My adventures watching, photographing, studying, and writing about birds
I saw this downy woodpecker banging away on a branch about ten feet above the trail yesterday. Everyone I passed on the trail was talking about the woodpecker. Did you see the woodpecker? Did you see him?
Loud as he was, he wasn’t hard to miss.
I took my survey walk along the trail near the house on Saturday morning. The first thing that hit me when I walked outside was the sheer number of birds that were singing. It’s been a while since it was that loud. It was a beautiful spring day, and the birds knew it.
The pond held a few northern shovelers and a bunch of gadwalls (lousy over-enlarged picture above), a duck I hadn’t previously met in the neighborhood. I counted six of them in the pond with the two shovelers, but all the ducks flew away as one when a family walked up to the edge of the pond to skip rocks.
I got this shot of one of the gadwalls on the way out.
Along the way, I saw the usual suspects: mourning dove, carolina chickadee, northern mockingbird, American crow, killdeer, and lots of noisy blue jays.
The blue jays were a nice surprise. They’ve been lying low these past months, but with such a perfect spring day, they were out in substantial numbers. I heard far more than I saw, but I saw quite a few. They are also back in the yard for the first time since August.
The white-winged doves are back as well. Most of them left in November, leaving only a few stragglers behind. Saturday morning, I saw one of those clean-out-the-feeder-in-ten-minutes flocks that hasn’t been around in months.
So it’s spring, although a front came through today to give us one last bite of cold, and I’m curious to see when the ducks will leave for good and when the scissor-tails and swallows will return. I bet the swallows are here by next weekend.
One other thing I noticed on Saturday afternoon. I took the dogs out and the trees were erupting with chatters, screeches, cooing, twirls, and any other sound a backyard bird can make. The jays especially were having a fit. Then, silence as a hawk flew over. As soon as the raptor was gone, the singing resumed, but in a much less agitated manner. Nice of them to warn us.
A few years ago we went camping up near Colorado Bend. All through the night we kept hearing what sounded like a cell phone ringing up in a tree above our camp site. We initially suspected it to be the mysterious birdus ringus loudus (commonly known as the central Texas greater telephone bird), but it was, of course, none other than mimus polyglottos, the northern mockingbird and our state’s rep among the avifauna.
I have mixed feelings about the fact that there are so many cell phones out on camping trips that birds are mimicing the sound, but still, that’s probably what made me start really paying attention to these ubiquitous little singers. Maybe he was just showing off anyway, thinking to himself, “I can play that… what else you got?” like a jazz musician at a jam session.
Lately, the ones around the neighborhood have begun the spring concert season, making mornings just that much more pleasant.
They can be ferocius little birds, too. I’ve seen them chasing hawks off their territory and people out of their parking lots. It’s hard to not admire such a fearless little animal who also manages to so eloquently grace the trees with his song.
Atticus was right: It is a sin to kill a mockingbird. And that from a finch, no less.
Last week’s Great Backyard Bird Count project got me thinking about long-term counts around the neighborhood. What species come and go over the course of a year? Which are the year-round residents in our neighborhood?
I know that the ducks like this lesser scaup only come to the pond in the winter.
But what of the others? On Saturday, while walking along the trail down to the pond and onward to the creek, I decided to try to take a weekly count of birds and other wildlife I happen to see. If I can maintain this for a year, perhaps I’ll really know my local wildlife. Who knows, maybe they’ll start inviting me to their nests for insects and seed.
The two red-shouldered hawks that circled and swooped over the pond were by far the highlight of Saturday’s walk. One of them even came close enough to let me take this fairly decent picture.
Farther down the trail, I heard a faint tapping up in a tree. I saw two ladder-backed woodpeckers, male and female. The male is the one with the red cap. The female’s is black.
Along the way, I heard great symphonies of bird song, but only saw these:
Other than birds, the only animals I saw were dozens of turtles on the pond including a few that decided to pile up and sun themselves.
Finally, I get a decent shot of a red-tailed hawk in flight. I got that one sitting on a pole back in December, and this might even be that very bird as he was patrolling the same area. Either way, I was glad to have the camera in the car and not much traffic on the road.
They’re pretty common around here; one of the more common birds of prey in North America, actually, but I still love to watch to them. They’re definitely slow-down-and-stare birds.
Though he wasn’t making any noise, the red-tail’s raspy call is the one usually used for all hawks and eagles in movies according to All About Birds.
Yesterday, I decided to count birds at the small lake at the end of the trail that runs through our neighborhood. I ride my bike along there all the time, but I’ve never walked around and really tried to check out the birds.
When I arrived, I was greeted by a chickadee who immediately hopped into a tree that seemed filled with singing birds. I listened for a few minutes and then headed down to the water to see what birds were hanging around. In the summer, it’s mostly egrets and herons, but yesterday it was filled with birds wintering over.
I ate my sandwich at a bench on the lakefront where I was joined by a couple of coots who eyed me suspiciously. What really surprised me were the fishing buoys hanging in all the trees. Careless casters had decorated the trees as for an angler’s Christmas.
After lunch, I walked along the lake, which was filled with ring-billed gulls and more American coots. I easily forget that some gulls like lakes and so I’m always pleasantly surprised to see them floating on an inland lake. A few soared overhead, the sun shining behind their wings in a way that made them glow brilliant against the crisp blue sky. Gulls have always been favorites of mine, despite that incident back in ’90.
Other ducks bobbed along the far shore, but even with binoculars, I couldn’t make out what kind of ducks they were. Probably northern shovelers or mallards, but too far to tell for sure.
I did get a good look at a new bird for my life list, the double-crested cormorant. They bobbed along beyond the gulls, looking down their sharp-looking beaks at the world. The only picture I got was this, very blurry, of one flying by.
After the lake, I walked back up to the woods and wandered among the cedar and oak. In a clearing I found a labyrinth trail and walked through it, winding toward the center and back out again. Along the way, I caught a glimpse of another blue jay.
Before returning to the car, I saw a small flock of chipping sparrows and even got a shot of this guy:
My favorite, though, was this shot of a black-crested titmouse, seed in mouth:
I love watching these little guys hop around in my backyard. I think it’s those huge black eyes or maybe that pointy head, but somehow, the black-crested titmouse has become my favorite backyard bird.
And, speaking of backyards, here are my official numbers for Day 4 of The Great Backyard Bird Count:
Yesterday, I decided to do my Great Backyard Bird Count counting along the trail in our neighborhood. I left at 3:15. The weather was early-spring perfect, and a welcome treat after the previous day’s drizzle and rain.
I spotted a few mockingbirds, including this one:
I love listening to them sing; it’s like having all the other birds wrapped up in one. I guess they’re like the ipod of birds, set on permanent shuffle.
Often, I’ll follow a bird’s song only to find a mockingbird, but this time, there was a little chickadee bouncing in the tree. The number of dee’s in their call gives their assessment of any threat. I only rated one dee.
As I walked down the trail, I saw both turkey and black vultures spiraling overhead. I saw two hawks, but even with the binoculars, I couldn’t ID them as they were too far away. I suspect they were red-tails, though, since most of the hawks around here are.
At the bottom of the hill, the trail opens up into a kind of grassy meadow along the creek. A crow sat on the highest tree calling out to anyone who would listen. While studying the trees around the meadow, I saw a great blue heron glide past, slowly flapping its great wings.
Walking back up the hill, I heard a number of other birds chirping in the trees. I caught glimpses of chipping sparrows and even a blue jay, the first one I’ve seen since August.
Up near the trailhead, I ventured into a meadow where a small creek runs narrow and quiet beneath thick undergrowth. Looking up, I noticed a woodpecker clinging to the tree and apparently feeding or depositing something in a hole. He was either a golden-fronted or a red-bellied woodpecker, but he hopped into the hole before I could get close enough (even with binoculars) to figure out what he was.
I did get this shot of his head, as he sat there surveying the woods around him.
It’s not enough to ID him for sure, though.
And, here are my “official” counts for the birds I could ID:
For Day 2 of The Great Backyard Bird Count, I actually did count birds in my backyard, plus a few in the front.
It was one of those cold gray drizzly days that become a perfect reason for not going anywhere and instead staying in making French onion soup. Over the course of the day from about 7:30 to 4:00, I watched for birds. Here’s what I saw and reported:
That’s most of the usual suspects for this time of year, except for the black-crested titmouse who must have had better things to do than eat soggy seed in the rain.
I actually saw more birds, but you’re only supposed to count the greatest number of individuals seen together at one time. If I kept count of every time I saw a house sparrow or a white-winged dove sitting around by himself, the counts would be much higher. And I’d be watching for Hitchcock to show up.
No, that’s not my backyard.
The Audubon Society and The Cornell Lab of Ornithology are sponsoring The Great Backyard Bird Count running from today through Feb 18. Anyone can participate. All you have to do is count birds over a span of at least 15 minutes and record the number of individuals you see. This helps the Audubon Society “create a real-time snapshot of where the birds are across the continent.” You don’t even have to do it in your backyard.
I walked down to the pond by the house and watched birds from 4:05-4:35 pm. Overcast, breezy, mid-60’s. Here’s what I saw:
The phoebe and the scaup are ones I had not seen before, so I get to add a few to my life list.
Vultures are fun to watch. (But only when they’re flying.)