Tag: birding

Golden-cheeked Warbler

Today was an exciting day. I finally got to see the Golden-cheeked Warbler, the only bird that nests only in Texas. Sadly, it is also an endangered species.

I went on one of the Two Hour Tuesday walks sponsored by the Travis County Audubon Society. Our guide, Stan, was great. Not only did he show us these birds, but by the time I left I felt I had learned enough to possibly find one on my own someday.

Walking along Turkey Creek near Emma Long Park, we heard more of them than we saw and for the most part, we only saw quick glimpses until, walking back towards the parking lot, we got some good looks, including the one I photographed, which was right above us on the trail.

I was surprised by how vocal they are, a fact that makes them surprisingly easy to find. Apparently, though, as soon as nesting activities are finished, they become very quiet and secretive and so, March and April are really the only time one might expect to find them.

It’s a bittersweet thing to see such a beautiful and unique creature while knowing that it is also an endangered species. The threats to the Golden-cheeked Warbler’s existence seem to come mainly in the form of habitat loss. It nests only in the mixed oak/juniper forests of the Texas hill country, and according to Texas Parks and Wildlife:

Golden-cheeked warblers are endangered because many tall juniper and oak woodlands have been cleared to build houses, roads, and stores. Some habitat was cleared to grow crops or grass for livestock. Other habitat areas were flooded when large lakes were built.

These little birds only nest here. They winter in Mexico and Central America, but according to All About Birds, their winter habitat is being cut down for timber. It seems they can’t catch a break.

This bird was a rare treat to see and a potent reminder of the importance of conservation and doing all one can to ensure that we leave room for all the wild things with whom we share this planet.

Update: Be sure to check out I and the Bird #96 at The Birdchaser.

Robin — Wildflowers — The Moon

March 11, 2009 • James Brush • 3 Comments

Ladder-backed Woodpecker

February 17, 2009 • James Brush • 14 Comments

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.

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.

Update 2.21.09: Be sure to check out I and the Bird #94 at The Birder’s Report as well as The Weekly Woodpecker Roundup at Picus Blog.

Great Backyard Bird Count – Day 4

February 17, 2009 • James Brush • 3 Comments

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.

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.

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.

Check out these other Great Backyard Bird Counters: Heather of the Hills and Austin birder Mikael at Birding on Broademead who got an awesome shot of an Osprey.

Great Backyard Bird Count – Day 1

February 13, 2009 • James Brush • 4 Comments

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.

A Short Walk to the Pond

February 12, 2009 • James Brush • Leave a comment

It was beautiful out yesterday, a good day for a quick bit of birding along the pond trail. Saw some goldfinches – American and Lesser high in a leafless tree feasting on seeds. I watched them until they flew in brilliant yellow streaks across the sharpest of blue skies.

A few minutes later an accipiter flew overhead. He was almost gone before I even noticed him. Cooper’s or Sharp-shinned, I couldn’t tell and probably couldn’t even if I could have hit pause on life. Call him Stan. He was beautiful, quick and silent. He ducked and wove the air through the trees and was gone faster than a dream.

Probably heading to my house to eat the rest of the House Sparrows.

A Pond Trail Big Year?

February 4, 2009 • James Brush • 4 Comments

I spend a lot of time birding the trail that runs parallel to our street down to the pond. I usually stop at the pond (the trail goes on and connects to an extensive network of trails) and on school days, I typically turn around and head home. It’s a short (maybe half-mile) walk from the door to the pond and back. I typically see a good variety of birds but never counted the species.

This year, starting with curiosity about what kinds of overwintering ducks are on the pond, I began listing the birds I saw and entering my counts into ebird. If I do this for an entire year, I should have a good sense of what birds pass through here and at what times of the year. I’m also curious as to how many species I can find within this short range from my house.

Call it my pond trail big year. Or maybe, it’ll be a small or medium year. I don’t know what to expect, but that’s part of the fun.

I’m not shooting for any specific number since I have no idea what all species are around here. I just want to see how many I see. I’ve already ID’d some life birds on the trail and hopefully a few more will pop up over the next 11 months so there’s that to look forward to also.

Most important, is the excuse to get outside, enjoy nature and watch the world do its thing. Not that I need an excuse for that.

Here’s what I’ve seen so far:

Gadwall
American Wigeon
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail
Ring-necked Duck
Blue-winged Teal
Least Grebe Pied-billed Grebe
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
White-winged Dove
Mourning Dove
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Eastern Phoebe
Blue Jay
American Crow
Carolina Chickadee
Black-crested Titmouse
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Northern Mockingbird
Orange-crowned Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Northern Cardinal
House Finch
American Goldfinch

Along a Neighborhood Trail on a Foggy Day

January 27, 2009 • James Brush • 2 Comments

Fog silences everything on the way down to the pond. The trees hold still, making way for the muted quacks from the ducks farther down.

I watch a flock of Blue Jays descend on a tree, screeching at something. I don’t see any owls or hawks, and eventually they leave, their work finished.

Above the trail, I notice a Great Blue Heron, solitary and watchful. My eyes drift from him to the shapes of the ducks drifting through the fog. One tree over, a Red-bellied Woodpecker squawks at the heron. I’ve never seen a Red-bellied Woodpecker in the neighborhood so I study him through the binoculars, his red nape leaping out of the surrounding gray.

I make a note in my bird book and watch him watch the heron, until, having had enough, the heron jumps off the tree and slowly flies up the creek back toward the bridge.

The trail disappears in both directions, and I walk back toward home, stopping along the way to admire the texture of some broken trunks. What happened to shear off these branches and leave the gaps in the trees? Was it sudden like lightning or just the slow erosion of time?

I can hear birds chirping in the reeds, but they’re not to be seen. The fog diffuses the sound and their voices could be coming from anywhere.

A gentle fog and
brief graying of the familiar
renders the world new

On Seeing New Birds

January 22, 2009 • James Brush • 2 Comments

In the past few days, I’ve identified several new birds for my life list: Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Orange-crowned Warbler, White-crowned Sparrow, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Greater Yellowlegs, and American Kestrel. I’ve also gotten my first look at an Eastern Screech Owl. Pretty good start for the new year, there.

When I ID a new bird, I like to learn a little bit about its behavior. I have two good books for this: The Sibley Guide to Bird Life & Behavior and The Behavior of Texas Birds, both of which I recommend. I never seem to lose interest in these secret little lives going on all around.

The really funny thing about IDing a new bird is that once I’ve figured out the bird and how to see it, I start seeing it even more frequently. Sometimes it appears as though they are everywhere. Where were all these birds the last time I came here? I wonder.

They were there, of course. I just didn’t know to distinguish them, know how to see them. There is an aspect to birding that creates an awareness of any given moment that is easy to lose when thoughts center on other places and times than the here and now.

Seeing a new bird for the first time reminds me of that most important thought: be here now.

When I went down to the pond on New Year’s Day, I saw several Ruby-crowned Kinglets flitting about in the trees. I doubt they just arrived. More likely than not, they’ve been there all along, at least at this time of year. The thing that’s different is that since seeing that one in the backyard, now I notice them instead of my brain just processing small grayish bird and moving on.

The more I learn the more I see.

I suspect most things in life are like that.

Ollie

January 20, 2009 • James Brush • 1 Comment

My aunt has a friend whose owl house has a resident. He’s an Eastern Screech Owl whom she calls Ollie.

My aunt arranged for me to come by and have a look at him, and so on Friday, I got to meet my first owl. He sat in his box, seemingly ignoring everything going on around him, but as I watched through my lens, it was clear he was aware of us, whether or not he cared.

I took a bunch of pictures, but this one is my favorite since he actually appears to be looking back at me. Aside from the eyes, those talons poking out from beneath his feathers keep drawing my attention. I wouldn’t want to be a small critter on the business end of those.

Until Friday, the only owl I had ever seen flew like a ghost over our driveway about 15 years ago. Ghostlike mainly because after it was gone, it was hard to believe I’d even seen it. It was nice to get a chance to really see and watch one finally.

He’s got me thinking too. The screech owl house I put up two years ago never drew any owls. I took it down when it drew rats but after seeing Ollie, maybe I’ll try another tree.