder. He had disappeared! We jumped into the car and drove around the loop looking for him. As he was nowhere in sight, I walked down the nearest trail and soon found him.

I told him that we'd just seen the Nuthatch and we both laughed about the arbitrariness involved in birding. He joked that he might just go back and sit in his truck and wait for the Nuthatch to perch on his hood.

I wonder if he managed to see the bird.

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Great Sighting

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On Saturday morning Dee and I drove up to spend an hour in Spring Creek Park, Tomball.

The north end of the park was virtually empty of birds: After an hour I had seen only a handful of yardbirds, an Eastern Phoebe and a group of 8 American Crows. So we started to leave. On our way out, I drove up the short loop road almost opposite the entrance/exit, because we usually see some birds there.

We had gone only a few yards when we saw a familiar bird fly across the road just in front of us. It was a White-breasted Nuthatch, a bird we've seen scores of times in California and Utah. It landed on a nearby tree trunk and so I got out to take a closer look. I was able to watch it for several seconds. It was in the perfect position for a photo. I raised my camera. Oh, no, I hadn't removed the lens cap. By the time I had taken off the cap, the bird had flown. 

I spent the next few minutes exploring the area and saw a good selection of other birds - Cedar Waxwings, Yellow-rumped Warblers, Pine Warblers, Eastern Bluebirds, Lincoln's Sparrow, Chipping Sparrow - but I didn't get another look at the Nuthatch.

On the way home, we stopped off for a few minutes at Theiss Attway Nature Park next to Walmart in Tomball. All we saw there was a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker but the Walmart parking lot had a pair of Red-shouldered Hawks.

This morning (Sunday) our front yard was busy with birds, including 20 White-winged Doves, half-a-dozen House Finches and 40-50 American Goldfinch. I stood at a front window for a while hoping to spot a Pine Siskin among the Goldfinch. And it wasn't long before one turned up!

That's year bird #84 and a new bird for our yard list.

P.S.

Sorry about the quality of the photos. My zoom lens has serious issues and I haven't yet been able to find a replacement.
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Tomball and Cypress

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Yesterday Dee and I spent a couple of hours in Spring Creek Park in Tomball.

As soon as we stepped out of the car, we were surrounded by bird activity. The cloudy, gray morning was brightened up by the calls of Red-bellied Woodpecker, Carolina Wren, Northern Cardinal, Carolina Chickadees and Blue Jays. The pine trees around us had several flocks of small birds: Pine Warblers, Carolina Chickadees, Chipping Sparrows and American Goldfinch.

Dee spotted a Brown Creeper, a bird that I rarely see anywhere except Spring Creek Park. Unfortunately, it and most of the other birds were too high in the trees for clear photos, although I did get one recognizable shot of a Tufted Titmouse.


The next few minutes turned up several other species, including a Northern Flicker, an Eastern Bluebird, Yellow-rumped Warblers and Ruby-crowned Kinglets. A group of 11 Turkey Vultures passed slowly overhead, soon followed by four Black Vultures.

We spent an hour walking through the woods, only to find the latter were virtually empty of bird activity. All we saw was a flock of 20-30 Cedar Waxwings and a flight of nine American Crows. So a rather disappointing end to a morning that had started out very promisingly.

Back at home our yards were hosting most of the usual suspects, including White-winged Doves, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, House Finches and Carolina Chickadees.

Carolina Chickadee

The platform feeder, lawn and flower beds in the front yard were being worked over by some 30 Chipping Sparrows. Our female Downy Woodpecker was on the suet feeder.


As she's usually very aggressive towards competitors, I was surprised to see that she was willing to let one of the Chipping Sparrows share the feeder.

Spring Creek Park, Tomball

On Monday morning we spent a couple of hours in Spring Creek Park. Although it was rather blustery, there were plenty of birds around: We ended up with 22 species, which I think is the most I've ever seen there. Unfortunately, few of the birds were in the mood to be photographed.

I got only brief glimpses through branches as this Cooper's Hawk circled overhead.

American Robins, Red-bellied Woodpeckers and Pine Warblers were the most numerous species, but we also saw several Downy Woodpeckers, Eastern Bluebirds, Northern Cardinals, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Orange-crowned Warblers, American Goldfinch, Yellow-rumped Warblers and Carolina Chickadees.

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Carolina Chickadee

The open areas had American Pipits, Eastern Bluebirds, Chipping Sparrows and a solitary Killdeer.

Killdeer

The Cooper's Hawk was a new year bird, as was this Northern Flicker.

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White-eyed Vireo and Brown Creeper took my 2009 list to 89 species.

Birding Tomball

This morning I drove up to Tomball to see if more fall/winter migrants had arrived with the latest cold front.
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My first stop was at the Theis Attaway Nature Center, a small park on Theis road just off Highway 249. It can be a good birding site in late winter but it certainly wasn't good yesterday. In a 15-minute walk I didn't see or hear a single bird. Not one!
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Part of the reason may be that the park was badly affected by Hurricane Ike. Many of the larger trees had fallen, including a beautiful heritage tree that used to stand proudly near the back of the site.






After this disappointing start, I went on to spend a short time in Spring Cypress Park, off Brown Road. The area around the Confederate powder mill site was fairly busy with common birds: Tufted Titmice, Carolina Chickadees, Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Pileated Woodpecker, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Yellow-rumped Warblers and American Crows.
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The only vaguely unusual bird was a Wilson's Warbler, which hesitated just long enough for me to get a blurry photo.


So no new arrivals this weekend. Ah, well, maybe this next week will be more productive.

Spring Cypress Park in Tomball

Yesterday was my birthday, and Dee and I had coffee in Spring Cypress Park to celebrate. Although we didn't arrive there until almost noon and stayed only an hour, the birding didn't disappoint us.

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As we sat at a picnic table, we spotted two Red-bellied Woodpeckers sparring on the ground and then chasing each other through the trees. A minute later, we were treated to a good view of a pair of Pileated Woodpeckers. The same area had several Mourning Doves, Carolina Chickadees, Blue Jays, a Northern Cardinal and a couple of Northern Parula. The latter were particularly welcome sightings because the Parula is a bird I saw for the very first time earlier this year, in this same park.

The distinctive silhouette of a Pileated Woodpecker

The park didn't seem to have suffered too badly from Hurricane Ike, although several trees had fallen or had lost their tops.

As I walked down to the part of the creek near the site of the old Confederate powder mill, ten Black Vultures circled overhead, to be joined by a solitary Turkey Vulture.

The large tree next to the mill monument had been destroyed by Ike and an Eastern Phoebe was flycatching from its shattered trunk.



This area is always good for birds and I soon saw a male Downy Woodpecker, a male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and two Blue-gray Gnatcatchers. Then I was thrilled to see my FOS (First of Season) Ruby-crowned Kinglet. This tiny bird never keeps still and is a real challenge to photograph with a small digital camera. The only photo I managed to get is very poor but at least it shows the bird's trademark eye ring and wing bars.