Bear Creek Park (3)

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My drive out of Bear Creek Park took a little longer than expected because I had to stop to take photos of several raptors.

First up was a Cooper's Hawk perched high in a tree near the road.

Then I spotted a Merlin, a species I see only too rarely. As I got out of the car to take a photo, the bird flew off.

A few hundred yards further on, I noticed another Merlin in a tree set back from the road. I walked over to get a closer look and this bird was much more concerned with its grooming than with my presence.

Although I wasn't able to get a picture, there was yet another Merlin in the back of the same tree. So that was three Merlins I'd seen within a few minutes. That's certainly not something that happens to me every day!
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Bear Creek Park (2)

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After meeting up with Jim, we spent a while looking - without success - for the Greater Pewee. We turned up several other species along the way: Pileated and Downy Woodpeckers, Tufted Titmice, House Finches, Carolina Chickadees, Brown-headed Cowbirds, more Eastern Bluebirds and a couple of Pine Warblers (below). 

In light rain we headed over to Golbow to search for Red-breasted Nuthatches, which we quickly found but which were not within camera range.

I then decided to do a final drive around the Sullins Way loop before leaving. I stopped to watch some American Crows clowning about on the grass.

I also stopped to photograph some of the many vultures that were hanging out in trees all around the loop. Some of these were Black Vultures, their gray faces blending in with the black of their plumage.

Most, however, were Turkey Vultures, with the red faces and white beaks standing out clearly against the gray sky.

Turkey Vultures may not be among the most beautiful of birds. But when they spread their wings, they are certainly very impressive.

I was to have one more interesting encounter before I left the park, but I'll leave the details and photos of that for my next blog posting.
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Bear Creek Park

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I went to Bear Creek Park on Sunday morning to look for the Greater Pewee that has been spotted there recently and for Red-breasted Nuthatches.

I spent 20 minutes searching for the Pewee but didn't manage to find it. In fact, the only birds I saw were numerous Eastern Bluebirds.

Returning to my car to move to another area, I spotted a group of wading birds.

A White Ibis flew off as soon as I approached.

A Great Egret watched me warily.

Two Snowy Egrets were equally wary of me.

An adult White Ibis was less concerned by my presence.

The final bird in the group, an immature White Ibis, wasn't at all sure what to make of me.

Just as I was leaving these birds, I bumped into Jim Hinson and a fellow birder. So we set off together to try to find the Pewee.
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Yardbirds

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After a very quiet spell, birds are starting to return to our yards.

White-winged Doves are once more perching in our trees and the other day we had the first visit in weeks by a Northern Cardinal. It was good to have one of these beautiful birds brightening up our yards again. We've missed them!

Two Northern Mockingbirds visit several times a day every day, sometimes coming to our suet feeders and sometimes to eat from our American Beautyberry.

They usually ignore our presence on our deck but when I raised my camera towards this one, it gave me a very stern look.

We see the occasional adult male Ruby-throated Hummingbird but females are now much more numerous at our feeders and our plants. So I assume that most of the adult males have already headed south.

Mixed in among the females are a couple of young males, showing just a splash of red on their throat.



Butterflies are much less common than they were all summer but we have been seeing a few Clouded Sulphurs. (At least that's what I think they are!)

Bees have taken a liking to our esperanza blooms. Oddly, though, they don't go into the flowers. Instead, they walk around the outside of each flower's base. 

Note:
On Sunday my foot had recovered enough for me to spend a couple of hours in Bear Creek Park. I'll write about what I found there in my next blog posting.
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Friday Fotos

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I never tire of watching Carolina Wrens. They have such a lot of personality and seemingly endless curiosity.

This one came to our backyard yesterday to check out peanuts that we'd scattered along our fence.

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Trapped at Home

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This week I am trapped at home because of a foot problem. So my birding is confined to what I can see in our yards.

Things started well with the arrival of an Orange-crowned Warbler last weekend, We usually get Orange-crowned Warblers in our yards in the fall but this one has arrived about a month earlier than normal.

Northern Mockingbirds are regular visitors at present. Sometimes they come to eat from our American Beautyberry bush and at other times to hang out around our birdbath.

Throughout the summer several Tufted Titmice were regular visitors to our feeders but they don't seem to be here now.

Surprisingly,  other yardbirds birds have been scarce except for our resident Downy and Red-bellied Woodpeckers and Carolina Chickadees, and migrating Ruby-throated Hummingbirds.

On the other hand, we have had frequent flyovers by flocks of Great Egrets and by individual Black and Turkey Vultures.

I'm hoping that more birds turn up during the next four days while I am still restricted to backyard birding!
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Friday at CyFair

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I managed to fit in a quick drive around the campus on Friday. I was hoping for some migrants but none showed up.

Northern Mockingbirds were chasing each other about everywhere.

I was surprised to copme across a flock of perhaps 200 Brown-headed Cowbirds. We normally have only one family of 4-5 birds.

The other bird that was present in numbers was the European Starling. A very invasive species, the Starling is not one of my favorite birds. However, viewed objectively, they are quite attractive birds.

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Missing Migration

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Fall is usually a good time to see good numbers of songbirds as they migrate south through Texas on their way to Latin America. Unfortunately, I haven't been lucky with migration birding this year.

I timed my recent trip to Denver so that I would be there at the peak of migration but I ended up seeing only one probable migrant, a Gray Catbird.

A trip to the Texas cost a few weeks ago turned up only a handful of migrants at Lafitte's Cove on Galveston.

Meanwhile the CyFair campus has been surprisingly empty of migrants. Admittedly my birding there has been limited tyo a few quick walks around the nature trail but still I haven't seen anything like as many migrating birds as I would have expected. In three short walks over the past two weeks, yesterday was the first time I saw any migrants at all - and that was just two Nashville Warblers and a Common Yellowthroat.

BTW, the Yellowthroat was lying dead at the entrance to our library and had clearly fallen there after crashing into the wall of windows above.

Nobody knows how many birds die in the USA each year from flying into windows, but estimates run as high as one billion. We use to have a problem at home with birds flying from our feeders into windows. We solved it by moving the feeders very close to the windows - the birds still fly into the glass but they are travelling at slower speeds and so don't seem to suffer any bad effects from their collisions with the windows.  
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Denver Trip (3): Cherry Creek State Park

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My final stop in Colorado was Cherry Creek State Park in Denver.

I didn't have time to explore any of the stands of trees but contented myself with a walk partway around the large lake.

Ring-billed Gulls were busy - and noisy - overhead.

There were Canada Geese on the opposite side of the water but on my side the only geese or ducks were a few Mallards.

Several Double-crested Cormorants were fishing for their supper.

I finally got to take a couple of photos of some Black-billed Magpies, a species that I had seen at every site I had visited in Colorado.

As I was driving out of the park, I came across a pretty little wetland area. A couple of Vesper Sparrows were in the reeds and a Northern Pintail (that I originally thought was a Blue-winged Teal!) flew off at my approach.

Overall, my visit to Colorado was very disappointing in terms of the number and variety of birds I had seen. However, the landscape was beautiful and I saw quite a few mammals, so the trip wasn't a total write-off!
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