Wordless Wednesday

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High Island Woods

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Boy Scout Woods had been extremely busy with birds earlier in the morning and there were still lots of migrants around when we got there. Unfortunately, it was even busier with birders, especially around the water drip. So we headed for the back of the property.

As soon as we started walking, we started seeing birds. First up was a Black-and-white Warbler, followed by our first Eastern Kingbird of the year.

Eastern Kingbird

A Gray Catbird came very close but refused to turn to face us.


We didn't see any Painted Buntings but there were several Indigo Buntings.


Then we had four more new year birds in a row: Blackburnian Warbler, Red-eyed Vireo, Ruby-throated Hummingbirds and Orchard Oriole.

Orchard Oriole

Most people didn't seem to notice that the landscape was dotted with spectacular thistles ...




as well as beautiful Mexican Blankets and Evening Primroses.




Back at the drip, we spent a few minutes watching a group of Hooded Orioles and a couple of Hooded Warblers coming in to drink while Summer Tanagers flitted around over our heads.

Male Summer Tanager

Young Male Summer Tanager

I almost missed this Ovenbird as it scuttled quietly through the leaves near my feet.


Feeling rather hemmed in by all the people, we headed over to Smith Oaks to have a picnic lunch before going to see the rookery.

As we ate, we were entertained by a succession of birds.

A Yellow-bellied Sapsucker explored a nearby tree trunk.



A Black-and-white Warbler came along a branch over our heads.



I interrupted my lunch to have a look at an American Redstart a few yards from the picnic table ...


and ended up watching a Yellow-throated Vireo, too.


A Scarlet Tanager perched on a tree in the distance, while a couple of male Summer Tanagers came much closer to us.


Lunch over, we headed to the lake and the rookery area. However, we couldn't resist stopping along the way to look at yet more male and female Summer Tanagers. These ones let us watch them from only 6-7 feet away.




I'll report on the rookery part of our trip on Thursday.
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A Day of Tough Choices

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Yesterday was a day of tough choices. Given the weather, we were pretty sure that High Island would be very busy with spring migrants. Going there would probably produce an exciting morning's birding and add lots of birds to our year list. However, we knew it was going to be one of our last chances of seeing the nesting Bald Eagles in Baytown and seeing Bald Eagles is always a thrill. If we spent the first part of the morning in Baytown, we might miss a lot of the action at High Island. So what should we do? As our primary interest in birding is watching birds rather than seeing how many species we can rack up, we opted to start off in Baytown. And it was worth it.

The Eagles

The female Eagle was clearly visible on the nest.


Then one of the chicks popped up and spent some time looking around.


We even got to see the adult ripping off pieces of something at her feet and feeding them to the other chick.


We hung around for a while, hoping in vain that the male would return to the nest, before driving on through scattered showers to High Island.

High Island

I knew it was going to be a good day at High Island when I saw a pair of Inca Doves as soon as I got out of the car in the parking lot near Boy Scout Woods. I love Inca Doves!


We spent the next hour wandering the woods, which were very busy indeed with warblers and other migrants. I'll report on these tomorrow but here's a photo of one of the birds we saw.

Young male Summer Tanager

Then we had another choice to make: Stay and hunt for migrants in Boy Scout Woods or go to see the rookery in Smith Oaks? We decided on the rookery and drove over to Smith Oaks.

There we were faced with another dilemma, because the woods were again full of spring migrants including many warblers. We opted to have a quick picnic with the birds in the woods and then to walk to the rookery to watch the antics of the nesting waders there. I'll put up a report and photos on Wednesday but the photo below gives a little taste of what we saw.

Roseate Spoonbill

Overall
Although we kept opting to watch birds' behavior rather than to look for different species, I ended up adding 11 birds to my year list. Not at all bad! Overall, though, the best part of the day was watching those Eagles. What amazing birds they are!
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When Woodpeckers Come

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We don't often get Red-bellied Woodpeckers at our feeders these days, but when they, the other birds have to make way for them. The other day I watched while a female Red-bellied kept flying in, forcing aside whichever bird was already on the feeder. I ended up with a series of photos showing a Cardinal, a Blue Jay and a White-winged Dove all having to wait while the Woodpecker ate.






The only bird that could make her move aside was - a male Red-bellied Woodpecker. If you look carefully, you can see a little of the redness on the bird's belly that gives this species its name.




We all know that woodpeckers use their tails to brace themselves when climbing trees, balancing on feeders, etc. I was interested to notice that both Cardinals and Blue Jays sometimes use their tails in the same way to brace themselves while eating from feeders.

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Thursday Morning on the Katy Prairie

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Lured by reports of several different types of shorebirds, I popped in at Paul Rushing Park for a few minutes on my way to work on Thursday.


A flooded area near the parking lot had quite a lot of bird activity. Blue-winged Teal flew off as soon as I stepped out of the car but some Lesser Yellowlegs were more obliging.



Black-necked Stilts, too, let me have a closer look before they moved further away. Can you believe the length of those legs?


Long-billed Dowitchers were too busy feeding to bother about me.


Several Least Sandpipers mixing happily with the Dowitchers also let me approach fairly close.


All of these were nice birds to see but they were not the Pectoral, Buff-breasted and Semi-palmated Sandpipers that I was looking for. Disappointed, I scanned the grass a little further away and was surprised to see a score Savannah Sparrows. I had thought most Savannahs would have left our area by now but obviously not. (In fact, I saw another flock of 20 or so on the CyFair campus later in the morning.)

I was just about to leave when I decided to check out a large flock of Common Grackles on the grass. To my surprise, I found that the sandpipers I was looking for were mixed in with the Grackles! The Pectoral and Semi-palmated were too far away for photos but I managed to get one recognizable picture of a Buff-breasted. With its short bill, black face and yellow legs, it's a bird that even I can identify without much difficulty.

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Nesting Swallows

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If you've driven under 290 recently, you've probably noticed that the edges of many of the freeway's underpasses are decorated with scores of swallows' nests. On my way to work yesterday, I stopped to take a closer look at some of these.


As you can see, each nest is made of lots of small balls of mud stuck together to form a jug-shaped nest.


While I was looking at the nests, several swallows kept flying in and out of them. I wasn't sure whether the birds were Cliff Swallows or Cave Swallows, because these two species look very similar: Essentially the only difference is that Cliff Swallows have a white forehead while the forehead of Cave Swallows is rusty brown.

Unfortunately, the birds were flying too fast for me to see their heads clearly. So I took a series of photos, hoping some of these would show the swallows' foreheads.

Only a handful of the photos were even partially in focus and most of these didn't help, because they showed only the birds' backs.



However, I finally got one picture that settled the ID issue. The birds were Cliff Swallows.

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Wordless Wednesday

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Walking the CyFair Campus

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As regular readers will know, the LSC-CyFair college is having to add new buildings to cater for a student population that gets bigger every year. So much of the campus is currently a huge construction site that has eaten up much of what used to be undeveloped green space. Yesterday I took a walk around the whole campus to get a sense of how the construction is affecting wildlife there. As I will clarify below, I was pleasantly surprised by what I found.

I started walking from the Library towards the Nature Trail and, almost inevitably, the first bird I came across was a Northern Mockingbird.


The fountain pond had several Red-eared Sliders, although all I could see of them was their noses poking up from the water.

Then in quick succession I spotted a female Great-tailed Grackle picking dead bugs off a lamp standard, a Killdeer browsing in the sand of our volleyball court, and a male Red-winged Blackbird flying over the tennis courts.

The Purple Martin houses had a pair of Martins.


The male ignored me but the female kept taking off and swooping around me.



Nearby, five Savannah Sparrows were grazing on the grass.

As I crossed to the Nature Trail entrance, a flight of four Black-bellied Whistling Ducks passed overhead, followed by a group of seven Great Egrets. A minute later a solitary Great Egret followed and this time I managed to get a photo.

The trees near the beginning of the Nature Trail were empty except for a White-winged Dove and a Ruby-crowned Kinglet. That was the first Kinglet I'd seen here for weeks.

Northern Cardinals were calling all around, while a Mockingbird was trying to make his mating song heard above the roar of a bulldozer. A male Brown-headed Cowbird looked lonely as he perched on top of a tree.

The area was heavy with the scent of honeysuckle ...


and Evening Primrose and other wildflowers were in evidence, too.


A Great Blue Heron flew majestically across the sky.


As I walked towards the modular buildings, I passed half-a-dozen more Mockingbirds, then I spotted a Lincoln's Sparrow that was too secretive for me to photograph. The ground there was covered with crawdad mounds ...

and with tracks left by our one remaining coyote.


Crossing the artificial river, I stopped to photograph a female Great-tailed Grackle wandering around on the rocks.


A moment later a large rat scuttled between two bunches of the prairie grass that covers much of the campus.

I headed for the large retention ponds, passing a male Red-winged Blackbird making his beautiful mating call.


At the waterfall, a couple of European Starlings, three Mourning Doves and yet another Mockingbird were grazing on the ground.

A Great Blue Heron flew over; no doubt the same bird I saw earlier.

As I reached the southern retention pond, a flight of ten Black-bellied Whistling Ducks crossed overhead.

Several male Great-tailed Grackles were making their raucous mating calls. I finally got to photograph one - but, unusually, he was calling from the ground rather than from a high perch.


Then I was lucky. A Tree Swallow flew past. That was year bird #150 for me.

The grass at the water's edge had a couple of Savannah Sparrows, plus four more Mourning Doves and another Mockingbird.

Then another treat: Five Cedar Waxwings were foraging in a small tree near the northern retention pond.


Back at the waterfall, a Snowy Egret had arrived and was busy pacing through the water, stirring up prey with his bright yellow feet.


Walking to the Library, I passed several more Mourning Doves and Savannah Sparrows, plus a Savannah Sparrow and yet another Mockingbird.

My final sighting was a pair of Black-bellied Whistling Ducks just close enough for a photo of them to be recognizable.

Overall, my walk made me feel less depressed about the effects of all the changes on the campus. There were signs of wildlife everywhere I went, and I saw 19 bird species, which was certainly more than I'd expected. So perhaps when all the construction ends next year, the campus will still be a good place to see a range of Texas birds and other wildlife.

P.S.
Driving off the campus after work yesterday I noticed some other birds: a Loggerhead Shrike, a Common Grackle, a Red-tailed Hawk and a group of three very playful Scissor-tailed Flycatchers.
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