Yesterday in Our Yards

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It's been a while since I was able to spend a whole day at home but that's what I was able to do yesterday. I started the day by putting out a new seed feeder and then replenishing the sugar water in our four hummingbird feeders. I also spread some seeds along the fence - just in case!

I knew it was going to be a good day when I went out to bring in the newspaper and saw six Red-breasted Nuthatches in our oak tree. So I spent most of the rest of the day on our back deck, watching a succession of these beautiful little birds visiting our feeders.

Our normal residents were scarce except for a Northern Mockingbird and a White-winged Dove (below).

However, all the Nuthatch action attracted the attention of ten House Sparrows and an Orange-crowned Warbler (below).

Then our Carolina Chickadees came to see what was happening.

One of the Chickadees was joined on the feeders by a Chipping Sparrow, our first of the season.

Another Chipping spent ages feeding on the seed I'd scattered along the top of the fence.

Others
The Chipping Sparrows weren't the only new birds to turn up yesterday. In our front yard we had an Eastern Phoebe and in the back yard two hummingbirds. One of the hummers was a male Rufous; the other I didn't get a good look at.
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Friday Fotos

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Here's the Osprey that was fishing on the CyFair campus on Wednesday.

And here's a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher still hanging out on Longenbaugh Road this morning.

It certainly seems odd to see a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher and a White-crowned Sparrow on Longenbaugh on the same day!

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More Action at CyFair

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Overall, this has been an incredibly quiet fall for birds on the CyFair campus. Migrants have been few and far between. Meanwhile, few winter birds have arrived and residents have been keeping their heads down, perhaps because a Cooper's Hawk has moved into the nature trail area.

So I wasn't expecting to see much yesterday and so was pleasantly surprised to get to watch an Osprey hovering and fishing along the ditch on the north side of the campus. (I'll post photos of that tomorrow.)

Further along the ditch, I came across a Pied-billed Grebe and a Snowy Egret that was hanging out with four White Ibis, birds I rarely see at the college.

I missed out on photographing three Great Blue Herons that were standing nearby but got a quick shot of one of two Great Egrets that also flew off as I approached. (I have lots of photos of Great Egrets in flight but they are such graceful birds that I can never resist taking more pictures of them!)

The parking lot had a Ring-billed Gull, while the trees behind the CASA building had a beautiful Loggerhead Shrike.

Northern Mockingbirds were busy in the same area and almost distracted me from spotting two White-throated Sparrows, the first I've seen at the college this fall.

My final sighting was of a Ruby-crowned Kinglet, again my first one this fall.

So perhaps things are looking up and, with more cold weather forecast, the rest of the week may produce even more new arrivals.
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Surprise Visitor

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We arrived back from Austin on Sunday afternoon, just ahead of a cold front moving in from the north and west. Within a few minutes of unloading the car, some activity outside our living -room window caught my attantion. A Carolina Chickadee made a few trips to our seed feeder and then flew down to the birdbath. The light was poor but I managed to get a recognizable photo.

Almost immediately, another bird quickly flew to the feeder and away again. Did I really just see a Red-breasted Nuthatch? I thought so but the look I got was too short for me to be sure. Luckily the bird return a minute later and settled on the birdbath. It was a Nuthatch.

No sooner had the Nuthatch disappeared than another bird appeared on our fence: Our first Yellow-rumped Warbler of the season.

The cold front is due to fully reach our area Monday night, so I'm hoping that Tuesday and Wednesday will bring lots of new birds into our area.

Campus Casualty
Monday morning I was driving around the campus when one of our groundsmen waved me down. He had stopped to move off the road a snake that had been run over and largely disembowelled. The groundsman was going to pick it up when I warned him to be careful, because the snake was a cottonmouth and was (somehow) still alive.

Although I hate killing any living thing, I knew we couldn't leave the snake in such a terrible condition. So I went off and found a heavy dead branch. I hit the snake on the head as hard as I could and was amazed when it reared up and opened its mouth in a defensive display. I hit it half-a-dozen more times and it kept rearing up and warning me off. In the end I had to drive my car back and forwards over its body several times before I managed to put the snake out of its misery.
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Common Birds

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Most migrating birds gave the CyFair campus a miss this fall, and most of our winter residents haven't arrived yet. So there hasn't been a lot to see on my walks around the campus. However, this has given me an opportunity to focus on common birds that I don't usually pay attention to.

Over the summer I saw Mourning Doves on every walk. Since then some Mourning Doves have remained but they have definitely been outnumbered by White-winged Doves.

Although we don't seem to have anything like as many Northern Mockingbirds as we used to have, it is still impossible to walk anywhere on campus without hearing or seeing several. This one greets me every time I start walking along the nature trail.

Lately the chipping of the Mockingbirds has often been punctuated by the "fee-bee" call of Eastern Phoebes.

Great-tailed Grackles appear in groups all over the campus and particularly in and around the parking lots. Females have been particularly numerous.

Like most people who live in our area, I tend to take Northern Cardinals for granted. However, this week I just had to stop to look at a male Cardinal whose plumage positively glowed in the early morning sunlight. What a stunning bird!

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Where Are Our Birds?

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For weeks now our yards have been surprisingly - I say "spookily" - empty of birds. Our normal Northern Cardinals, Carolina Chickadees, Carolina Wrens and Red-bellied Woodpeckers have been almost total absent since early or mid September. Even visits by White-winged Doves and House Sparrows have been few and far between, although I can't say I'm too upset by this.

Luckily, a couple of our resident species have still been visiting regularly, with the most frequent visitors to our feeders being two Northern Mockingbirds.

Our sole winter resident to date, an Orange-crowned Warbler, usually comes to get suet once or twice a day also.

I've tried everything I know to bring back our missing resident birds. I've put peanuts and peanut butter on our fences. I've hung up more suet feeders. I've put up a new sunflower seed tube-feeder. I've added a platform feeder with sunflower seeds, nuts and other goodies. Nothing has worked yet.

My wife suspects that our birds have been deterred by the caged birds that a new neighbor has put in the yard next to ours. I suspect a more probable cause is another new neighbor. This one moved in a few weeks ago and perches on our rooftops and trees!

Pleasant Surprise

Early last week I was sitting in my home office when I noticed what looked like an Eastern Bluebird sitting on our back fence. I grabbed my camera and ran outside. No fewer than 4 Bluebirds were in our yard! So that was a nice - and unexpected - addition to our list of yardbirds.

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Looking for Shorebirds

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When we go looking for shorebirds in our area, we usually head down to Galveston and Bolivar. However, last weekend we headed over to the Lynchburg Ferry landing because I wanted to add some shorebird species to my Harris County year list.

The morning started badly when we arrived at the landing in the middle of a thunderstorm. We pulled into the Monument Inn parking lot and peered down to the beach through pouring rain. The water's edge was busy with scores of Laughing Gulls but the only shorebirds we could see well enough to identify were Sanderlings. An Osprey flew in and proceeded to bathe in the shallows, an odd sight in the torrential rain!

Another odd sight was that of a Belted Kingfisher repeatedly hovering over and then and diving into the waves. It later settled down on a rock well out into the water.

Disappointed at the weather conditions and the comparative lack of birds, we drove slowly back towards the San Jacinto Monument. We both cheered up when we noticed that ponds by the roadside held a range of birds. Willets and a couple of Long-billed Dowitchers initially caught our attention but then an American Avocet appeared and we watched as it stalked through the water, sweeping its bill from side to side.

A Great Blue Heron strode purposefully through the rain, unconcerned by our presence. 

A Snowy Egret ran about, hoping to stir up prey with its bright yellow feet.

Several juvenile Double-crested Cormorants were perched on posts.

When the rain stopped, I walked over to the ferry and watched another Cormorant as it flew in to settle on the water. Its approach was graceful.

Its landing was less elegant.

After that, we headed over to the San Jacinto Monument, where my target birds were Clapper Rail and Marsh Wren. I had seen a single Marsh Wren on my trip to Denver but I hadn't yet seen one in Texas - and I hadn't seen a Clapper Rail anywhere all year so far.
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Longenbaugh Road

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The other day, after visiting Paul Rushing Park, I  drove back to work via Longenbaugh Road. I never tire of visiting Longenbaugh, because there is virtually always something worth seeing there. If all else fails, you are sure to see several Loggerhead Shrikes.

On this particular day, a flock of 100 or more Brown-headed Cowbirds was constantly moving from one side of the road to the other. One male stayed still lomg enough for me to get some photos.. 

In the winter Longenbaugh is one of the best spots for sparrow-watching in our area. It is still early for sparrows, though, and so I spotted only a solitary Savannah Sparrow.

As I've mentioned before in this blog, 1012 has turned out to be a great year for Scissor-tailed Flycatchers - and Longenbaugh has been a great place for watching them. The bird below may not be the most colorful Scissor-tailed I've seen lately but it certainly has the longest tail.

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