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Category: Nature

Three Bird Lunch

April 11, 2007 • • 6 Comments

My classroom has no exterior windows and if I get busy, it’s easy to go a whole day with no idea of what the weather is like outside. This time of year, however, it’s beautiful and so, I’ve taken to going for walks around the building. It’s good to get out for some exercise and even more fun to see what kinds of wildlife I can identify. Today, I brought my camera.

I’ve been especially fascinated by the killdeer around the building. Initially, it was its call that caught my attention, and so I stopped to discover these noisy shorebirds that live nowhere near shore. Apparently their natural habitats are parking lots near fields and golf courses.

When I go for my walks, I always look forward to getting around to the west side of the building where they like to congregate in the drainage ditch, which this one discovered helps make him especially photogenic.

I see mockingbirds all the time, and today, I actually managed to get a picture of this one.

I’d like to try to get one displaying the white flashes on its wings, but that will take a bit of patience.

Finally, I saw this scissor-tailed flycatcher hanging out waiting to be photographed.

I’ve seen these birds all over the place around here, but I never knew what they were until today. The tip-off, of course, was when I saw one catch a fly in midair, his scissor-like tail streaming behind him. Now that I know what he is, I get to add him to my list.

In addition to the three I photographed, I also regularly see barn swallows, turkey vultures, white-winged doves, and some kind of hawk that I haven’t been able to name yet, although, I didn’t see him today.

It’s a funny thing walking around the building. Looking outward, I see birds, wild and free, filling me up with enough of the outdoors to go back in for the rest of the day, and all of it surrounding a building full of juvenile offenders. I wonder what they think about when they see the birds outside, or if they even notice them at all.

A Mercurial Coyote

April 5, 2007 • • 3 Comments

As one might guess from the title of this blog, I like coyotes. Yes, yes, it’s true. I never rooted for the roadrunner, though I like them too.

Though I prefer old coyote stories in the Native American trickster tradition or even the Western tall-tale genre, I like a modern coyote story as well so needless to say, this story caught my eye:

Employees and customers at a downtown Chicago Quiznos sandwich shop were stunned to see a coyote walk through the propped-open front door Tuesday afternoon and lie down in a cooler stocked with fruit juice and soda.

So fruit juice and soda? I figured he’d go straight for the roasted roadrunner on rosemary parmesan (ten times as fast as you can).

Assuming he’s uninjured and healthy, he’ll be released to the wild where he will promptly order an Acme anvil, Acme Quiznos employee disguise suit, and Acme deli meat slicer in order to build a fiendishly complicated Quiznos invasion device.

More on CBS

Backyard Birds

April 3, 2007 • • 4 Comments

Here’s a better shot of one of the Carolina Bewick’s Wrens who is nesting in the box on our porch. He actually came up while I was outside with my camera. Probably to demand mealworms. I checked the box and saw that the eggs hatched today. Hopefully, I’ll be home when flying lessons start.

Last weekend, we decided to see what other birds we could attract. I put up a woodpecker feeder since my wife saw one in the yard the other day. I’ve never seen one before, but the seed block had been pretty heavily pecked by the time I got home.

The only finches I’ve seen in the yard are house finches, but I put up a finch feeder in the hopes that we’ll attract some goldfinches. I think it may be the wrong time of year for them to be here, but perhaps if I plant a garden of lettuce, they’ll come as they seem to have for Amy at Esau.

So far, though, it’s mostly white-winged doves, house sparrows, and Carolina chickadees around here, although this afternoon I did hear a song I hadn’t heard before. The woodpecker, perhaps? I’m hoping to add him to my list.

And, of course, our wrens, one seen here singing “Bird Dream of the Olympus Mons.”

Visiting the Pond

April 2, 2007 • • 3 Comments

Tonight was one of those perfect spring-in-Austin evenings when the air is cool, so unlike how it will be in a few months. Perfect for a trip down to the pond. I need to remember these nights when it’s 90 degrees three hours after dark. These are the days when there’s nowhere I’d rather be.

Walking along, listening to the birds stake their evening claims, I noticed this tree that seemed to be reaching towards me in a way that made me stop to make sure it was just a tree. It was, and a nice one at that.

I walked along the trail to the dam and spent a little while watching barn swallows swoop out over the water, diving along the surface to grab insects before soaring back into the sky. Swallows are probably my favorite birds; they’re such graceful flyers and when I watch them, all grace and wonder, it isn’t long before I’m with them, oblivious to the ant mound I’m sitting on.

Less arresting than the aerobatics of the swallows, some ducks American Coots paddled slowly out in the middle of the pond, too far out to get a decent shot, so this one will have to do. I’m trying to figure out what these are, but they’re too far out for my zoom. I’ll have to go back with my binoculars this weekend.

These spring nights, when the sun sets so late, the air is cool and everywhere spring green trees and wildflowers make for perfect walking, perfect evenings, perfect…

Carolina Wren

March 30, 2007 • • 2 Comments

This is one of the Carolina Bewick’s Wrens that lives in the wren box on our porch. He comes out for meal worms each morning.

They started laying eggs two weeks ago so they should be hatching soon.

Black-Crested Titmouse

March 22, 2007 • • 4 Comments

This guy has been coming round here in the mornings to beat the wrens to the mealworms. Early bird and all that.

He’s a black-crested titmouse, similar to the tufted titmouse, but found only in Oklahoma, Texas and Mexico. Apparently they used to be considered a separate race from the regular tufted titmice, not a separate species, but now they’re a separate species. The species also apparently hybridize where their ranges overlap, such as here in central Texas.

I finally saw him while I had happened to have my camera handy, but the focus is a bit off. Part of that is the distortion of shooting through the window. Part of that is the focus being off.

I’m enjoying trying to ID and photograph the birds that come through here. It’s a fun little hobby combining photography, research and blogging. Plus I can do it from home, which is nice when you don’t really feel like doing much after work.

Visit Transitions for a nice shot of a regular tufted titmouse.

Also, I and the Bird #45 is up at Journey Through Grace. Check it out.

Update: This post has been edited. I originally ID’d this bird as a tufted “black-crested” titmouse, but my bird book is seemingly out of date since the black-crested are now a separate genetically distinct species. Thanks to Mike at 10,000 Birds who called my attention to this in the comments. More can be found about these birds at The Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s All About Birds site or Wikipedia. When I mentioned this to the actual bird, though, he told me just to call him Roger.

Chipping Sparrows

March 20, 2007 • • 2 Comments

I see these little guys all the time, crowding around the spilled seed beneath the feeder. I have a tendency to name any small brown bird a sparrow so I was pleasantly surprised to learn that these guys really are sparrows, chipping sparrows to be precise.

According to my bird book, chipping sparrows are nicknamed “hairbirds” because they use hair in their nests that they steal from unsuspecting horses and sometimes napping dogs. Perhaps – gasp! – even lazy greyhounds.

Apparently, they are also one of the signs of spring in northern climes where they replace the American tree sparrows that move up to the Arctic to breed.

Frightful’s Mountain

March 20, 2007 • • Leave a comment

The Central Flyway goes right through Texas making it great place for birding. Around this time of year you can see all kinds of eagles, hawks and falcons migrating through. Each year when I see these magnificent creatures, I can’t help but wonder how far they’ve traveled, what those avian eyes have seen.

Last year, we cruised up Canyon of the Eagles, but it’s a good time for reading about birds too, which brings me to Frightful’s Mountain. Well, not literally except in how we travel when we read.

A year ago, I read My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George when I found myself unexpectedly teaching it. I enjoyed the book so much, I decided to include it in my middle school class this year. As I suspected they enjoyed it, but a few were asking about sequels. I did a bit of research and found two: On the Far Side of the Mountain and Frightful’s Mountain.

I bought both for my classroom and skimmed over Far Side of the Mountain, which is mostly a continuation of Sam’s adventures living off the land in the Catskill Mountains. It ends with him being forced to release the peregrine falcon he captured and raised in the first book. Frightful’s Mountain is the story – from Frightful’s point of view – of her first two years in the wild. I meant to skim this one two, but I fell into and couldn’t put it down.

After spending the first two years of her life in captivity, Frightful is now free and has no idea how to survive in the wild. She longs to return to “the one mountain among thousands, the one tree among millions, and the boy named Sam,” but slowly instinct takes over, but that alone can’t prepare her for the dangers faced by wild birds: poachers, predators, electrical wires, habitat loss, pollution, and DDT, which still affects birds that migrate to South America.

For people who love birds, this is a gripping book. George’s depiction of Frightful’s attempts to follow the other birds south with each wave of migration is heartbreaking. She knows she must go, but she keeps returning to Sam’s tree until it’s too late to migrate. She barely survives a tough winter and when the next year rolled around I found myself at the edge of my seat wondering if she would be able to give up her training and follow her instincts. “Go south, Frightful, go south and live on a beach,” I found myself wanting to yell at her.

Frightful’s Mountain is a wonderful companion piece to My Side of the Mountain. They both tell the tale of leaving behind what you know in order to survive in a tough world, where nature can be as inspiring as it is merciless, and for Frightful, not nearly as dangerous as man. It’s rare that a sequel, written years after the original, surpasses its source material, but this is one instance where it does.

Frightful’s story is beautifully told and is an important reminder to young readers of the beauty and wonder of nature. It’s also a treat to read such a book at a time of year when you can just go outside and see birds of prey everywhere and understand immediately the author’s passion for her subject.

If you want to see a real peregrine falcon, visit Hasty Brook where Lynne caught sight of one hanging out on a downtown building in Minnesota. Birdchick also has a few pictures of the same bird.

Blue Jay

March 19, 2007 • • 7 Comments

Blue Jays are one of my favorite backyard birds. Whenever they come around, I find myself stopping to watch and see what they do.

This one had things to say. He hopped around in the tree and then down to the fence, chirping and squawking at me. I know they can be fairly aggressive birds, and since this is a family blog, I won’t repeat exactly what he was squawking.

Perhaps he felt the feeder needed a refill.

Either way, it’s nice to have colorful birds come by from time to time.

Backyard Wildlife

March 16, 2007 • • Leave a comment

I spent the early part of the week working in the yard trying to create something of a bird world. I love watching birds, and lately I’ve been wanting to increase the variety that come around as well as learn who they are.

We’ve had a bird feeder up for the past two years. I fill it up. Mr. Squirrel comes along and empties it onto the ground, and then he and the white-winged doves eat most of the seeds; therefore, the first step was to give Mr Squirrel his own feeder.

He seems to like it.

In addition to the (still vacant) owl house I hung, I put up a wren house. Two Carolina wrens moved in and built a nest of sticks and feathers, and as of yesterday, there were two eggs in the nest.

I also hung up a suet feeder to try to get woodpeckers and finches, and a bluebird nest box (that will probably house more wrens since I’ve never seen a bluebird around here) went up as well.

Here’s the birds I know I’ve seen so far in the past few weeks.

I love springtime.