Bathing at Work

.Our campus includes an artificial river that at one point runs over a series of stony steps. Great-tailed Grackles love the area.

This male was happy just to potter around in the water.

Later in the day, a female decided it was the perfect place to bathe. She was having such a great time that I couldn't resist taking a whole set of photos!

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(Almost) Wordless Wednesday

.On Sunday morning Dee and I saw several Vermilion Flycatchers on the Skillern Tract section of Anahuac.

The adult males are umistakeable!

The adult females are rather more difficult to ID. 

The juveniles are even trickier.

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Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge

.Saturday morning we drove down to Smith Point in hopes of seeing migrating hawks. The previous day more than 8,000 hawks had been spotted from the observation tower but we weren't so lucky. In fact, after 40 minutes without seeing a single bird, we gave up and headed over to Anahuac NWR.

The entrance road was lined with Scissor-tailed Flycatchers.

There were other flycatchers, too, including this Western Kingbird.

The area near the visitors center was busy with hundreds (if not thousands) of Brown-headed Cowbirds.

A few European Starlings were keeping the Cowbirds company.

As the road around Shoveler's Pond is currently closed, we drove down to Frozen Point, passing several Loggerhead Shrikes and Turkey Vultures along the way.

Frozen Point was very quiet for birds. Apart from a Great Blue Heron and a Laughing Gull, we initially saw only a Wilson's Plover.

A walk along the water's edge then turned up a Black-billed Plover.

There was a solitary Willet.

Just as we were leaving, a couple of Seaside Sparrows came foraging through the rocks on the beach.

As it was now late afternoon, we decided to call, it a day and head to the motel where we were going to spend the night. On our way we say the first hawk of the weekend.

It wasn't too difficult to ID this one as a Red-tailed!

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Katy Prairie

.On my way to work one day last week, I managed to look in at Paul Rushing Park on the Katy Prairie.

Most of the lakes had very little water and even less bird activity. However, one lake was hosting a handful of Roseate Spoonbills. Some were hanging out on the boardwalk.

A White-faced Ibis (or Glossy?) Ibis was feeding right along a group of Spoonbills in the water.

A Snowy Egret was dashing around in the background, trying to scare up prey with its yellow feet.

A couple of Dowitchers were too far away to photograph but some Yellowlegs were closer.

As usual at Paul Rushing, the short grass held several Horned Larks.

A more surprising bird was a Clay-colored Sparrow, a new bird for my Harris County list. 

Weekend Away
By the time you read this,  we'll be enjoying a weekend away from home. We're heading down to Smith Point to watch some of the hawk migration. We may also drop in at Anahuac and perhaps even High Island to see  if any migrants are passing through there.
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Wherever You Go

.One of the great things about living in southeast Texas is that you don't have to go birding to see birds. You can see them in your yard, on your commute, at your work, in the mall parking lot - just about anywhere, in fact.

I was reminded of this the other day when I had to take my wife to a local medical center. While she was with the doctor, I took a walk around an ornamental pond behind the medical building. As I expected, many of the birds at the pond were exotic ducks. However, there were also some other birds.

First up was a Eurasian Collared Dove.

Nearby a Snowy Egret was fishing.

A male Great-tailed Grackle was showing off.

And a female Grackle was looking interested.

A family of Black-bellied Whistling Ducks crossed the path ahead of me on their way to the water.

Several other families of Whistling Ducks were already enjoying the pond.

An hour later, on my drive to work, I had a good look at a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher enjoying its lunch.

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Wordless Wednesday

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