A New Hide

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I spent some time in our front yard yesterday, trying to get photos of Yellow-rumped Warblers and Ruby-crowned Kinglets with my new camera. At first I couldn't get anywhere near them. Then I realized I had the perfect hide available - my car sitting in the driveway. Birds never worry much about cars anyway and our birds are used to our car being out in the driveway. So I spent 30 minutes sitting in the car. It was cold but not as cold as outside, and it let me take photos from just 15 feet away from the elm tree that many of our birds love.

I thought I got some great pictures. But when I loded them on the computer I found that most weren't really sharp. I guess I'm going to have to take more care to hold the camera still when it has the long zoom lens attached.

Some shots of a Yellow-rumped Warbler came out okay ...


and I finally got a shot of a Chipping Sparrow not on a feeder.


Shots of a Ruby-crowned were okay but not really sharp.


Overall, the yard was very busy. Most of our regular visitors were around, plus we had two less common visitors. One was an Orange-crowned Warbler. He didn't get to stay long, though, because a Yellow-rumped chased him away.

Orange-crowned Warbler

The other was a Blue Jay. Not an unusual yardbird, I know, but one that has hardly ever appeared in our yards in the past six months. Unfortunately, this one was a long way from the car and always in deep shade.

Bird Trivia

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In 1958 Chairman Mao Tse-tung decided that sparrows were eating too much of China's grain harvest and so he declared a national war on the birds.

Over the next several months, people all over China banged pots and pans to scare sparrows and keep them flying around until they collapsed of exhaustion. One 16-year-old buy, Yang Seh-mun, became a national hero by taking a more direct approach. He killed 20,000 sparrows by climbing up to their night roosting sites and strangling the birds he found there.

Millions of birds were killed across China and their carcasses were sometimes paraded through the streets.I


The "war" was a success and the year's grain harvest was significantly increased.

However, the Chinese had ignored the fact that nature operates by a system of checks and balances. The absence of sparrows meant that there were no longer enough birds in the country to keep insect populations in check. As a result, the 1959 grain crops were devastated by a plague of locusts - and the ensuing food shortage killed some 10 million Chinese.
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Let Us Now Praise Common Birds

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Originally natives of south Texas, White-winged Doves have been extending their range northwards for the past couple of decades and they are now common residents of our area. It's a pretty unusual day when we don't see one or two in our yards, And we sometimes get 20 or 30 of them on and around our feeders. They have become so common here that I tend to ignore them and many birders regard them as "trash birds".

However, whenever I stop and really look at them, I realize that they are actually very beautiful birds. And then I remember how excited I was when I first saw one, while waiting for the Bolivar ferry in Galveston.

These two White-winged Doves were on the platform feeder in our front yard yesterday and I thought they deserved a blog entry.

Kleb Woods Action

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Lured by recent reports of lots of sparrows at Kleb Woods, I headed up there at 8:15 on Sunday morning.

Although it was cold and foggy, I was assured by the weather forecasters that the day would soon become sunny and warm.


The forecasters were wrong. It stayed foggy and distinctly cool for the whole two hours that I spent there. However, this did not deter birds from appearing in numbers.

An initial walk around the main trail produced a Red-bellied Woodpecker, Orange-crowned Warblers, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, American Crows, Blue Jays and an Eastern Phoebe.

The edges of the path were lined with scores of spider webs. Combined with the fog, this gave the place a rather spooky atmosphere and I wouldn't have been too surprised if the ghost of old Elmer "Lumpy" Kleb himself had appeared.


I moved on to walk the path up to the site's wetland area.




The wetland was quiet once a Great Egret and a pair of Blue-winged Teal had flown off, disturbed by my presence.

The hedgerow was a different story and was busy throughout my visit. Common birds were plentiful: Yellow-rumped and Orange-crowned Warblers, Carolina Chickadees, Northern Mockingbirds, Eastern Phoebe, American Robins, Tufted Titmouse, lots of Ruby-crowned Kinglets, and even more lots of Northern Cardinals.

The calls of Carolina Wrens brightened up the morning and I also spotted a Sedge Wren and a House Wren. Eight Snow Geese were just visible as they flew overhead in the fog. Then, finally, another bird that I had been looking out for over the past couple of weeks, Cedar Waxwings. Once you see Cedar Waxwings around, you know for sure that winter has arrived in southeast Texas.

I walked back to the main site to bird the area just behind the mailbox right at the main entrrance to the parking area. In the winter, this is always a great spot for sparrows.

As I approached, a crowd of Northern Cardinals and sparrows flew up from the ground and disappeared into the nearby bushes. I settled down to wait, hidden behind the electricity boxes, and it wasn't long before the birds resumed their ground feeding.

Several Northern Cardinals were the first to return but they were soon followed by Chipping and Song Sparrows. Then two species I hadn't yet seen this fall: White-throated Sparrow and Lincoln's Sparrow. Unfortunately, as you can see from the photo below, the light was really too bad for photography.

White-throated Sparrow

Overall, not a bad couple of hours' birding: 23 species, including 4 FOS (First of Season) birds.

Up Close and Personal

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A while back, I hung a feeder just 18" outside our livingroom window, hoping this would enable me to take close-up photos of some of our birds. The birds took several weeks to get used to it. Then, when they started coming to feed, they would fly away if they noticed any movement inside the room.

Recently, it has become our most popular feeder and most of the birds stay on it even when I approach within 4-5 feet with my camera.

At lunchtime yesterday the feeder was busy with a succession of birds. Carolina Chickadees, House Finches, Northern Cardinals, Chipping Sparrows, a Ruby-crowned Kinglet and a Northern Mockingbird all visited frequently. A White-winged Dove tried unsuccessfully to squeeze onto the feeder and a Yellow-rumped Warbler perched nearby.

With so many birds trying to use one feeder, there's inevitably a lot of jockeying for position.

A visit by our family of House Finches usually starts with one of the males checking out the feeder from a nearby set of windchimes or a hanging basket.


Then some of the males start eating. This one was having a bad-hair day.



It isn't long before the females arrive, and they often start by feeding side-by-side with the males.


But at some point they tend to push the males away so they can dine alone.


When our male Northern Cardinals arrive, they are sometimes willing to let the Finches eat with them.


However, they usually end up by displacing the Finches.



Our Eastern Gray Squirrels stand on the shed roof for ages, obviously trying to work out a route to the feeder.


The squirrels haven't managed to reach the feeder yet but one of these days ...

On the Katy Prairie

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I haven't had much time for birding since getting back from Costa Rica. However, at lunchtime yesterday I was able to zoom over to Longenbaugh Road in hopes of seeing the female Pyrrhuloxia that wintered near the Bear Creek bridge last year and the year before.

I didn't have any luck with the Pyrrhuloxia but I saw several sparrow species. Among the sparrows were several Harris's. I've seen them before but only quick glimpses of a couple of individuals. This time I got good looks at several. Definitely one of my favorite sparrows - partly because they're much easier to identify than most of the others!



Most of the other sparrows were Savannah and White-crowned but I did get a good look at a Song Sparrow looking rather ruffled by the cold wind that was blowing across the prairie.



As usual, Longenbaugh had plenty of raptors: Northern Harrier, Red-tailed Hawks and American Kestrels. It also had it's normal quota of Loggerhead Shrikes. Less normal was a Eurasian Collared Dove; it's the first I've seen in that area.


Unfortunately, it looks like it's going to be the second year in a row that they don't flood the fields at the junction of Longenbaugh and the Katy Hockley Cutoff. If so, it'll be a great shame. When the fields are flooded, they bring in large numbers of geese, ducks, waders and shorebirds - and they bring in lots of raptors, including Bald Eagles.
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Costa Rica: Aerial Tram Ride

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The final section of the 3-in-1 day tour was an aerial tram ride through and over the rainforest.

The five of us and a guide squeezed into a tiny gondola and spent the next hour getting a slow and often close-up look at trees and plants. On the outward part of the ride, we traveled through the lower canopy.


On the return part, the gondola took us up to and over the canopy.




To be honest, it wasn't very exciting. However, our guide did his best to engage us by telling some interesting facts about the local flora and fauna; for example, because there is no defined growing season in Costa Rica, the trees there have no annual rings by which they can be dated. And it was rather cool to look down on 20-foot-wide ferns and other plants that we usually look up to.



At the end of the ride, our guide showed us a rather fine stick insect ...


I begged off the next event, a visit to butterfly and snake collections, in order to do a little birding around the tram terminal. As I was admiring an unusual butterfly ...


a local birding guide came up and introduced himself, asking if I'd like to see an anteater that he'd just been watching. We both scoured the area where he'd seen the animal and we soon spotted it. Unfortunately, we were too close and it moved away almost immediately.


As my newly-found friend had nothing to do until his transportation arrived, he and I spent the next 15 minutes birding together. It was a very quiet time of day for birds but we did spot a couple of Chestnut-mandibled Toucans and then two new species: Black-and-yellow Tanager and White-necked Jacobin hummingbird.

By now it was time to meet up again with my group - and for the very best sighting of my three days in Costa Rica. The anteater (more accurately, a Northern Tamandua) suddenly climbed out of the undergrowth and spent the next few minutes wandering about in the branches right above our heads.

I managed to get a couple of better photos ...








and even to take some video.

What a great way to end the tour!
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Costa Rica: Selva Verde

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Our 90-minute visit to the Selva Verde biological station started off in style: A sloth was hanging out in a tree overlooking the parking lot. Although my photos show nothing more than a dark blob among the leaves, we were able to see the sloth fairly clearly through binoculars.


Next up was a 20-minute hunt for poison dart frogs. This took us past a few butterflies and fungi, and lots of interesting plants, including red (inedible) bananas.






It didn't take long to find a "strawberry" frog.


A few minutes more and I spotted a "blue Jeans" poison dart one also - but this time my flash malfunctioned.


Heading back to the lodge for lunch, we passed another stunning iguana and several small lizards.




The biggest lizard was a Jesus Christ Lizard, so called because it can walk - well, run - on water.


We also passed some very large termite nests in the trees.



Although birds were largely conspicuous by their absence, I got a brief glimpse of a Violet-crowned Woodnymph hummingbird, which appeared almost totally black from the front.


A nearby bird-feeding table was attracting Montezuma Pendulas and Blue-gray Tanagers.

Montezuma Pendula

Blue-gray Tanager

With the help of a young researcher, we also saw a larger green frog with its eggs ...



and a Praying Mantis.


The lunch buffet looked very appetizing but I contented myself with bolting down some forkfuls of beans and rice, so that I could spend a few extra minutes around the bird-feeding table. On my way there, I met up with the Jesus Christ Lizard again.


The fruit on the table had brought in a Black-cheeked Woodpecker as well as a Clay-colored Robin. A Summer Tanager popped in but was scared away by the arrival of a pair of Montezuma Pendulas.




Then, just as I had to leave to get back on the bus, I was thrilled to see a Gray-headed Chachalaca come down from the trees to eat. A wonderful bird and a great way to wrap up the all-too-short visit to Selva Verde.


Tomorrow: An aerial tram ride through the rain forest and a great final sighting