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Our yards are very busy with birds at present. Apart from our year-round residents, our feeders and birdbath attract a number of birds to spend each winter with us.
Of the three types of warbler which show up each fall, the one that we see least often is the Pine Warbler. Members of this species just pop in occasionally to snack from one of our seed feeders.
Yellow-rumped Warblers visit our yards more often but they never come to our feeders.
Instead, they hunt bugs in our trees and also pop down to drink from our birdbath.
By far the most frequent visitors of the three warbler species are Orange-crowned Warblers. You never have to watch one of our suet feeders for long before you see one of these delightful little birds fly in.
We're not sure how many individuals we have of this species because they all look so similar.
Next to the Orange-crowned Warblers, the most frequent visitor to our suet feeders is a Ruby-crowned Kinglet.
While Kinglets are tiny, they all seem to have a lot of personality and they are certainly among our favorite birds.
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Summer is an entertaining time in our yards because it is when many of our resident species start bringing their young to our feeders and birdbath. But it is also the time when adult birds molt and look much less elegant than they usually look.
Our male Northern Cardinals are normally among the most beautiful and most elegant birds in our yards. However, during molt they certainly look much less dapper.
The female Cardinals don't look much better.
Meanwhile this season's youngsters are emerging in public. Both male and female Cardinal offspring start off with black beaks.
The young males soon begin to add red plumage, even if it is very blotchy at first.
As the amount red plumage grows and their crests develop, the birds' beaks begin to change color also.
Our Carolina Wrens don't look as elegant as usual in the summer either but they never seem to undergo such a dramatic molt as our Cardinals. Perhaps they molt more gradually.
Still, they do look very scruffy at times.
Our resident pair has raised several young this year. They lead them around our yards, showing them where to find food among the plants, in planters and in hanging baskets. As you can see below, they also make sure they know how to access our peanut feeders.
Our adult Blue Jays looked quite forlorn when they came to our feeders and birdbath without their normal, beautiful crests.
A Trip
After weeks and weeks without going on a real birding trip, we have one lined up for this weekend. We're going to spend the Labor Day weekend in Junction, Texas. Our main reason for choosing Junction is that we will get to see lots of birds at South Llano River State Park. So I should soon be able to post some good photos of some interesting birds!
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In the second half of last year the number of visitors to our yards dropped dramatically, with a typical day seeing only a handful of species. Even our most reliable residents more or less vanished: Northern Cardinals, Blue Jays and Downy Woodpeckers.
The final weeks of 2014 and the first three weeks of this year weren't a lot better - perhaps because of bad weather - although we did see the arrival of a few winter residents.
Then on Saturday everything changed.
Our Red-bellied Woodpeckers were back.
Our resident Downy Woodpeckers returned, too. The female showed up first.
Then the male arrived.
Two Orange-crowned Warblers pottered about, occasionally chasing off our Ruby-crowned Kinglet (below).
The most numerous birds were Chipping Sparrows, with ten or more appearing together at times.
A small group of American Goldfinches came to feed several times during the day.
A pair of Eastern Bluebirds checked out our birdhouse, as they did last year. Unfortunately, they again seemed to be unimpressed.
Two Yellow-rumped Warblers kept looking at the birdbath.
A Pine Warbler popped in but stayed only a couple of minutes.
A moment later I was thrilled to see a Blue-headed Vireo, a new bird for our yard.
Here is my list for the day:
2 N. Mockingbirds
2 N. Cardinals
2 E Bluebirds
1 Blue Jay
5 White-winged Doves
5 House Sparrows
10 Chipping Sparrows
8 American Goldfinch
2 Orange-crowned Warblers
1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
2 Red-bellied Woodpeckers
2 Downy Woodpeckers
1 American Robin
1 Carolina Wren
2 Carolina Chickadees
2 Yellow-rumped Warblers
1 Pine Warbler
1 Blue-headed Vireo.
There were four flyovers:
2 Black Vultures
1 Great Egret
1 Great Blue Heron
1 Red-shouldered Hawk.
Now I'm wondering whether our yards will continue to be busy or whether Saturday's activity was just a fluke occurrence. Time will tell.
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I was looking out of our living-room window the other afternoon when our resident Carolina Wrens put in an appearance.
One posed nicely against the shed wall.
It then moved onto the shed roof.
Its partner hopped onto the fence. It could hear the click of my camera shutter and kept looking around to see where the noise was coming from.
As it was windy, this bird had problems keeping its feathers in order.
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It has been unusually cold here for the past few days. Well, unusually cold for the Houston area anyway.
The cold has meant that our feeders have been busier than ever. As my college closed for two days because of the weather, I've been able to spend quite a lot of time watching our visitors.
Thirty or so American Goldfinches have been arguing endlessly and very aggressively over our one thistle seed feeder.
The Goldfinches that haven't managed to get to the thistle seeds have flocked to our other feeders and to seed I have been sprinkling on the ground, on our fence, and on the tree stump that supports one of our birdbaths. They've been visiting our birdbaths also, whenever I've put hot water in them to thaw them out.
We've had flocks of 20+ Chipping Sparrows, too. I never tire of watching these lovely little birds. They always look so neat and tidy.
Our suet feeders have been very much in demand. So much so that our Downy Woodpeckers have gotten quite used to sharing them with a Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Orange-crowned Warblers and Pine Warblers.
Speaking of Pine Warblers, we seem to have more of these than in previous years. I'm not sure how many are visiting but it must be at least five or six.
Our male Ruby-crowned Kinglet remains a constant visitor.
Several Orange-crowned Warblers visit all day every day as well.
Last January a group of four Brown-headed Nuthatches took up residence in our yards for the first time and stayed with us until the summer. This year only one has appeared and it has been making only a few very brief visits every day. Yesterday it stayed on a suet feeder longer than normal, which enabled me to grab a quick photo.
I'm hoping it will soon feel secure enough to stay longer on our feeders and that some other Nuthatches may show up to join it.
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Our yards at home continue to be busy and we still have both Red-breasted and Brown-headed Nuthatches. More fun to watch, though, are our Carolina Wrens. We always have an adult pair.
Now the adults have two young, which they regularly lead around our backyard, with each parent normally taking charge of one youngster. The young birds often stay on the fence while the parents go and bring them food, from our feeders or from the garden.
Sometimes waiting to be fed can be very tiring.
The birding scene at CyFair has been quieter than usual so far this migration season, so I was pleased when a few Indigo Buntings showed up earlier this week.
Luckily, Cedar Waxwings are still with us, although the flock of 1,000+ that we had has now shrunk to a few dozen.
I'll be quite sad when the last of the Waxwings head north, which I suspect will be fairly soon. They are such extraordinarily beautiful birds!
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