The highlight for Week 18 of Project FeederWatch was a Red-winged Blackbird at the tube feeder. This was only the second time I’ve seen one in the yard (the other time was June 12, 2007). I watched him for a few minutes, but he flew away before I could get my camera out.
The White-winged Doves took the lead this week for “greatest number of individuals observed.” During the summer months, we see more of them than anything else.
It was a mostly dark and gray weekend, so no pictures. Just the list, which includes most of the usual suspects:
On Sunday morning, I became the only person in Austin, TX to become excited about seeing grackles. That’s because 8 Common Grackles showed up, and while they’re as common as air around here, they rarely come to my yard, and this is the first time they’ve come since I started doing Project FeederWatch.
As if that wasn’t enough. 3 European Starlings, another common local bird but a rarity in my yard, stopped by for a round of vigorous splashing in the backyard birdbath.
This is a happy discovery I’ve made about listing: even if a newly listed bird is extremely common and I’ve seen it a million times in every parking lot in town, getting to add it to my list makes the bird new.
I watched the grackles for a long time, marveling at the dark sheen of their iridescent feathers, their bright laser-intense eyes and their long sharp bills. They are wonderful birds to watch and those shadow-colored birds look so great among all the other avian colors. A backyard needs some black (even if it’s really dark purplish) around the feeders.
A grackle prepares to do his grackle displayCommon Grackle doing the grackle display
Despite a name that’s fun to say, the grackle gets a bad rap around here. Of, course it’s easy to appreciate them when you don’t have a flock of thousands roosting in your trees, and so, I’m glad they came by, but I hope they don’t bring too many more friends, unless they show up with their Great-tailed kin so I can add another bird to my count.
Last summer, a pair nested in the neighbor’s tree and they brought their fledglings around to our feeders where I got some nice shots of junior begging for and getting a peanut from one of his parents. They also made sure their young knew where to find the birdbaths. Their bathing habits surprised me: they are probably the most frequent bathers of all my backyard birds. Not bad for a bird that many consider filthy.
Other than the grackles and starlings, all of the usual suspects made an appearance. Some quick observations:
House Sparrows seem to be coming around a bit more.
A wren built a nest in my neighbor’s plant.
White-wing Doves are increasing as the weather warms.
For the second week in a row, I only saw one each of the American and Lesser Goldfinches, and no goldfinches on Sunday. I wonder if the warm weather and weeds that are sprouting have inspired them to seek wild food, or in the case of the American Goldfinches, head north. I hope not, as I was hoping to see them in their breeding plumage.
Still no hummingbirds yet. Probably next weekend.
The Week 17 Count, which has the greatest number of species seen, thus far:
White-winged Dove (12)
Mourning Dove (2)
Blue Jay (2)
Carolina Chickadee (1)
Black-crested Titmouse (2)
Carolina Wren (2)
Bewick’s Wren (2)
American Robin (1)
Northern Mockingbird (1)
European Starling (3)
Orange-crowned Warbler (1)
Chipping Sparrow (8)
Northern Cardinal (2)
Common Grackle (8)
House Finch (2)
Lesser Goldfinch (1)
American Goldfinch (1)
House Sparrow (17)
My count for last weekend was sparse. We were in Houston, and so I only counted for a couple of minutes on Saturday morning and Sunday evening, but here is what I got for Week 16:
White-winged Dove (5)
Mourning Dove (1)
Blue Jay (1)
Carolina Chickadee (2)
Black-crested Titmouse (2)
Carolina Wren (1)
Bewick’s Wren (2)
American Robin (1)
Orange-crowned Warbler (1)
Chipping Sparrow (5)
Northern Cardinal (2)
House Finch (1)
Lesser Goldfinch (1)
American Goldfinch (1)
House Sparrow (7)
If you’ve never watched a grackle through a good pair of binoculars, give it a go. They’re really quite exquisite birds.
This morning, I noticed this crafty devil sitting on the neighbor’s fence. He seemed pretty relaxed what with his feathers all fluffed out against the cold, and standing on just one foot. I watched for a few moments and then ran for my camera and binoculars. Even though I was in the house, I’d swear he heard the camera because he put his foot down and looked right at me when I started shooting.
Not wanting to risk being late for work, I didn’t study him for long through the binoculars, trying instead to get pictures, which turned out a bit fuzzy, as the light was low and my lens isn’t fast, but I thought they might be passable enough to figure out an ID.
Cooper's or Sharp-shinned Hawk on the neighbor's fence
I’m pretty certain he is one of the 2 accipiter species of hawks that can be found around here this time of year, but the question is: which one?
The Sharp-shinned Hawk and the Cooper’s Hawk look nearly identical, though the Cooper’s is slightly larger. The Sharp-shinned are roughly jay-sized while the Cooper’s are closer to crow-sized. The hitch there is that the females are larger than the males so a large female Sharp-shinned and a small male Cooper’s could be the same size.
Fortunately, I had the neighbor’s squirrel feeder to compare him to. I’ve never seen a crow near it, but I do see lots of Blue Jays hanging around there, and this hawk looked a bit larger compared to it than the jays.
The Project FeederWatch site had this useful bit of info:
If you can see the back of the hawk, and it is an adult, then the color of the nape is a reliable field mark. Cooper’s Hawks have a pale nape with a clear contrast to a dark cap. Juveniles of both species can show a pale nape, however.
The bird in question had the decency to turn his head and in these 2 shots. It does appear that the nape is paler than the cap, which suggests Cooper’s Hawk.
And, so, the question of the day: Cooper’s or Sharp-shinned? I’m leaning towards Cooper’s. Any of my birding friends out there want to weigh in? I’d love to know for sure.
The birds were especially active this weekend. They must feel spring approaching, and they are getting into the sing of things accordingly.
The American Goldfinches are starting to shift to their gold breeding plumage. I noticed one whose breast is already almost entirely gold. The rest are a splotchy goldish green color.
A third Carolina Chickadee came by and joined the two regulars. All three sang hard, trying to outchickadee the others.
A second male cardinal is also hanging around, and the two males spent a good chunk of Saturday morning chasing each other through the yard.
An American Robin made an appearance in the counts this week, and I saw a pair of Red-bellied Woodpeckers working the trees, though neither of them found the suet feeders.
The White-winged Doves are also increasing as it gets warmer.
For the second week in a row, I have not seen any Ruby-crowned Kinglets.
Ever since I started birding I wanted to see a woodpecker, so I was quite happy when I saw a Ladder-backed Woodpecker in a tree in my yard in Oct 2007. Since then, I’ve learned how to see these little guys and now, I’m getting to where I can find them on the trail fairly easily.
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Yesterday, while doing my GBBC count by the pond, I heard the drumming and so walked in its general direction, stopped and waited for my ears to guide my eyes. It turns out, he was right in front of me, tapping away on the lower trunk of a tree, which gave me a new appreciation for the effectiveness with which his striped back camouflages him.
A Ladder-backed Woodpecker hides in plain sight
Once they start pecking, woodpeckers seem to be pretty single-minded birds and so as I was not deemed a threat, he let me get pretty close for a few pictures.
A Ladder-backed Woodpecker lets me get close
I watched him for a while as he pecked and tapped at the tree searching for bugs. They have a tendency to spiral around a tree, but this one stayed in place and let me take pictures. I guess he knew the only real threat was that I wouldn’t get a decent shot and there was no way he was going to be out of focus. Eventually I stopped shooting and just watched him do his thing, which is really the whole reason for going out to look for birds in the first place. Eventually, this tree grew tiresome and he flew off to the high branches of another one.
The info about Ladder-backed Woodpeckers on All About Birds is interesting. They eat mostly insects and arthropods that they pry and tap out of trees. The page also describes their habitat as “desert and desert scrub” neither of which really describes my neighborhood, though this is the northeastern portion of their range. They are considered year-round residents, and according to All About birds are declining in Texas. Despite any declines, here at the edge of their range, they are the woodpeckers I see most frequently in the neighborhood. The others are Red-bellied, Golden-fronted, and Downy Woodpeckers.
Yesterday was grey and cool, the sky wanting to rain, but I walked down to the pond anyway for Day 4 of The Great Backyard Bird Count and managed to avoid the intermittent rain. It’s not my backyard, but it doesn’t have to be. I also brought the camera this time and got some decent pictures including some of my best of this Ladder-backed Woodpecker.
A Ladder-backed Woodpecker strikes a classic pose
The trail didn’t yield many birds. I searched for the bluebird and goldfinches I had seen on Friday, but they weren’t around, though I did get to watch a single Lesser Goldfinch sing from the top of a leafless tree. Most of the action was down on the pond.
Ring-necked Ducks and Gadwalls
I really enjoy watching the ducks paddle around the small pond. It’s especially amusing to watch the Gadwalls dabble like the one in the picture with his rear end in the air. They’ll bob like that for a short time before righting themselves.
Gadwall
I counted more Gadwalls than anything else, but I know I undercounted them. It’s hard to count ducks when they’re always moving around so I tend to err on the side of undercounting. Still, I didn’t realize how many there were.
Official GBBC Day 4 Tally:
Turkey Vulture (2)
American Crow (1)
Lesser Goldfinch (1)
Ring-necked Duck (20)
Eastern Phoebe (1)
Ladder-backed Woodpecker (1)
Yellow-rumped Warbler (2)
Gadwall (74)
American Wigeon (3)
Pied-billed Grebe (3)
Carolina Chickadee (1)
House Finch (1)
All in all this was a good Great Backyard Bird Count for me. Hopefully next year I’ll be better at this and will see even more birds.
The birds and I pulled double duty this weekend as we were counting and being counted for both Project FeederWatch and The Great Backyard Bird Count. The two projects have slightly different rules, mainly in that PFW requires 1 count for 2 days while GBBC has separate counts for each day. Also, PFW counts should only include birds that come to the yard for things I provided (food, shelter, water, landscaping), whereas GBBC includes any birds seen in the count area, so I included the robins and crow I saw hanging out in the neighbors’ trees.
Mainly, I saw the usual suspects, although a raptor did fly low over the feeders on Saturday. It’s the second time I’ve seen one in the yard since December, but unless he’s eating House Sparrows, he’s not having much success as my counts haven’t changed much lately.
What kind of raptor? He moved faster than any bird I’ve ever seen so I didn’t get a great look at his markings. His wings were sharply pointed, his long tail wasn’t fanned out, and when he reached the neighbor’s house he did an abrupt rolling turn and was gone. Speed and pointed wings.
I immediately assumed him to be an accipiter, either a Cooper’s Hawk or a Sharp-shinned. These two are hard to distinguish, but I went to the guidebooks and searched online to see if I could do it. None of the pictures really looked like the bird I had seen. The wings were too pointed for one thing and the brief glimpse I got of his underside just didn’t look like the pictures. After flipping through to the falcon section, I saw a picture of a Merlin. That was my bird.
This brings up another issue. While I don’t begrudge birds of prey their meals, I don’t like the idea of my feeders becoming a buffet for all the local raptors. I’ll have to keep watch and see if the Merlin becomes a regular visitor. If so, I’ll bring the feeders in for a while.
Other than that, the only interesting thing about the weekend was the moment when I looked out an hour or so before the Merlin flyby and saw the feeders full of birds, each one holding perfectly still like little statues as if time had stopped in the backyard. I guess they saw the Merlin before I did.
I’m happy to report that American Goldfinches are continuing to bring friends and a few of them are starting to show traces of their gold breeding plumage.
It’s time again for the annual Great Backyard Bird Count, which doesn’t actually have to be done in a backyard. I’ll be birding all four days and submitting this weekend’s Project FeederWatch counts to the GBBC as well.
Last year, I had this to say by way of explaining the GBBC:
The Audubon Society and The Cornell Lab of Ornithology are sponsoring The Great Backyard Bird Count running from today through Feb 16. 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.
Today, I started out by going down to the pond since I’ve got my pond trail big year going. It’s also where I birded on Day 1 of the GBBC last year. I’m happy to report that I was able to ID substantially more birds this year. I guess I am getting better at this. I even saw an Eastern Bluebird, which while not a new bird is a new one for this trail.
I also finally got a really good look at the Least Grebes in the pond. Turns out they’re actually Pied-billed Grebes, the crafty devils. I’ll need to go back and change my ebird data for the past few weeks, but the upside is that I get a new life bird.
Still, a fine list for an hour’s stroll:
Turkey Vulture (3)
Northern Mockingbird (2)
House Finch (4)
Eastern Bluebird (1)
White-winged Dove (4)
Ladder-backed Woodpecker (2)
Gadwall (57)
Ring-necked Duck (41)
Pied-billed Grebe (3)
American Wigeon (2)
Black-crested Titmouse (2)
Chipping Sparrow (2)
Eastern Phoebe (1)
Mourning Dove (2)
Blue Jay (1)
American Crow (1)
Yellow-rumped Warbler (1)
No pictures today. Perhaps tomorrow I’ll bring the camera along on my GBBC adventures.
