Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge – March 2024

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My March visit to Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge was on my way home the day after my mother’s funeral in Dallas. I needed the healing of being out in a natural place like Hagerman. There were the usual male red-wing blackbirds proclaiming spring and their territory. Several times I could see males spaced out over the landscape…a visible cue for the size of their territories.

There were American wigeon, gadwalls, northern pintails, and American coots on the water in small numbers. A neotropic cormorant was enjoying the warming sun on its wings. Some birds had probably already headed north.

There was a group of 2 great blue herons and a great egret in sentry mode. They must have already had their breakfast because they didn’t move while I was watching.

A vocal cardinal perched in a tree near the road.

I had two favorite birds of the morning: a killdeer that was posturing in a field just as started down the wildlife loop road (it looked like it was signaling something…but I don’t know what) and

A female common goldeneye…the first I had seen at Hagerman. This bird would certainly be moving north soon since most of their breeding area is in Canada and Alaska!

I continued home…glad that I had made the effort to photograph birds at Hagerman.

Fennessey Ranch

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Our last field trip at the Whooping Crane Festival began with another early morning because we had to drive to the place (taking the ferry to cross from the barrier island). We arrived just a few minutes before the gate at Fennessey Ranch was opened for our tour group (not the first in line but not the last either).

I took a few pictures in the soft morning light: prickly pear cactus with brambles and a bird house, the layered reflected color of sunrise with the moon, and then some mourning doves in a nearby tree just as the sunlight hit them.

We waited a bit for the trailers with haybales for seats to arrive; we would tour the ranch in the trailers pulled by a pickup truck.

A few minutes into the tour there was a song sparrow in sunlight surround by mossy limbs.

I found photography from the trailer even more difficult than the bus at King Ranch. We did see wild turkeys and a bobcat…..but I wasn’t able to get a good line of sight with my camera. The bobcat was very hard to spot until it moved!

 I did get some good shots of two crested caracaras high in a tree. Were they a mating pair? The birds tend to be solitary except with their mate and offspring. Since I was almost under the birds…I took a picture of the talons.

There were a few wildflowers blooming.

One of the places we stopped included some sandhill cranes in the distance. There were feral hogs near them, and the birds flew off when the hogs got too close. The ranch does sponsor hunts of feral hogs…hopefully lowering their numbers.

The ranch has nine linear miles of river frontage on the Mission River. We stopped at a place where there is a blind and feeder. Only cardinals came to the feeder the morning we were there.

I opted to photograph more wildflowers and a post emerging from the water with what looks like barnacles (I forgot to ask if the river was tidal).

I also looked at the bank on the opposite side…lots of vegetation to the river’s edge in most places although there were places where cattle probably came down to the river. The bank on our side of the river was much steeper. It would be interesting to see the flood model for the ranch.

The Fennessy ranch field trip was a good winding down for our festival attendance. I learned that hayrides on trailers behind pickups over bumpy roads are hard on my back…probably won’t do that again. We headed toward home.  I was looking forward to Czech pastries in West, Texas on the second morning of the road trip back to Missouri.

Snowy Day on our Patio

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The birds were very active at our feeders recently with the temperature in the single digits (Fahrenheit) and the wind blowing up to 16 miles per hour! Multiple perches were in use much of the time. The house finches were the most numerous but there were sparrows (white-crowned) and a woodpecker (hairy?) and a female Northern Cardinal too. It was quite a feeding frenzy!

I was taking pictures through an office window with a screen so the pictures have a softened focus. Sometimes birds were still enough for portraits (female finch, male woodpecker, white crowned sparrow, cardinal).

I attempted a picture of sparrow through vegetation….and liked the artsy veil that the automatic focus produced with the challenge.

Of course, there were other items catching snow around our patio – the chiminea, the holly trees, the gnarled vine to the side of the stairs to the deck, a paver near the almost covered lambs ear, fall leaves in the bottom of the wagon. I stepped outside to take these pictures….and all the birds flew away!

The birds returned within minutes of my exit from the patio back to the warmth of my office.

Birds through my Office Window - January 2022

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There seemed to be a lot of bird activity visible from my office window this past month. The most common ones – juncos, sparrows (white-throated and house), finches (gold and house) - do not feature as much in my photos but they were always around.

Mourning Doves are too heavy for the feeder, but they are frequent visitors under the feeder on the deck and out in the yard. They also perch in the maple. They look largest when it is cold, and their feathers are fluffed.

The Northern Cardinals come to the feeders and flit all over the yard and trees. They seemed to be more activity in January than usual because there were more of them around. We have a resident pair that are around all year but in January there were at least 2 other pairs that were occasionally coming for food…and the interactions of both the males and females were high drama to watch.

The other resident pair that we usually see all during the year are a male and female (pictured) Red-bellied Woodpecker. Hopefully they’ll have young again this year. The birds dig through the seeds at the feeder…always leave with a peanut or sunflower seed.

There was a hawk that was around occasionally. Once it was at the edge of the forest diving into the leaves…came up empty. Another time I heard a tussle on the deck and glanced out to find the hawk on the deck railing – also without prey that it had probably been stalking. I was particularly relieved that it didn’t kill one of the birds coming to the feeder!

I’ve noticed Northern Flickers more in our yard. They blend into the leaves so well they are hard to spot…don’t come to the feeders.

The White-breasted Nuthatch comes to the feeder and is very assertive – drives away all except the Red-bellied Woodpecker.

There was a mixed flock of Red-winged Blackbirds and Brown-headed Cowbirds (pictured) that flew into the treetops of at the edge of the forest. I was glad they didn’t come down to our feeders! There were occasionally some cowbirds that came in the subsequent days; hope they don’t stick around for nesting season.

The downy woodpecker doesn’t come to our feeders frequently; they must be very hungry when the do because they eat quite a few seeds!

Through my Office Window – February 2021 (and Niagara Birding)

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We’ve had a snowy/icy February so far. There are pines and cedars at the edges of our yard that catch the snow. They are easy to photograph from the warmth of my office. Sometimes I intentionally overexpose the pictures to blur the background further…make the most of the dim light.

Our feeder is popular and often has multiple birds visiting. The pictures below show a Junco - Carolina Wren – female Northern Cardinal and Junco – female Northern Cardinal (tail only) and male House Finch.

The female Red-bellied Woodpecker still comes as well – choosing the peanuts from the mix of seeds.

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I also managed some pictures of birds in trees – a Titmouse in the cedar

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And the male Northern Cardinal in the red maple.

We’ve also noticed deer coming through our yard. There are seven in the picture below….two groups coming together.

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I took several more pictures of the same group at various zoom settings. The portrait with just the head and shoulders shows how thick the winter coat is on the animals.

Over the past weekend, we watched the virtual Birds on the Niagara. All the videos are freely available online now: Feb. 12-13 videos and Feb. 14 videos.

I enjoyed all of them but by favorites were:

J. Drew Lanham (keynote)

Timothe Beatley on Biophilic Cities

Paloma Plant on preventing bird collisions with buildings

Anne McCooey on project to certify the City of Buffalo as NWF Habitat Communities

My husband and I talked about whether we would make the trek to the area in winter sometime post-pandemic….decided we’d go in spring or fall instead – try to see it during migration. Seeing it virtually in winter was good enough for us!

Through my Office Window – January 2021

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I seemed to be busy with other things during January…so I was a little surprised that there were enough pictures to make a ‘through my office window’ post this month. This time of year, the heated bird bath is popular with many birds. I managed to get pictures of blue jays, Carolina chickadees, and a mourning dove there.

 Both the male and female northern cardinals are coming to the deck and feeder. The male prefers the seed under the feeder, but the female takes her time there…stays on the feeder perch of minutes rather than seconds.

The gold finches come to the feeder in small flocks. There are often 2 or 3 of them at a time.

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The white breasted nuthatch comes to the feeder but has started checking around the shingles of the covered part of the deck. I wonder if the bird stores seed there or there is something else the bird is looking for there.

I photographed the red-bellied woodpecker at the feeder but also in the maple tree. There is one in this series where the bird is getting ready to take off from the maple to make a run at the feeder. We only have a female around right now. I hope a male shows up by the spring.

Deer come through our yard frequently. Their route is always on the south side of our house – either heading to or coming from the forest. Sometimes they seem to be looking right at the camera. I saw two males butting heads at dusk, but the light was too poor to get a picture.

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There is a small flock of house finches in our area. They enjoyed nibbling the red maple buds on a warm afternoon, but they are often at the feeder this time of year as well.

My favorite pictures this month were of a group of crows finding tasty things in the back yard. They were digging down into the leaf mulch and grass; note that one of them has dirt on his beak! Also – one has white feather.

Zooming – December 2020

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I took fewer pictures in December…and shifted toward macro rather than zoomed. It was an indoor month because of the cold and the activities associated with holidays. Still – there were pictures of birds and snow – sunrise and sunset…the wintery scene. I’m going to bundle up to take more walks even in the January cold!

Through my Office Window – December 2020

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I am appreciating the view from my office window more this year than ever before…it is a great view of the natural world. We’ve seen wild turkeys twice (no pictures!) and one evening 9 deer came through (usually we see 2-4 at a time). There are the usual critters that I almost always manage to photograph: the finches, crows, white-breasted nuthatch, a pair of cardinals,

The squirrels,

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The mourning doves,

The red-bellied woodpecker, and

The Carolina wrens.

The birds that we only have around during the winter are the dark-eyed juncos,

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The red-bellied nuthatch,

The white-throated sparrow,

And the red-winged blackbirds. We have the red-winged blackbirds near the neighborhood pond in the other seasons, but they don’t venture to our forest and feeder except in the winter or during migration. They are almost too heavy for the feeder, so they don’t get enamored with what it provides.

The view from the window – the forest, the bird feeder and bath, the winter yard…the best in the house.

Through my Office Window – November 2020

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So much to see from my office window….

The resident Blue Jays come through several times a day. During the summer months I can only photograph them on the deck or at the bird bath. Now that the leaves are off the trees it is easier to spot them in other places in our back yard.

The Northern Cardinal pair are regular visitors as well. I see the female more often than the male.

The Carolina Wrens are around all during the year. They are easiest to photograph at the feeder since they are preoccupied with getting seed – stay for more than a few seconds.

The Chipping Sparrows and Tufted Titmouse are at the feeder almost every day. The titmouse often takes its seed to the gutter above the feeder to open the hull to get the good part.

The White-Breasted Nuthatch, House Finch, and Carolina Chickadee are all regular visitors.

American Goldfinch and Downy Woodpeckers are in our area all the time but they come to our deck and feeder infrequently.

There are birds we see primarily during migration times. Red-winged Blackbirds are at the neighborhood pond all through the year but only come to our feeder and forest in flocks during the fall and spring.

Sometimes we have Brown-headed Cowbirds around in the spring (laying eggs in other birds’ nests) but in the fall we just see them as they move through in small flocks when they stop to raid the birdfeeder.

Our resident Red-bellied Woodpecker comes to the feeder often. Right now - the female is all we see. Earlier this year there was a male and I hope there will be a pair next spring…another chance to see young birds.

The squirrels come to the deck for water and the seed under the feeder that the birds have scattered. Sometimes they try to dump the feeder but are generally not successful.

Now that the leaves are off the trees it is easier to see the Mourning Doves in the trees. Just before I wrote this post, I counted 7 doves preening in trees behind our house!

The sunsets are visible from my office window as well. The challenge is to look for it at the right time.

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My favorite picture ‘through the window’ this month is the last big leaves on the sycamore. It was taken on the 23rd. One of the leaves fell shortly after I took the picture but one is still hanging on.

Digiscoping Peacock Feathers

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I did another practice with the digiscope set up (previous post about the apparatus) - inside the house this time. I set the tripod with the spotting scope and phone in the kitchen; the peacock feathers on the fireplace mantle were far enough away to focus. We’d taken the cover off the scope, so it was easier to reach the focus knob. I liked the results. It is easier get the macro type image without getting in the way of the light (i.e. getting close) and the depth of field is better.

The feathers are over 10 years old and they are showing some degradation, but the physical color is very stable…not fading like with pigment based color. I played around with shifting the color a little with slight adjustments in focus.

Now I am ready for a digiscoping field trip!

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Cardinal juvenile update. The young bird now has orange beak and it’s managing the feeder roosts. The crest and some of the other feathers are still developing into the adult form for this female Northern Cardinal. It came all by itself, so the parents are free from their feeding duties at this point.

Falling sycamore leaves. Our deck is catching a lot of the sycamore leaves that are falling. The patterns of the fall changes in the leaves caught my interest. All the stems are brown…and often the area along the main veins is brown or yellow. It’s surprising how much green there still is.

Zooming – September 2020

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Less that 1000 photos this month…but still enough zoomed images for this post: 16 images. 4 of the images were inside (the stained glass butterfly and the super zoomed flowers). There are 4 butterflies (Common Buckeye, Red Admiral, Palamedes Swallowtail, and Spread-winged Skipper) and a Monarch caterpillar. All 3 birds are somewhat unusual: the Northern Cardinal is a juvenile still begging to be fed by its parents but learning quickly to find seed on our deck, the Blue Jay is contorting itself to get seed from the feeder (the roosts are too close together for him), and the Caroline Wren is tailless. Other animals in our yard or deck are also included: a chipmunk with very fat cheeks and a deer. And lastly are our trees: the sycamore leaves beginning to change against a blue sky after the smoke from the west coast that past over Maryland at 30,000 feet cleared out and an oak leaf that might be an indication that our oak tree has the infection common in our state (and not something we can treat…may eventually kill the tree).

All the pictures were taken at our house or the CSA.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Green tomatoes. I got 2 green tomatoes in the CSA share last week; they have been near the kitchen window since then. One began to turn red almost immediately and the other has stayed green. I’ll make green salsa with the one that is still green (or something else that cooks the green tomato so that it is edible) and let the other one finish turned red to eat like a regular tomato.

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Birds on our Deck

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The bird feeder camera has not been as interesting recently, but I noticed two sequences where there were 2 or more species of birds there at one time. The first one is a Downy Woodpecker joined first by a female Northern Cardinal, and then a White-breasted Nuthatch.

The next sequence has a female finch (maybe) on the side of the feeder away from the camera and a Tufted Titmouse. The titmouse moves around a bit and is then joined by a Carolina Chickadee. The titmouse flies away and a White-breasted Nuthatch comes. The finch stays on the same perch for the duration.

The pictures I take with my camera through my office window are sharper. The Red-Bellied Woodpecker (female) is coming to the feeder periodically. There must be plenty of food in the forest since she does not come frequently.

The House Finches sometime come in groups. They are probably the most frequent species at the feeder.

The Carolina Chickadees are high energy visitors to the deck…and not just to the feeder.

The Chipping Sparrows sometimes  come a lot and other times appear to be gone somewhere else temporarily.

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A male Downy Woodpecker comes periodically.

Mourning Doves survey the yard from the deck railing. They also like the bird bath…and clean up any seed that falls from the feeder.

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The strangest photograph this month was of a Carolina Wren….that appears to be missing a tail! I didn’t notice the oddity until I looked at my images on a bigger monitor. The bird behaved normally so maybe it will survive (and grow new tail feathers).

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Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Mourning Ruth Bader Ginsburg….an increase in concern for the future of our country. So many things are adding together to make 2020 a traumatic (and tragic) year. Maybe times like this are the ultimate test of our character as individuals and as a society.

Under the Bird Feeder

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I poured out the seed left in the bird feeder before I refilled it – and we had more visitors than usual come to the area to get the food. I was surprised that a squirrel did not come. I took some pictures through the French door of our breakfast area of a mourning dove, a chipmunk and a juvenile cardinal that were the first to come and cleaned up most of the bounty.

Mourning doves are on our deck regularly. One came almost immediately after I went back inside from refilling the feeder. They are too big for the feeder itself but always part of the cleanup crew underneath. I got a blink sequence of the bird!

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Zooming even more, look at the feather structure on the back of the Mourning Dove! The different shades of off-white….and then very black spots.

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The Eastern Chipmunk has tunnels all around our house (or maybe there is a whole family). Only one came to the deck. They are fun to watch with their oreo striped sides…the way they stuff the seeds into their cheek pouches to maximize what they can take back to their nest…the occasional pause to eat something (I assume those are particularly tasty sees) under the sheltering parts of the deck structure. I hadn’t previously noticed the way the inside part of the ear is somewhat folded….the zoomed images provide a lot of opportunity to observe details. Use the arrows at the side of the image to move through the slideshow at your own pace.

I took a picture of the juvenile Northern Cardinal with an adult male a few days before the extra seed. The juvenile is almost adult size, but its beak is still black rather than orange. It is a clumsy flyer and the female was bringing seed down to the feeder for the young bird (and it was begging with fluttering wings and vocalizations under the watchful eyes of the male).

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It managed to get to the deck where the seed was located a few days later and found seeds on its own. The dark beak is beginning to change color. The zoomed pictures show that the feathers are still more down-like on the breast and the way the bird holds itself is different. It isn’t standing up on its feet like adult birds do…and maybe that is why it can’t handle the roosts on the feeder yet.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Another sunny day with haze in the sky. This morning (Wednesday, 9/16) the haze from the western fires is not as dense over Maryland. The sky is slightly blue (not yet the normal blue-sky color) and we can distinguish some puffy clouds under the smoke layer during some parts of the morning. The light has a different quality with the haze overhead. Air quality at ground level is not impacted.

Gas grill. Our propane tank on the gas grill ran out a few months ago and we’ve be talking about how we could safely do the exchange for a new tank…and then an email from our neighborhood group included a blurb about Propane Taxi becoming available in our area. So – we have a low risk way to get a replacement tank (arrangements via website, paid for in advance…contactless). The service is associated with Home Depot and becoming available in metropolitan areas. We’ll put our empty tank on our porch and a full one will be left in its place. And we’ll be grilling again soon!

6 Free eBooks by Ludwig Borchardt – July 2020

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Ludwig Borchardt was an Egyptologist in the early 1900s – best known for finding the bust of Nefertiti at Amarna. I browsed through 6 books published by Borchardt that are freely available on Internet Archive and decided to feature them for my July eBooks post.

Porträts der Königin Nofret-ete aus den Grabungen 1912/13 in Tell el-Amarna (1923) includes pictures of the famous bust

The others (with sample images for each) are:

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Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Northern Cardinal fledgling and Blue Jay at the feeder. Two events I noticed in passing on our deck:

1) A female cardinal bringing a fledgling to the deck for a snack. The young birds was still begging the mother for food and getting fed…but also finding a few seeds on its own.

2) Blue jays are frequent visitors to our deck but usually to the bird bath or deck railing. This time the bird went to the feeder. It was heavy enough that it closed off the seed holes partially. I don’t think it was able to get any seeds before it flew off.

Sunset. I was walking around as I talked to my daughter on the phone and noticed the wonderful color outside through a small opening in some drapes. I went to a better vantage point and discovered that the sunset was very colorful…and the timing was perfect. I managed to juggle my phone and a better camera to get a picture. A great finale to the day!

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Through my Office Window – July 2020

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The birds are finding most of their food in the natural environment  this summer – not coming to the feeder as often. Still – some are coming often enough for me to take pictures through my office window.

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The House Finches and House Sparrows are the most frequent visitors. They often have clashes over the limited roosts on the feeder and chitter their angst.

The Red-Bellied Woodpeckers come occasionally. I see the female more often than the male.

The White-breasted Nuthatch comes almost every day in a short burst. I can recognize this bird without my glasses because of the way it moves at the feeder (upside down…head arched outward once it chooses a seed).

There are at least 2 Northern Cardinal pairs that come to the feeder – not at the same time but their territory must overlap a little. The bald female is the one I see most frequently. I keep expecting the feathers to grow back but she’s been bald for a long time; maybe she is an elderly bird…or a bird with a health condition. Often the male (with beautiful feathers and crest) is below keeping lookout for her.

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And then there are the quick visitors that are hard to photograph like the Tufted Titmouse (below) or the Carolina Chickadee or the Carolina Wren.

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Overall – July has not been an outstanding month for bird feeder activity. And now we are in for a series of days with temperatures above 90 and ‘heat advisories;’ the birds tend to say in the forest more when it is so hot. I am focusing on keeping the bird bath full for the birds and the squirrels.

Filling a Day of Social Distancing - 5/12/2020

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Continuing the blog post series prompted by COVID-19….

Here are the unique activities for yesterday:

Morning light. When I first walked into my office shortly after 6, I stood at the window and noticed the light in the treetops – a part of the view I don’t see from my computer table. Through the veil of the sycamore that is just beginning to leaf out, the trees on the horizon are a wall of green most of the time but the morning light made them look very yellow, highlighting the layers of the forest

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Indigo buntings. Just before 10 AM, I looked down from my office window and saw a downy woodpecker on the feeder. I stood up to take a picture of it and noticed a male indigo bunting on the railing! It jumped down to the floor of the deck and I quickly went downstairs to get a better angle to photograph the bird. And then there were two of them (both males). They seemed to be enjoying the seed on the deck but didn’t go up to the feeder. It’s  a first time for us seeing this bird in our backyard.

Links to my previous “filling a day of social distance” posts  here.

And now for the early morning birds of May 7th…

I downloaded the videos from our bird feeder cam for last week and discovered that there was quite a sequence last Thursday morning.

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At 6:02 there were 2 male rose-breasted grosbeaks at the feeder.

At 6:21 there was a female downy woodpecker. A few minutes later at 6:22 the woodpecker was still there, and a fox ran through the yard below.

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At 6:24 a male red-winged blackbird was singing from the deck railing.

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A female red-bellied woodpecker showed up at 6:47.

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At 6:52 there were three birds: a male house finch, a male cardinal, and a female cardinal.

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At 7:14 a Carolina wren was on the feeder and a squirrel was on the railing.

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A male red-bellied woodpecker got a peanut at 7:21.

The birds were fabulous, but the big surprise was the fox. We’d seen a post on our neighborhood Facebook page of a fox with young about a block away in our neighborhood…but this was the first fox I’d seen in our backyard this year.

Through my Office Window – March 2020 – Part II

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Continuing the “Through the Window” photos for this month….

The red maple has bloomed and is now full of maturing seeds; from afar it’s gone from red to rust. The birds and squirrels will enjoy the bounty soon…and we’ll have small maple trees to mow this summer.

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The tulip poplar is leafing out. Both trees are visible from my office window and will be a big part of the green wall during the summer.

I started emptying the last of the seed from the bird feeder before I refill it….not wanting the seed to get very old before it is eaten. A squirrel is usually the first to find the small pile on the deck bench.

House finches are frequent birds at the feeder, in the trees, and on every part of the house visible from my window.

The Northern Cardinal is almost too heavy for the feeder. The female may be a little lighter because I see her there more than the male. The male likes to clean up the seeds under the feeder.

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The Mourning Doves are also frequent visitors under the feeder. They enjoy the bird bath as well.

A Brown-Headed Cowbird and House Sparrow were at the feeder at the same time. I’m glad we don’t have cowbirds around frequently since they would eat up the contents of the feeder very quickly.

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I hear the Carolina Wren more frequently than I see it. But I enjoy the way they contort their bodies at the feeder…keep their tail up!

Sightings of American Robins increase in the spring. They are never at the feeder…only occasionally at the bath. They like the trees and the yard.

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I finally saw and photographed an Eastern Phoebe this month. They probably are around but stay further into the forest. This one was sitting in our sycamore…almost out of the range of my camera from my office window.

Through my Office Window – February 2020

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I wasn’t at home for the first part of the month, so the opportunities to see birds through the window were more time limited than usual.

The Downy Woodpecker seemed to be coming to the feeder more frequently. It was always a female. Usually I see them in the trees more than at the feeder, so I wondered if the insects were not as available (maybe because of the cold).

The House Finches seemed more numerous at the feeder than last month. The males were ‘courting’ – providing a seed to their favorite female. They would occasionally accept another bird at the feeder – like a Carolina Chickadee. They were the birds most impacted by the visit of the bluebirds that we saw on the birdfeeder camera; it was only a short time but I’m sure they were relieved when the bluebirds did not stick around.

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Both the male and female Red-bellied Woodpeckers are active at the feeder periodically – not every day. They had to contort themselves to get the seed they wanted or if the seed was low. The Carolina Wren learned to get a snack from the opposite side of the feeder when the woodpecker was there.

These little birds were frequent visitors to the feeder – often the first ones there in the morning.

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There was a Northern Mockingbird that sat on the deck bench on a wet morning. I don’t see them frequently around our yard and wondered if it was injured.

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The White-Breasted Nuthatch was around – coming like a bullet to the feeder, getting a snack and leaving again…never sticking around for long.

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The Northern Cardinals were around periodically but not as frequently as in January. I wonder if they are not building their nest in the usual place near our house…they’re coming from further afield.

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I always am aware when the Blue Jays come (for water) since they are so noisy. I still enjoy seeing them.

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The Dark-eye Juncos are still around. They are here in about the same numbers as previous years…our little flock.

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And the Mourning Doves were around to clean up any spilled seed from the other birds that were digging through the seed in the feeder to find just the one they want…throwing the seeds they didn’t want onto the deck.

Laredo Birding Festival – Day 3

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Our next day at the Laredo Birding Festival had us boarding the van at 6:40 AM for the Max Mandel Municipal Golf Course for its stunning views of the Rio Grande River waterfront with over 270 acres of old growth mesquite tree and vast arroyos. We road around in golf carts (part of the adventure) staying out of the way of a morning tournament between two schools. The golf course structures were newish, but the course had been laid out to maintain much of the native vegetation along the river. We were there just after the sun came up. The morning was cold, and strands of moisture rose from the river. We had good river views all through the morning.

My first bird picture for the day was a Pyrrhuloxia. There is just barely enough light to distinguish the coloring…definitely not a cardinal.

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As we headed over to where the golf carts were parked, I photographed some mistletoe….I liked its shape and density compared with the branches of the winter tree.

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We paired up for the golf carts; I let my husband drive; it was a new experience for both of us since we are not golfers. The Red-billed Pigeon is just barely a US bird….and the golf course is known in the area as a good place to spot them.

The Eurasian Collared Dove was also around. The birds were introduced in the Bahamas in the 1970s…were in Florida by the 1990s…and rapidly colonized most of North America.

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We saw Great Kiskadees across the river…and finally saw one on the US side so we could include it in our count of birds seen at the golf course.

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The couple in the golf cart in front us spotted some American Pipit foraging in a grassy area. I was glad we were directly behind them and stopped to get some pictures.

The Yellow-fronted Woodpecker is not one that we see in Maryland. We saw several at the golf course and the sunny day made them easy to photograph.

We had lunch and a walk at the 180 Ranch – a little ways from the golf course along the Rio Grande. We did see some cows near a pond we stopped at on our way into the property.  

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Lunch was at the hunting lodge; they had left some snacks for us; I enjoyed the only banana for the trip (they didn’t have any in the breakfast buffet which is my usual source of fresh fruit when I’m traveling). After the hike, we sat in the shade around the hunting large and observed birds coming to feeder and the brush surrounding a very lush (obviously watered) patch of grass. There were small flocks of Northern Cardinals foraging…similar to what we had seen the previous day.

A Black Vulture posed for a portrait before taking off again to soar. The area also has Turkey Vultures as we do in Maryland.

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There were several Pyrrhuloxia around as well. They were more cautious than the Cardinals.

The Green Jays can be raucous. They are a challenge to photograph because their eyes disappear in to the black around their eyes.  

The Audubon’s Oriole flew in as our group lounged in our comfortable chairs. Getting a photograph of it was the high point of the day!

Laredo Birding Festival Day 2

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We were up at 4:30 AM to prepare for our day of birding at the Laredo Birding Festival. After a delicious breakfast buffet we boarded the van shortly after 6:15 AM and headed to the Yugo Ranch - currently owned and operated by 6th generation descendants of Ygnacio Benavides, who live by the same conservationist philosophy as their ancestor – where we would spend the morning and early afternoon. We parked the van near the ranch buildings, and everyone bundled up since it was a cold morning.

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There was a Texas Ebony tree near where we parked. There were a lot of seed pods on the ground around the tree. The birds and other wildlife had already finished off the seeds.

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All during the morning we saw Vermilion Flycatchers – the bright red attracting attention.

Crested Caracara flew overhead and there were a pair in a tree just barely within the range of my camera.

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When we made a loop back to the ranch buildings, I managed to photograph a wren which was easily identified later from the picture as a Cactus Wren. It seemed to be very interested in the chimney.

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We drove out to look at some ponds on the ranch…and spotted a familiar bird: a Killdeer.

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There were also Great Kiskadees like we saw several years ago during the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival.

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There were groups of Northern Cardinals…a small flock. In our area of Maryland they are usually only seen in pairs or males contesting turf…the small flock was new to us.

The high point of the morning was a Great Horned Owl. It was surveying the area from a tree growing on an island of the pond. It sometimes looked our way….decided our group was no threat at all.

Looking closely at the picture I took of a cormorant – I realize that it is a Neotropic Cormorant (rather than a Double-crested Cormorant) because the eye is surrounded by feathers rather than a bare patch of skin.

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There was an American Wigeon just barely within the range of my camera zoom.

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As we headed down the road in our van, there was a Curve-billed Thrasher in the road. I was ideally positioned to take pictures through the windshield of the van!

Also on along the road, a Pyrrhuloxia was spotted. For this picture I had to contort a bit to get the picture through a side window.

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We had been seeing Harris’s Hawks and I finally got a picture of two that were near each other on a telephone pole. This species hunts as a team!

​The next stop was Ranchito Road Lagoons. The high point of the afternoon happened at this location: American White Pelicans feeding in unison. I had not seen this behavior before. It was like a ballet and they did it for the whole time we were at the location.  

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Lesser Yellowlegs were feeding in the shallows.

On the way back to hotel we stopped at the Laredo Landfill. It was very windy (dust and some trash flying everywhere) so we didn’t stay long. There were quite a few Cattle Egrets huddled together near the entrance. And lots of Chihuahuan Ravens that were closer to where we stopped. I later wished that I had walked over to get a picture of the Cattle Egrets since we didn’t see them in any other festival location.

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What a productive day of birding around Laredo!