Not only birds have wings

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A walk around our very muddy college campus yesterday turned up hardly any birds at all. The exceptions were a handful of Mourning Doves, a score of Common and Great-tailed Grackles, and a single Loggerhead Shrike. I was pleased to see the latter, though, because it was the first time I'd seen one of our resident Shrikes since the early summer.

If birds were lacking, butterflies certainly were not. Small yellow and white examples were everywhere but all too fast-moving for me to photograph.

Several Gulf Fritillaries were enjoying shrubs on the edge of the soccer fields.


A rather worn Giant Swallowtail led me quite a dance along the nature trail before letting me grab a quick photo.


This Black Swallowtail was the most striking of them all.

Sunday at Brazos Bend: Part 2

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For some reason, we have always overlooked Creekfield Lake on our many previous visits to Brazos Bend State Park.

However, we spent an hour there on Sunday morning and were so impressed that we have now decided to make it (rather than 40 Acre Lake) our normal starting point for future visits to the park.

Creekfield Lake

Our main purpose in visiting Creekfield was to see if we could spot the family of Least Grebes that has been living there. We couldn't have been luckier. The Grebes were on the very first section of the lake that we reached - and they stayed within 20 feet of us for the next 15 minutes. Is this what heaven will be like for birders?

One of the parents

Four of the chicks

Both parents spent a lot of time diving to bring up food for their young. As soon as the parents surfaced, four of the chicks would rush over and beg for food.


We noticed that one chick was hanging back and was not getting anything to eat. One of the parents noticed this, swam over to the chick and started feeding it.


We were surprised to see that one of the tidbits was a dragonfly.



When we finally tore ourselves away from the Grebes, we hadn't gone more than ten yards before we came upon this Yellow-crowned Night Heron.


Further along, we walked out onto a small pier and watched this male Common Moorhen strutting his stuff and constantly calling out.



The trees near the pier were very busy with Tufted Titmice, Downy Woodpeckers, Carolina Chickadees, American Crows and a Carolina Wren. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get any photos.

I was unlucky with this alligator, too. Just a moment before we reached it, some French visitors saw it snap up a large turtle.


The islands and reeds in the middle of the lake held numbers of Common Moorhens, White Ibis, Black-bellied Whistling Ducks and Mottled Ducks.



We were fascinated to see these young Whistling Ducks feeding by sweeping their bills from side as they swam, in the same way that American Avocets and Roseate Spoonbills feed.


As we walked back to where we had watched the Least Grebes, I was startled by a young deer that popped its head up only 8 feet away from me. The fawn was even more startled and instantly disappeared into the reeds. A few yards down the path, its sibling was much less concerned about our presence.


Our final sightings were this frog ...


and a young Whistling Duck that left me take photos from only 3-4 yards.


We wound up our visit with a very quick look-in at Elm Lake. A dozen White Ibis were grazing near the path.


The trees in the lake were covered in Black-bellied Whistling Ducks, a fitting end to any visit to BBSP.


P.S.
We were very surprised to leave the park without having seen a single egret. (I had thought that it was impossible to visit any lake or even small pond in southeast Texas without seeing at least a Great Egret.) However, as we passed the George Ranch on our drive home, we saw a group of 6-8 trees that were literally covered in egrets. We weren't able to stop to count or photograph the birds, but I would guess they were Cattle Egrets and I would estimate their number at well over a thousand.

Sunday at Brazos Bend: Part 1

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We drove down to Brazos Bend State Park on Sunday morning and, as always, we started our visit with a walk around 40 Acre Lake.


The weather was perfect and really brought out the colors of the vegetation and the surrounding landscape.



The surface of the lake was largely covered by algae and water lilies.



Except for Common Moorhens, birds were remarkably few and far between.

This White Ibis was the only wader that we saw.


However, as usual at Brazos, there was plenty of other things to look at.




There was a good sprinkling of wildflowers.



Dragonflies were around in large numbers.


These dragonflies were so busy mating that they flew into a spider's web and they were luck to be able to struggle free.


Our bird count for Elm Lake was unbelievably low: Common Moorhens, one White Ibis, one Black-bellied Whistling Duck, one Little Blue Heron and 12 Common Grackles.

However, Creekfield Lake was a totally different story, as I will show tomorrow.

A Quick Visit to Paul Rushing Park

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On my way to work yesterday morning, I dropped in for a few minutes at Paul Rushing Park, once more in the hope of seeing migrating shorebirds.

As was the case last weekend, there were no shorebirds. However, as usual when I go birding in Texas, there was something worth seeing.

The handrail of one of the boardwalks was covered with Egrets. I counted 21 of them.


As I got closer, I saw that they were all Cattle Egrets.




These particular birds may have been migrating from more northerly states or they may have been some of the Cattle Egrets that live in Texas year-round.

Wordless Wednesday

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CyFair College Campus

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Now that summer is ending, I will be walking parts of the campus on a more regular basis again.

The recent rain has caused a positive explosion of vegetation.


I was a little surprised not to see Northern Mockingbirds or Northern Cardinals snacking on this American Beautyberry, because I know from our yards that it's a favorite of both species. Perhaps they're waiting for it to ripen even more.


Killdeer have returned to the soccer fields but they were greatly outnumbered by Common Grackles.


Some of the Grackles are still molting and look rather unbalanced without their tail feathers.


In the community garden the Grackles were joined by a few Brown-headed Cowbirds.

On the Katy Prairie

Lured by on-line reports of a Groove-billed Ani, I was exploring Hebert Road on the Katy Prairie at 8:30 a.m. Sunday. It was a beautiful morning: cloudy and cool with occasional drizzle. Quite a change from the weather we had from May through the end of August. Trees and utility poles long the roadside had Black Vultures, Red-tailed and Red-shouldered Hawks, Northern Mockingbirds, Loggerhead Shrikes and Scissor-tailed Flycatchers. Some of the fields were busy with Great and Cattle Egrets.

After a fruitless 15 minutes looking for the Ani at the site where it had been spotted on Saturday, I decided to check out Paul Rushing Park to see if more migrating shorebirds had arrived there. On my way, I stopped to grab a quick photo of a Crested Caracara.


To my surprise, the park was totally devoid of shorebirds (unless you count Killdeer, which were as numerous as ever). For the first time in months, I didn't see even a single Black-necked Stilt.

The weather was still cool and damp as I walked around the lakes.




Several groups of Black-bellied Whistling Ducks took flight as I approached the water, but one family group opted to stay put.


The only other birds on the water were three Pied-billed Grebes, four Mallards and a handful of exotic ducks.

Wading birds seemed to be limited to Great and Snowy Egrets until I noticed a Tricolored Heron standing on the handrail of a boardwalk. I chatted to it as I approached and it let me take several close-up photos.




By 10:00 a.m. the sun was breaking through the clouds and it was back to more normal Texas heat and humidity.