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Unfortunately, I haven't seen any Brown-headed Nuthatches in our yards this month, so it looks like they may have moved on. However, the peanut feeders that I put up for them are continuing to attract birds.
Downy Woodpeckers and a Red-bellied Woodpecker (below) love those peanuts.
Blue Jays, too, are partial to peanuts.
A couple of weeks ago Dee persuaded me to buy a blue ceramic feeder for the backyard. Having had bad experiences with brightly colored feeders in the past, I wasn't sure the birds would go for this one but I was proven wrong almost immediately.
Our American Beautyberry has started become laden down with berries. Unlike last year, when no birds expressed interest in the berries, this time one of our Northern Mockingbirds seems to have developed a taste for them.
Speaking of Mockingbirds, we were pleased to see that one of our pairs of adults has recently produced a chick. The other day the chick perched on our fence and screamed for food for ages while one of its parents seemed to be trying to persuade it to move to a less exposed location.
Meanwhile a Carolina Chickadee quietly watched the scene from a perch further along the fence.
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On Sunday morning I went up to Kleb Woods, meaning to do a search for new birds for my 2013 Harris County list. However, I didn't get around to looking for new birds because I got sidetracked by the many migrating Ruby-throated Hummingbirds that were present.
The staff had put up feeders in many different places and they all seemed to be catering to lots of hummers.
I ended up spending most of my time by the side of the visitor center building, where a row of feeders was attracting a dozen or more hummers at any one time.
Hummingbird Festival
If you live in the Houston area, you may want to head over to Kleb on Saturday, when the center will be holding its annual Hummingbird Festival from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm. You're sure to get great looks at scores of hummers, as well as having an opportunity to watch as some of the birds are captured and banded. There will be other bird-related activities, too, including a chance to get close-up looks at several owls between 10:00 am and 1:30 pm. Kleb Woods Nature Center is at 20303 Draper Road, just off Mueschke Road in Tomball.
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Although this is fall migration season, the CyFair campus has been quiet for birds. A colleague has noticed Yellow Warblers and Blue-gray Gnatcatchers but I haven't seen any migrants.
Our Great-tailed Grackles are resident birds and so they are going through molt at present. The males usually have spectacular tails.
At the moment, most of their tails - and the rest of their feathers, too - are less than spectacular.
And some tails are totally absent - which must be really humiliating.
We always have a Great Egret or two somewhere on campus. One of them has taken to doing its early morning grooming on a lamppost in a parking lot.
The birding trail boardwalk has been almost totally devoid of birds. One reason for this may be that our resident female Red-tailed Hawk has taken to perching over the trail.
What a stunning-looking bird she is!
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The Brown-headed Nuthatches that moved into our yards in January now seem to have left us. It's a great shame because they are such pretty little birds. However, their presence persuaded me to start feeding peanuts and the latter have proved to be a hit with many of our residents.
Our Carolina Chickadees just can't get enough of the peanuts.
Incidentally, this is making it much easier for us to watch the Chickadees. When using seed feeders, Chickadees almost always fly in, grab a seed and fly off again as fast as they can. With peanut feeders, however, they cling to the feeders for ages while they chip away at the peanuts inside.
An Uncommon Bird
The other day I was surprised to see an Inca Dove perched on our back fence, because it's almost exactly two years since we've seen one of these little birds here. It stayed just long enough for me to snap a photo.
Inca Doves used to visit our yards fairly often but, like our Mourning Doves, they seem to have been displaced by the much bigger and more aggressive White-winged Doves.
A Sad Sight
Our feeders continue to attract several pairs of Northern Cardinals. Unfortunately, one of the males has lost a foot. So far, though, he seems to be coping well with this disability and we're hoping that this will continue to be the case.
Given that our flowers - and particularly our porter weed and esperanza - have been attracting lots of bugs for weeks, I've been disappointed not to see many butterflies. This changed the other day with a visit from a gorgeous Pipevine Swallowtail
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I took advantage of the Labor Day Weekend to drive down to Baytown Nature Center.
As usual, the bay had plenty of Brown Pelicans, Neotropic Cormorants and Laughing Gulls as well as a few Forster's Terns.
Yellow-crowned Night Herons were everywhere. Juveniles were in the ditches and in trees.
Adults were plentiful also.
Great Blue Herons (below) and Great Egrets were perched in trees all over the site.
Snowy Egrets were busy fishing.
Killdeer were everywhere but the other shorebirds I was hoping for were not. Apart from a handful of semipalmated Sandpipers I saw only a solitary Black-necked Stilt (below) and four Spotted Sandpipers (below).
If shorebirds were scarce, flowers were certainly not.
My final sighting before leaving the site was a Green Heron, a common bird here but one that I never tire of watching.
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Today is the start of the fall semester at CyFair college and so I've been too busy with work to do much birding recently. However, I did squeeze in an hour's walk at Addick's Reservoir last weekend.
I was hoping for migrating flycatchers but I didn't spot a single one. In fact, I saw only normal yardbirds (e.g., N Cardinals, Blue Jays and Carolina Chickadeees) until I reached an area with a large pond.
A Tricolored Heron and several Black-bellied Whistling Ducks (below) lifted off as I approached.
A Great Egret also took umbrage at my arrival.
A Snowy Egret was less concerned by my presence and continued catching and eating its breakfast as I watched.
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I always look forward to the second half of August because that is when Ruby-throated Hummingbirds migrate through our area on their way to Mexico and points further south.In anticipation of the hummers' arrival this year, I put up three feeders.
I didn't have to wait long for birds to start visiting the feeders. However, the very first visitor was not a hummingbird but rather a young House Finch.
The Finch spent quite a while trying to work out how to get to the sugar water, but it never succeeded.
Shortly after the Finch gave up, a female Ruby-throated Hummingbird found the feeder.
Since then we've had several more hummingbirds visiting the feeders and/or some of our plants. The most we've spotted at one time is three but I suspect that it won't be long before we start seeing half-a-dozen or more arguing over the feeders.
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