Cattle Egrets

I've been watching the big pregnant cow in the pasture next door. She's been lumbering around for about a week, so I was sure she was about to have that calf and I wanted to see it born. The cow birds stick close by the cows, right in front of their faces in fact. The cows just sort of "nose" them out of their way. I was glad I've been keeping a close watch on them, otherwise I might not have seen that the cattle egrets have returned. I've only seen one so far, but I'm sure the rest will be not too far behind. This one was a male and looked in full mating colors. I didn't know they bred here in NE Texas - I will have to check that out. But I know last year when I got here in August, the pasture was full of cattle egrets, a whole flock of them.

And all the Goldfinches are turning yellow now, too. They are so pretty. But I know that also means they will be leaving us soon. At least I'm pretty sure I remember that from living here before. Once they get their mating/breeding colors, they move on.

I also saw a Great Egret fly overhead - he was on his way to the pond just down the street.

Living on Texas Time

I sort of forgot about this blog and have been keeping a handwritten birding journal for the last few years. I'm back in Texas, living in the country, about 15 minutes outside of Texarkana, Texas, in NE Texas, right on the border of Texas and Arkansas. It's a nice place for birding. I've added several birds to my life list since moving here. I do miss some of my regulars from back home though. I don't see any Northern Flickers here and I love Northern Flickers, they are one of my favorite birds. It's not that they are not in this area, they just are not here in this agricultural area where I'm living. I also miss my Steller's Jays and my Anna's Hummingbirds. But the Blue Jays are ok, just not the same as my lovely Steller's Jays. And the Ruby-throated hummingsbirds should be coming back here soon, so that will be nice. But I love the Anna's and they don't migrate back home; they are around all year, so I miss that.

And I really miss my squirrels. I know most people don't like squirrels, but I enjoy them. I had all kinds of baffles and squirrel proof bird feeders and it was fun to watch them try and figure them all out and to see how long before they "breached" them. They could keep me entertained for hours. There were about 12 of them that visited my feeders and I really enjoyed them. The squirrels here are different. They are Fox squirrels. They are bigger and reddish in color and just not interested in feeders or antics or entertaining me. They are very businesslike and busy, busy, busy going about the business of storing and gathering food. And very, very scared of people. Whereas the squirrels back home are relatively tame - we even had them taking peanuts out of our hands and coming in the house. I could whistle for them and they would come to me. I really miss that. I even had names for some of them. The squirrels here are not friendly! LOL! But that's probably cause they hunt them here and eat them - eewwweeee!

I've lived in this house for six months and already have 37 species on my "yard" list. (I keep a list for every place I've lived). And now with the Spring migration about to start, I should get a lot more. I saw a Bald Eagle fly over yesterday - that was pretty cool. And there are two hawks playing a mating game - I'm guessing they are red-tailed hawks, but I can never get a good enough look at them cause like I say, they are playing mating games, wheeling and diving and chasing one another and very hard to follow, let alone identify. But red-tails seem to be the most common hawk around, so I'm just assuming that's what they are. I did get a couple of pictures, but they were too far away for my little point and shoot and just can't tell from the pictures.

There's quite a bit of bird mating going on - bluebirds, wrens, and a couple of Canada Geese at the pond down the street from me. I think the cardinals too, but I can't really tell about them. All the others it's very obvious, but the cardinals seem very subtle, I'm not sure if that's what I'm seeing or not. Oh, MOckingbirds too. I saw a really cool disply at a local park the other day. All this strutting and puffing up of chests and stuff - it was pretty cool.

Pine Siskin

I am so excited! I just saw my first Pine Siskin for this year. They did not show up last year at all, so I am so pleased to see that at least one has come back. According to the Big Backyard Birdcount last year was such a mild winter that they stayed further north through the winter, so we didn't see any. This year has been a much colder winter so far, so they have come back! Yea! I do have a thistle feeder out there and I know they love thistle, but it's a very small one and not conveniently located - I will have to change that!

But not today - it is far to windy and blustery and rainy today. According to the weather guys we are in for another wild windstorm. And altough the wind hasn't started yet, the rain sure has. I did go out and fill bird feeders and the squirrel feeder and threw a little corn out. But the only reason I did that was that one of the squirrels was on one of the suet feeders. Those little critters are so smart. I bought these domes to keep the squirrels from climbing down the chains to the suet feeders and that works just fine, but this squirrel was too smart for that, he JUMPED from the fence over to the suet. It swung and swayed like everything, but he hung on and then was eating to his heart's content. The little rascal. So I had to go out and fix that right away.

While I was at it, I also changed the sugar-water in the hummingbird window feeders. I do that from inside, however. I just raise the window and reach out and pull them in. The little hummer came while I was doing that and he just helped himself to the feeder I wasn't taking down. Didn't seem to bother him that I was there at all. Then when I came back, he was still at the feeder, he flew away momentarily while I switched the feeders, but came back and started right in on the freshly filled one. I just love these little guys.

The little wren was also back this morning. He is so cute with his little perky tail. He was digging around in the dirt that I have beneath one of the planters. Right now there is just black plastic and a little dirt there, in the spring I am going to plant something there, not sure what yet, but for right now, it's a catch-all for seeds dropped from the feeder up above.

House Party

Late yesterday afternoon I was inundated with House Finches for some reason. They were everywhere - on the ground, on the feeders, all over the lilac bush, twittering, and flying about everywhere. It was quite something. I tried to take pictures, but they didn't stay still long enough. The males ranged in color from deep dark red to light yellow. They were all very pretty. It was fun watching them; I don't know what brought them all here; but I'm glad they stopped in for a visit. I always have House Finches at my feeders, just not such a large flock at one time. Then at the very end of the day I had a real treat. The little immature male Anna's Hummingbird ... (read more)

Thrushes, Wrens and Wind

We are having more wild weather - this time wind. On last night's news they equated it to the Inaugral Day storm, but so far not quite that bad, but I've been warily watching trees this morning, hoping none fall on my house. It's pretty scary when the wind blows 100' Douglas Fir trees like they are sticks. Of course, it doesn't stop the birds. That pretty male Anna's hummingbird was here before it was even daylight this morning. I could see his beautiful red shiny gorget and red head from the light reflected from my office. He was just gorgeous. He was here yesterday, too, and that was the first time in a while that I have seen him. Mostly I see the little ... (read more)

Wings

Monty has been helping me with my camera. I have been trying to get pictures of the hummingbird that comes to the window feeder. He is just inches from me and I have taken a ton of pictures - but I can never capture his wings. It really bothers me because he looks deformed in the pictures. Monty told me I need to change the shutter speed or something like that - I don't understand those things, I just want to point and shoot like I did with my film camera, but I want his wings to show. Monty played with the camera and adjusted some of the manual settings and viola - it worked - the wings showed up great, but the picture was much too dark. So now I have to ... (read more)

Missed Opportunities

I've only been birdwatching for about five years, actually trying to identify birds and keeping track of where and when I see them. Prior to that I had bird feeders and I ocassionally took pictures of birds through the years in various places we lived - Bald Eagles and Snow Ptarmagin in Alaska, Brown Pelicans in Puerto Rico, Great Blue Heron on the Olympic Peninsual, WA, an unidentified hawk at my feeders, Grey Jays at Hurricane Ridge in Washington (they eat right out of your hand). But it was just casual interest and not in any way organized. Looking back I regret all the missed opportunites. I had occasion to go back to Corpus Christi, TX recently to the ... (read more)

New Hummer

Today there was a new hummer at the feeder and she was here on and off all day long. But boy, she was a nervous little thing. She would hardly light at all, just hovered and flew around nervously. I did manage to get quite a few pictures of her, though. The little immature male did not chase her away at all. He still chased the other males away, but not her. Not sure what all that means, but he didn't bother her. You can just barely see the white in her tail feathers in this picture, but when she spread her tail when she hovered I could see them quite clearly. I took some pictures today of the little birds drinking out of the ant guard cup that I ... (read more)

Clean-up Time

The snow is gone now thank goodnes, but what a mess it left behind! Today I just could not stand looking at the mess a minute longer and I went out and raked and raked and raked and only got about 1/4 of the back yard done. But at least the weather cooperated at last. It wasn't raining or snowing and it was fairly mild. I'm not sure what the temperature was because I don't have an outdoor thermometer, but it was sweater-weather - that's all I know and care about. I love that the little Chickadees don't pay the least attention to me while I'm out there working, they just fly around me. It's so cute. It always amazes me that after I rake, the birds ... (read more)

My Little Corner of the World

I was looking at pictures of birds and reading comments on Flickr yesterday. One person commented that her computer was right beside her birdwatching window and her camera was right at hand and that's how she got some really nice bird pictures. Another person commented that she had the same set-up but added that her TV was also right there. That started me wondering - how many others of us are out there? Because that describes my little corner perfectly! My desk, my computer, my TV, my bird books, camera, and binoculars; everything I need to make my day complete. And here I sit day after day, watching those birds. One would think a person would get ... (read more)