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Hearing that Jim Hinson was still finding Green-tailed Towhees at the Cypress Creek bridge on Sharp Road, I drove out there yesterday morning. As it happened, Jim was there when I arrived and we spent some time birding the creek banks together.
The south side of the road was busy with White-throated and White-crowned Sparrows, as well as with several other birds - Northern Cardinals, Carolina Chickadees, Northern Mockingbird, Downy Woodpecker, Red-bellied Woodpecker and Brown Thrasher. Before I got there, Jim had been watching a Spotted Towhee, but this was now nowhere to be seen!
We moved over to the north side of the road and Jim almost immediately called up a Green-tailed Towhee, which perched in full view for a couple of minutes.
As soon as the Towhee disappeared, a group of Chipping Sparrows turned up and brought with them a Dark-eyed Junco.
Surprisingly, that's only the third Junco I've seen in Texas. (Of course, I saw a lot more of them in California on the weekend. But I'll start reporting on that trip tomorrow.).
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.Our yards continue to get lots of visitors.
Carolina Chickadees, Northern Mockingbirds, House Finches and White-winged Doves never seem to leave, while Carolina Wrens have been apearing more often than usual.
Red-bellied Woodpeckers pop in now and then, but Downy Woodpeckers visit very regularly. The female always seem rather cautious as she approaches the suet feeder.
The male is usually bolder and flies straight onto the feeder.
Orange-crowned and Yellow-rumped Warblers continue to visit but I rarely get a chance to photograph them. Our Ruby-crowned Kinglet is much more obliging.
Dee and I are both still thrilled each time we get to see him close up.
Away
When you read this, we'll be in San Francisco. It's mainly a work trip but Dee will be going with me and we're hoping to fit in some birding on Sunday. See you back here on Wednesday!
.Friday morning I arranged to arrive at work late so that I could spend an hour birding along Longenbaugh and Sharp Roads on the Katy Prairie. I was hoping to see at least some of the exciting birds that other birders had been reporting from the area. I was particularly hoping to see Common Ground Doves, which would be a new species for me.
Things started well when I spotted a Crested Caracara in a field along Porter Road End.
Longenbaugh had plenty of Eastern Meadowlarks, Loggerhead Shrikes and Savannah Sparrows but none of the birds I was looking for.
I was luckier at the south edge of Paul Rushing Park, where I saw several Common Ground Doves sitting on a fence. The Ground Doves were too far away for a photo but this White-winged Dove was just above my head.
At the north side of Paul Rushing I saw several more Common Ground Doves - this time too elusive to photograph - as well as my First-of-Season White-crowned Sparrows.
Everywhere I drove there were Red-tailed Hawks perched on utility poles. Unfortunately, not one of them stayed still long enough for me to get a photo. However, as I was driving to work at the end of my birding time, I was lucky enough to get good views of a Red-shouldered Hawk right by the side of FM 529.
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.It has continued to be fairly quiet for birds around most of the campus this week, although a pair of White Ibis strolled along the drainage on Wednesday.
By contrast, the retention ponds have been busy. Apart from our resident Great Egret and a couple of Snowy Egrets, the ponds have been hosting a large group of American Coots and a smaller group of Pied-billed Grebes. The two species seem to co-exist quite happily.
I caught this Grebe just as it was preparing to dive.
On Thursday there were also several Redheads mixed in with the Coots and Grebes.
Late on Thursday morning I was talking with a colleague at the library entrance when I notice a bird start climbing up the trunk of a young pine tree. I rushed over and, yes, it was a Brown Creeper, a new bird for our campus list!
The bird let me walk right up to it, and it didn't fly away even when I gently touched its tail feathers. What a great chance for a photo - if I hadn't left my camera in the car. As the bird seemed settled where it was, I ran the couple of hundred yards to where my car was parked, grabbed my camera from the trunk and rushed back to the tree. The bird was still there!
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A couple of years ago we started hanging feeders outside our livingroom windows, so that we can watch some of our bird visitors without leaving the house. The birds like the position of these feeders, perhaps because a nearby wisteria provides safe perches from which to check out the feeders before flying onto them.
We normally have one Orange-crowned Warbler in our yards in the winter but this year we seem to have three. Here's one lurking in the wisteria.
As the feeders are only 18" from the window glass, we certainly get close-up views of the birds that use them. Most of the birds fly away if we approach the window but some, like Carolina Chickadees, are bolder. A Ruby-crowned Kinglet which has been wintering in our yard for 3-4 years is certainly not afraid of me.
If I get too close, all that happens is that he/she throws me a very stern look!
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After seeing that local birders had spotted three types of towhee along Sharp Road, I headed out for the Katy Prairie on Saturday morning.
I spent a fruitless 30 minutes scouring both sides of Cypress Creek along Sharp Road but saw only a Lincoln's Sparrow and a juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk.
I decided to drive home via Paul Rushing Park and Longenbaugh Road.
Paul Rushing was very busy with cars and people, so I stayed only long enough to take a few photos of the one-legged Upland Sandpiper that has been hanging out there.
Longenbaugh was quieter than I expected for birds. There were the usual Loggerhead Shrikes, Northern Mockingbirds and Savannah Sparrows, plus numbers of Brown-headed Cowbirds.
The area below the Bear Creek bridge had several Inca Doves, a bird I rarely see on the prairie.
My final stop before heading home was a field crowded with Eastern Meadowlarks, one of which obligingly hopped up onto a wire to let me take a photo.
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I kept hoping that successive cold fronts this week would bring a tide of new birds to the campus. But they didn't. At best they brought a few more Yellow-rumped Warblers and Lincoln's Sparrows to join those that arrived weeks ago.
However, a male House Finch was a nice surprise, as it's a species we've only ever seen once before at the college.
Otherwise the nature trail was still mainly inhabited by Northern Mockingbirds.
On Thursday morning I got to the campus just as dawn was breaking beyond the retention ponds.
It didn't take long for the sky to change from golden to silver, black and gray.
As the light improved, I was surprised to find the ponds busy with a dozen or more American Coots and a handful of Pied-billed Grebes.
The banks were busier than normal, too. Apart from our usual Great Egret, there were three Snowy Egrets.
So, overall, not an exciting week at the college. Still, maybe next week will bring more cold fronts and new flocks of birds!
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Unfortunately, I don't mean I've been seeing a lot of bird activity recently. I mean that I've been busy at work. Too busy to do much in the way of birding and too busy to update this blog as regularly as usual. However, things at work will be calming down now and so I should be able to get out and about to see what the birds are up to.
At the college, I've seen a few signs of fall over the past two or three weeks. The nature trail has welcomed House Wrens, Lincoln's Sparrows, Yellow-rumped Warblers, a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and a Ruby-crowned Kinglet.
Yellow-rumped Warbler
I've also seen a couple of Pine Warblers but unfortunately both of them were dead birds, killed by flying into windows.
We always have Killdeer on the campus but they seem to be more numerous than usual at present.
At home the only new birds I've seen have been an Orange-crowned Warbler and, just yesterday, a Yellow-rumped Warbler. However, we have seen plenty of our year-round residents: House Finches, Northern Mockingbirds, White-winged Doves, and Downy and Red-bellied Woodpeckers.
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Our Carolina Wrens and their one surviving youngster have been very visible, too.
As usual, though, at home and at work by far the most common bird has been the Northern Mockingbird. Three regularly visit the suet feeder right outside our livingroom window and at the college I rarely see fewer than a dozen on any 5-minute walk.
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