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Even though the nature trail area at CyFair has shrunk to just a few areas, it's still a pleasant place to escape to for a while when work becomes too onerous or frustrating.
There's always something to look at. Like this cotton rat, which I saw on Friday.
There are usually at least a few birds. too. Friday was quiet for birds but my walk turned up a few Northern Cardinals, Mourning Doves and Brown-headed Cowbirds as well as this Gray Catbird.
I couldn't help but duck when I disturbed a young Night-crowned Heron which flew off missing my head by only a few feet. I instinctively ducked again when another large bird passed low overhead. Turkey Vulture, a bird we used to see only rarely but is now a common visitor. Turkey Vultures are really quite ugly but they fly like angels.
The best sighting along the trail was a Red-tailed Hawk. We always had a resident pair at the college but they disappeared last year, presumably because of all the construction work that was taking place. One started visiting again earlier this year and recently I've seen both birds pretty regularly. I hope they've come back to stay because they're always such a joy to watch.
On my way back to the office I walked by the basketball court to see if it is once again a nesting site for a pair of the Western Kingbirds that have raised young on the campus for the past 8 years. I had to walk around a frog - or is it a toad - that had parked itself in the middle of the path. (An identical one had been on our doormat at home the previous night.)
A quick scan of the corners of the basketball court roof didn't reveal any signs of nesting. However, an adult Kingbird suddenly arrived, flew up into the southeast corner and then turned and flew away. I looked more carefully at the corner and I could just make out the nest, complete with the mother Kingbird sitting on eggs.
It'll be fun watching the nest over the coming weeks, as the eggs hatch, the parents start bringing bugs to the babies, and then the latter start venturing away from the nest and out along the roof beams. Once the youngsters are big enough, the parents will take them off and lodge them in one of our small pine trees until they are able to feed themselves. Last summer this particular pair successfully raised four young.
I wonder if they'll be equally successful this year.
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Songbird migration is more or less over by the middle of May and so I wasn't expecting to see many migrants when I got to the campus nature trail work very early Monday morning. Well, either the fat lady hadn't sung yet or if she, the birds hadn't heard her, because the trees and bushes were absolutely full of birds! In 45 minutes I saw more migrants than I've ever seem except on a couple of fall-out days at Lafitte's Cove and High Island.
American Redstarts and Magnolia Warblers were everywhere, along with several Black-throated Green Warblers and a couple of Wilson's Warblers.
Even more numerous were Chestnut-sided Warblers. When I was standing in a clearing, four or five emerged from the shadows together and fussed around on branches only feet away from me.
Meanwhile the higher branches were busy with Red-eyed Vireos.
Further along the trail there were more of the same birds but also several Bay-breasted Warblers.
Eastern Wood-Pewees were present, too. I saw at least four at different points along the trail.
In dark areas near the ground I kept getting tantalizing glimpses of gray heads. Finally one of the birds moved into a small patch of light for a couple of seconds: It was a Mourning Warbler, a bird I had seen only once before.
Unfortunately, it was now time for work and so I had to leave the birds and head to my office. Still, I had enjoyed 45 minutes of fantastic birding. The new arrivals had taken my year list to 253 species. That's only 10 fewer than I saw in Texas in the whole of 2010 and we're not even halfway through this year yet.
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One of the interesting things about being a birder in southeast Texas is watching how some species have gradually been extending their range into our area. One example is the Crested Caracara. A couple of decades ago, Caracaras were rarely seen around Houston but now they are common all over the Katy Prairie and at coastal sites such as High Island and Brazoria NWR, and they often turn up within Houston itself.
An even better example is the White-winged Dove. When I came to Houston 8 years ago, White-winged Doves were moving up from south Texas but were normally only found west of I-45 or on the coast. (I remember being very excited to see my very first White-winged on a trip to Galveston in 2003.) They are now common all over our area and even further east along the Gulf coast.
With white edges on their wings and tails, they are striking birds.
The bright blue ring around their eye makes them more striking still.
Unfortunately, their arrival in our area seems to be bad news for other doves. When we moved to Cypress in 2005, our yards were visited regularly by both Mourning and Inca Doves. These days we rarely if ever see either of these two species here because White-winged Doves have taken over. One probable reason for their success is that they are significantly larger than Mourning and Inca Doves. Another may be that they form larger flocks: We regularly get 20, 30 o even 40 at a time in our yards. A third reason may be that they seem to be very adaptable in their foraging habits. Ground feeders by nature, many of ours have learned to eat - admittedly with considerable difficulty - from our seed and suet feeders. This presumably gives them quite an edge over doves that are restricted to feeding on the ground.
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This year's spring migration season has not been a good one, because southerly winds have consistently led to most migrant songbirds overflying southeast Texas. So I have seen many fewer migrants than usual on the college campus. Most of last week was again very quiet with the only migrants I spotted being a single Indigo Bunting and an Eastern Wood-Pewee.
Luckily we have had a lot of Purple Martins move into our martin houses and they are always fun to watch.
As usual, the campus also has several Western Kingbirds, at least two pairs of which have nested here every year for the past 8 years. I haven't seen any signs of nesting yet but the birds are now moving around in pairs, which makes me think that they should be setting up home any day.
Thursday brought a shift in the wind and so on Friday I hurried to work to see if the northerly wind had brought in any migrants. It had. There were quite a few new songbirds along the nature trail. I didn't manage to get any photos of a couple of Nashville Warblers and Wilson's Warblers but I was a little luckier with an American Redstart and a Magnolia Warbler.
As north winds were forecast for the weekend, there were likely to be other migrants arriving then. Unfortunately, I wasn't going to get to see them because other commitments meant that I wouldn't be able to visit the campus on either Saturday or Sunday. So all I could do was hope that the north winds would keep blowing until Monday.
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Although most of Shovelers Pond was dry, the channel that circumscribes it contained a fair amount of water and this was busy with birds. As the vegetation along the sides of the road had recently been cut back, it was also easier to see the channel than it had been on our previous couple of visits. Patches of Evening Primrose and other wildflowers added touches of bright colors to the more muted browns, yellows and greens of the various grasses and reeds.
There are many fewer alligators at Anahuac than there were before Ike but we spotted a few.
The trees and posts along the road water were busy with a good selection of common birds, including Great-tailed Grackles, Red-winged Blackbirds, Eastern Kingbirds and Turkey Vultures (below).
There were other smaller birds that I didn't manage to photograph - Dickcissels and Savannah and Seaside Sparrows - and the water had numerous Common Moorhens.
However, the main reason to visit the pond at this time of the year is to see wading birds, shorebirds and rails and so this is what we concentrated on looking for.
Green Herons were everywhere. We must have seen half-a-dozen on each circuit of the pond.
Large waders were less visible but we saw several Great Egrets as well as this Great Blue Heron.
A young Black-crowned Night Heron stood motionless as we passed by.
Black-necked Stilts were much more active and some were squabbling, presumably over territory. We were amazed to see one keep jumping up and landing on top of another. As you can see from the photo below, it would pin the other's head head to the ground with its feet an then peck hard at its back. Ouch!
Least Bitterns and rails are usually difficult to watch because they keep close to the water's edge and disappear into the reeds and grasses if they sense the slightest danger. On this trip, though, the channel was largely dry with only a trickle of water running down its center. So the birds had to venture further into the open and were much easier to see.
Least Bitterns, one of our target species, appeared at several points along the route and we spent a long time watching them. They appear quite substantial when seen in profile.
But when seen from the front, they are surprisingly thin.
Clapper and King Rails are significantly bigger and more striking.
In most parts of the country it is comparatively easy to tell these two rail species apart but on the Gulf Coast they are often indistinguishable from each other. All of the ones I saw looked like King Rails but some or all of them may just as well have been Clappers.
We also saw three or four Soras, much smaller and easier to identify rails.
As we reached the end of our final circuit of the pond I complained to Dee that, although we had had wonderful looks at some good birds, we had not managed to see any Purple Gallinules, one of our favorite birds. Thirty seconds later one appeared by the waters edge and stayed in view just long enough for me to grab a single photo through the car window.
The Gallinule provided the perfect ending to what had been one of our most enjoyable birding weekends ever.
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The last few times we had visited Anahuac, the refuge had definitely not recovered from Hurricane Ike and birds - except for Snow Geese in the winter - were fairly scarce. Last week, though, the refuge was looking good and the birding was excellent. In fact, we were so pleased by what we saw on Saturday afternoon that I returned early on Sunday and then we both went back later on Sunday morning. I'll combine what we saw into one report.
Our bird sightings started well before we reached Anahuac with four Scissor-tailed Flycatchers being first up.
They were quickly followed by a Red-tailed Hawk and an Osprey (below), the only raptors that we on the whole weekend.
Turning into the refuge we were surprised to see flooded fields full of birds on the left: Blue-winged Teal, White Ibis and a range of shorebirds that included many Whimbrels and Yellowlegs (below).
The old visitor center was busy with Barn Swallows, one of which seemed totally unconcerned as I photographed it from 6 feet away.
Several nests under the building's eaves were occupied, even if you had to look hard to see the occupants.
For the first time in years the pond behind the center has a lot of birds. Several species of shorebirds were pottering around while a Glossy Ibis was wading in the shallow water.
We were both thrilled to see a group of about a dozen Fulvous Whistling Ducks, birds that we see surprisingly rarely.
Just across the road from the pond one Common Nighthawk was resting on a branch while another was perched on a fence. What really strange looking birds they are!
The butterfly garden wasn't attracting many butterflies but the lantana there was proving to be a big draw for male and female Ruby-throated Hummingbirds.
Here, as everywhere on the refuge, the calls and songs of Red-winged Blackbirds filled the air ...
and almost every fence post seemed to have an Eastern Kingbird, some looking very dapper and others still working on their feathers.
After birding the area near the old visitor center, we took a leisurely drive around Shovelers' Pond, where we saw almost the same birds on each of our three circuits. But I'll blog about them tomorrow.
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