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The other morning Dee and I spent a very enjoyable half-hour watching our resident Copper's Hawk hunting a squirrel in the street outside our house.
When we first saw it, the Cooper's was perched on a truck and waiting for the squirrel to emerge from its hiding place under a nearby car. The hawk eventually got the squirrel to move by flying down onto the pavement and peering under the car.
For the next 20 minutes the two animals played hide and seek in a tree. The Cooper's would chase the squirrel up and down and round and round the trunk, and then up into the branches. Every so often it would seem to give up the chase and would sit on a branch and start preening. Then the squirrel would move onto the same branch and the chase would begin again.
Later the Cooper's moved to sit on a nearby roof, only to start the chase again when the squirrel came and sat in the middle of the driveway below.
Eventually, the hawk flew off and hid high up in a tree across the road.
When the squirrel again began wandering about on the driveway and lawn opposite, the Cooper's flew over and gave chase.
In the end, the Cooper's gave up and flew to the trees in back of our house, presumably in search of easier prey, such as a White-winged Dove or a rat.
I'm really not sure why the chase continued for as long as it did. It seemed to me that the squirrel deliberately taunted the Cooper's every time the latter decided to give up the hunt. I have noticed squirrels toying with dogs and cats in this way. However, it could be that the hawk was being devious and was trying to lull the squirrel into a false sense of security by occasionally pretending to abandon the chase and to be more concerned with preening. Whatever the reality, Dee and I were amazed that the Cooper's was willing to spend a full 35 minutes (by my watch) hunting a single squirrel.
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Last weekend I visited a site I'd never birded before: Brunswick Lakes. The site is just north of Beltway 8 a little east of 288. It isn't a very beautiful location but it attracts a good range of birds that like water.
The hundreds of gulls were mainly Laughing Gulls but there were two Franklin's mixed in with them.
I almost overlooked a couple of Caspian Terns also.
Birds on the water included a few Blue-winged Teal, a Gadwall and several American Coots.
A handful of Yellowlegs and other shorebirds were too far away to photograph and difficult to ID without a scope. Larger wading birds were easier to see and they were present in large numbers.
As well as a Great Blue Heron, a Reddish Egret and Little Blue Herons, there was a Tricolored Heron.
Snowy Egrets were present but were outnumbered by dozens of Great Egrets.
About a hundred White Ibis were grazing in the water.
At one point they formed a long line right across a section of the lake.
Mixed in with the White Ibis were three White-faced Ibis.
They were joined by some Roseate Spoonbills, too, while other Spoonbills grazed or preened nearby.
My final sighting was of an Eastern Phoebe, which perched near me for a while before flying off to harass a Northern Mockingbird.
I must remember to check the site out again before too long. It certainly seems to be one of the better inland water sites in Harris County. Also, it's only 45 minutes from our house - and that's just around the corner in Houston terms.
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Last Tuesday I decided to spend lunchtime visiting the Precinct 3 park that is just across Barker Cypress Road from LSC-CyFair. I was hoping that the first of the winter ducks might have arrived.
A small bird was paddling around and diving, but it was a Pied-billed Grebe not a duck.
A raft of dark birds was floating around further down the lake. It didn't take long to see they were only American Coots.
But wait a minute. One of those birds was different. As I got nearer, I realized it was a female American Wigeon, apparently quite comfortable hanging out with 120 American Coots. So winter ducks had started arriving.
Just then an Osprey flew over, followed a little later by four Mottled Ducks. (The latter are year-round residents in our area.)
Three small birds were floating along together on the far side of the lake. As they drew closer, I could see two were a pair of adult Ring-necked Ducks. So no doubt the third bird was a juvenile Ring-necked.
As it turned out, it wasn't. In fact, it was a juvenile Ruddy Duck. Just like the Wigeon, this bird seemed to be happy to tag along with birds of a different species.
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Sunday morning I had agreed to take some non-birders on a birding trip. The site I chose to take them to was Baytown Nature Center. Although I had been there several times recently, I picked Baytown as our destination. Apart from the fact that the site always has plenty of birds, the presence of large wading birds near the roadway and trails makes it a good place to take people who are not accustomed to using binoculars.
Waiting in the entrance parking lot for late arrivals, I passed the time by watching some Blue Jays, a pair of Red-bellied Woodpeckers, a Northern Mockingbird and a Red-headed Woodpecker.
When the group was assembled, we drove along to where the road passes between Pelican Cove and the Egret Tidal Flats pond. The water on both sides of the road had Brown Pelicans.
It also had numerous Great and Snowy Egrets. (As you'd expect from their name, Great Egrets are larger than Snowy Egrets. They also have a yellow, rather than a black, bill.)
A little further along the road we stopped to watch the birds in the new wetland area on the edge of Burnet Bay. Apart from the American Avocets I posted pictures of on Wednesday, there were several other species of shorebirds: Least Sandpipers, Semipalmated Plovers, Greater Yellowlegs, Killdeer (below) and a Willet.
Everyone enjoyed seeing a Great Blue Heron posing in the bay.
I was more excited to see a Reddish Egret, a bird I'd never seen on any of my previous visits to Baytown.
We drove on to San Jacinto Point, where we had distant views of one of the two adult Brown Boobies that have been present for a couple of weeks. The Boobies typically hang out in the company of Brown Pelicans and Cormorants on utility pylons in Burnet Bay. An Osprey resting on the nearest pylon proved to be a most cooperative photographic model.
After this we left the cars near the gazebo and walked down to Scott Bay and the Heron Haven Pond. The pond had a single Anhinga, while the mudflats on the edge of Scotts bay had Roseate Spoonbills, White Ibis, Willet and Spotted Sandpiper. Unfortunately, the lighting did not allow reasonable photos.
We completed the trip by walking the loop trail back to the gazebo. As it was now hot and after noon, we saw few birds except four Northern Rough-winged Swallows, a distant Northern Harrier, a Northern Cardinal and a couple more Ospreys. The exception was a flock of 60+ American White Pelicans that circled high overhead, well outside camera range.
I wasn't able to get photos of any of the butterflies that we passed, which included Monarch, Gulf Fritillary and Common Buckeye. I fared a little better with the praying mantis that one of our friends noticed.
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On Sunday morning I led an informal birding trip at Baytown Nature Center. Our little convoy of cars had just entered the site when I had everyone stop to admire a dozen American Avocets that were stalking around in a wet area next to the road.
With their elegant build and plumage, Avocets are one of my favorite shorebirds.
I always enjoy watching as they feed by sweeping their upturned bill from side to side through the water.
Of course, Avocets were far from being the only birds that we saw at Baytown. Although we didn't start birding until after 10:30, we managed to spot quite a few species. I'll upload an illustrated summary of the trip later this week.
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