birding – Page 6 – Coyote Mercury

The Birds: Twenty Mile High

I took a twenty mile bike ride along the trails and roads around our neighborhood. I found myself keeping track of all the birds I saw along the way and saw 21 different species. Better than a bird a mile.

Great Blue Heron… flying over the creek, slow and beautiful

Snowy Egret… trailing the heron by a few minutes

Great Egret… swooping over the lake and landing

Green Heron… hunting along the edges of the lake. I wasn’t sure what he was. I had to call and leave a description on the answering machine so I could ID him when I got home

Common Grackle, Great-tailed Grackle, European Starling… foraging in a field near a basketball court

Northern Mockingbird… everywhere; it is the state bird after all

Northern Cardinal… until today I had only seen these guys at feeders, but today they were everywhere along one trail

Inca Dove, Mourning Dove, White-winged Dove… they have a trail where they’re the only birds I see

Purple Martin, Barn Swallow… martins in the sky, swallows along the ground, all patrolling the same trail

Blue Jay, House Sparrow… everywhere

American Crow… small flock congregating in the middle of a country road, flew off when I approached… kaw-kaw

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher…. watching from the power lines

Mallard, Muscovy Duck, Swans… feral domestic breeds hanging around the local duck ponds

And that’s just what I could ID as I blazed by on my bike. I know I saw a few that I couldn’t place, particularly sparrows.

To Watch a Mockingbird

June 7, 2007 • James Brush • 3 Comments

While wandering around Brushy Creek Lake Park in Cedar Park, I caught this northern mockingbird doing its display routine from the top of a tree.

They like to jump up and immediately dive back to the perch in between songs. They seem to do it repeatedly, which is convenient if you’re trying to photograph the whole thing.

Three Bird Lunch

April 11, 2007 • James Brush • 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.

Visiting the Pond

April 2, 2007 • James Brush • 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…

Bird Blogging

June 29, 2006 • James Brush • 5 Comments

This is for I and the Bird…

Birds have always been a source of endless fascination for me. I had parakeets when I was in high school and spent hours photographing them and watching them fly in circles around my bedroom.

Parakeets Sam and Pat

For awhile my dad was breeding canaries and finches and so no matter where I went in the house, there were birds. I suppose my love of watching birds was inherited from him.

Every place I’ve lived I set up a bird feeder and have spent hours happily watching the birds come to the feeder and doing what they do. We had a purple martin house at our old home, and I used to love sitting on the porch watching the flying lessons every spring. I always felt a little sad each July when they left.

So what’s so interesting about birds? I think it’s the wildness. There’s something about seeing wild animals that makes me just stop and stare, that reminds me that as far away from nature as I sometimes feel, it’s still there. Birds – beautiful, funny, graceful – are the wild animals that most of us see most frequently and so watching birds is something of a way to reconnect with nature without leaving our cities or even, for that matter, our homes.

Whenever I see birds while I have my camera on me as I did on our recent trip to Lake Tahoe, I always try to photograph them simply because they’re so hard to shoot. A good bird picture is an accomplishment. I don’t know how good these are, but I’m happy to have shared a space with these birds for a few moments as our separate journeys brought us all together for a few fleeting moments.

A seagull flying over Lake Tahoe (taken in Tahoe City, CA):

Seagull over Tahoe

Canadian Geese at the Tahoe City Commons:

Canadian Geese

A Stellar’s Jay at Sugar Pine Point State Park on Lake Tahoe in California:

Stellar's Jay

Birds are transitory creatures. They’re here for a while and then they move on. Whenever I see a bird, I wonder where it’s been, what it’s seen.

I get jealous.

Bird Pictures from Canyon of the Eagles

March 15, 2006 • James Brush • 9 Comments

Here are a few of the better pictures of birds from Saturday’s trip up the Canyon of the Eagles.

This is a bald eagle. They roost there this time of year. We mostly saw juveniles, which look more like hawks because they don’t have the white heads yet. This is the best shot I could get of an adult. A 300mm lens doesn’t do it justice, but that’s all I’ve got. It looked stunning through the binoculars.

Bald Eagle