King Ranch

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The second day of the Whooping Crane Festival started early; we got on a bus to head to the King Ranch at 6 AM! The King Ranch Visitor Center was a little over an hour from Port Aransas (and we did not take the ferry). By the time we got there the sun was up.

We had a ‘rest stop’ at the visitor center…plenty of time to look around for birds. There were curve-billed thrashers on some prickly pear cactus.

A rufous hummingbird was not bothered by the sudden influx of people. It stayed in place long enough for everyone to get a good look.

Mockingbirds were around too….they are the state bird of Texas.

A golden-fronted woodpecker was spotted. It moved around a lot but there always seemed to be twigs between me and the bird!

Then we did most of our viewing from the bus for a bit since the ranch is so big…and the trip has a limited amount of time. I managed some OK pictures through the windows: a roadrunner and crested caracara….

Longhorn cattle.

We made a stop and saw a group of sandhill cranes in the distance.

Back on the bus…we had been seeing American kestrels all  morning and I eventually managed to get an image of one through the bus window…good enough for id but focus not sharp enough.

A group of female wild turkeys moved away as our bus got closer. Later we would see a group of male turkeys.

Another raptor through the bus window…a red-shouldered hawk.

The bus stopped at a water impoundment…and we all got an excellent view of an American Bittern.

There was a feeding station for birds at the next stop. We got good looks at red-winged blackbirds and gold-fronted woodpeckers…

And green jays!

There was a least grebe in the water a little ways down the road.

A snowy egret had caught breakfast.

Green-winged teal, pyrrhuloxia, and American Coots were also enjoying the water.

Alligator!

A Great Egret took off as the alligator headed toward it.

In the distance….Cinnamon teal with blue winged teal and a black necked stilt.

A great kiskadee made an appearance.

A black-crowned night heron is often hard to see in heavy vegetation. I always feel lucky when I finally see it and luckier still to get a photograph.

And the male turkeys were the last birds we saw as we headed back to the visitor center.

My husband and I both enjoyed this field trip…saw a lot of birds that we didn’t see during any of other field trips. It was interesting to learn a little history of the King Ranch as well. We had enough time for a quick lunch before showing up for trip out on a boat in the afternoon.

Hagerman Birds – May 2023

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I made the best of cloudy days both times I was at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge in May. Photographing birds was frustrating because of the light and I thought while I was there that I wouldn’t like any of the images…but they turned out better than I expected in several cases. The egrets were still around: Great Egrets

And Snowy Egrets (seemingly a lot more of them about).

I enjoyed the light around a snowy egret on the second morning…it was changing very quickly with the sun coming in and out of clouds as it was getting higher in the sky (it was still within an hour of sunrise).

I learned on my first visit to scan the high points of the meadow for birds...seeing a dickcissel was my most immediate success.

There were a lot of red-winded blackbirds. I saw one perched on an amaranth close to the road and he stayed put for a portrait, a defiant look, a little bow (but he was still watching me), and then a screech to let everyone know it was his turf!

The second morning I saw that there was a group of egrets on one of the ponds and they were leaving just as I was arriving! Did they roost there…or just get their breakfast?

There were great blue herons as well.

There was a preening red-shoulder hawk on a snag.

May was not a great month for bird photography on the days I went to Hagerman…but not a total loss either. This image is my favorite of the morning.

Hawk on Deck

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I was enjoying the snow flurries as I looked out my office window in late January when I heard a commotion below my window on our deck. I moved closer to the window to see what it was. A hawk was perched on the deck railing. I guessed that it had swooped down onto the deck – maybe for a meal of junco or mourning dove – but whatever the intended prey was, the hawk was not successful. It was looking all around the narrow strip of grassy yards and into the forest recovering from the failure and seeking a new target. Note: There are several pictures where the dark nictitating membrane is closed over the eye.

And then the bird flew off toward the forest. I used the picture id feature of the Merlin app to confirm my initial ID: red-shouldered hawk.

Red-Shouldered Hawk

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Sometimes the more frequent handwashing results in a surprise observation through the window above my kitchen sink. After putting away some groceries last week…just as I was finishing up the soap and water routine, I glanced at the sycamore tree and saw a larger bird that I expected there. It was a red-shouldered hawk! I alerted my husband and he grabbed his camera to try to get a picture. I went upstairs to my office because all my cameras were there. I got three pictures from my office window before it flew down into the chaos garden at the base of the sycamore…not visible from my vantage point upstairs.

My husband got a picture too, but he groused that the window had too much glare.

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It was the most exciting minute of our day!

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There are two virtual birding festivals coming up this weekend…visual treats for the Valentines weekend:

The Niagara birding festival is free – Feb 12-14 - http://www.birdsontheniagara.org/ - 19 species of gulls….sometimes arctic species like snowy owls.

The Laredo birding festival is $25 – Feb 13 – this is the one we went to last year just as the pandemic was beginning – not sure how much will be virtual local field trips but that area is very unique with lots of tropical and subtropical birds…I got the best look ever of a great horned owl there….and road runners…and an Audubon’s oriole and white pelicans feeding together (like a ballet, all dipping their heads to feed in unison) https://riograndeinternationalstudycenter.formstack.com/forms/9th_virtual_laredo_birding_festival

I like the little surprise of seeing a bird I don’t expect to see in our backyard…gives a little serendipity to the day. It’s also a good feeling to realize that I am learning to recognize birds that I didn’t a few years ago. The pandemic has given us all a time out….and an extreme ‘learning experience.’ I am choosing to focus on the positive lessons.

Birding Near Titusville

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After the long field trip to Central Florida, the next day we had a shorter one to hot spots around Titusville. It felt a lot easier getting to a 6:30 AM bus than the 5 AM bus the previous day. The first stop was Hatbill Park…just as the sun was coming up.

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The Grackles were the first birds we noticed…because they were noisily welcoming the day.

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As the light got better there were other birds to notice: a Little Blue Heron fishing in the shallows.

A Red-shouldered Hawk almost too far away to photograph but showing its very distinctive tail as it flew away.

There was an Eastern Phoebe and

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Savannah Sparrow to represent smaller birds.

Some Brown Pelicans flew over the lake.

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We headed off to or next stop – a walk back into the woods. There were very large Live Oaks with Spanish moss, resurrection fern, and ghost orchids and

Quite a few American Robins. Some robins stick around in Maryland but some push southward and accumulate in Florida.

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There was a Red-Bellied Woodpecker that showed himself at just about every angle. They do have a little red on their bellies!

Florida has red maples just as we do in Maryland although the ones in Florida had formed their samaras months in advance of our trees.

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Ball Moss – a relative of Spanish moss (both Bromeliads rather than mosses) – was growing in some of the trees. It looks tidy rather than raggedy like the Spanish Moss.

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The Sabal Palmettos had ferns growing in their boots (the stubs of branches along the trunk). One of the other field trip participants identified it as a gold foot fern.

An Eastern Phoebe sat around long enough to be photographed here too.

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One stop was a neighborhood pond that has a population of resident Black-Bellied Whistling Ducks. They were noisy. Hopefully they quiet down at dusk.

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There were White Ibis in the pond as well. They seemed even more acclimated to people.

The next stop was a neighborhood park where there was a resident pair of Sandhill Cranes.

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Then we headed off to Dixie Crossroads (restaurant) for lunch. I took a picture of the mural as I came out of the restaurant – it featured a lot of the birds we had been seeing.

The post tomorrow will be about what we saw after lunch.

Birding through a Window – December 2017

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The high-point of ‘birding through the window’ this month happened too fast for me to photograph! I was working at my PC and looked up to see a bald eagle fly over and then down into the woods behind our house! Awesome…but fleeting.

I’ve seen red-trailed hawks more frequently at the edge our woods – surveying the scene. This month there was a smaller bird – a red-shouldered hawk. Its feathers were fluffed from the cold. While it sat in our tulip poplar, the smaller birds kept their distance.

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Even the crows gave the hawk wider birth. The crows seem to enjoy sorting through the gutters of our neighbor’s house looking for tasty morsels. Their numbers have recovered from the low when West Nile Virus arrived several years ago.

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We had a frustrated chickadee on one of the very cold mornings early in the month. I need to get our heated bird bath out so that this won’t happen again.

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The cheerful song of the Carolina Wren lets me know when the bird is around. I think he stays nearby all through the year.

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The juncos are here for the winter and seem to be the most frequent birds at our feeder although they don’t seem as numerous as in previous years. We have had a small flock that use our feeders (and those of our neighbors) as their winter feeding ground.

The finches have not been as numerous either. I see them occasionally but not every day.

I am savoring the comfort of bird watching from my cozy office on these cold days.