Osprey and Injured Birds

One of the first things we did after we checked in to our cabin in Fulton was to take our normal route down Fulton Beach Road. At the Connie Hagar Wildlife Sanctuary, we saw an Osprey -- I think it may have been the only one we saw on our trip (maybe we saw one other).

I took several pictures of this bird -- from two locations (these two are from the closer location). It was not until I was closer that I realized that this bird had only one leg. It possibly has an injury to it's shoulder (see the ruffled feathers?). While many birds often perch on one leg, I don't think that's the case with this one -- along side of the good leg appears to be a stump. And yet, this bird seems to be surviving -- it looks otherwise healthy. And in fact, when we drove by later in the day, it had flown to another location.

For some reason, I noticed several injured birds on this trip. We enjoy feeding the seagulls, and we often see birds with missing legs (sometimes both!) and feet, as these gull pictures show.


I've seen many injured birds in the past and wondered what might have happened to them. Of course there are plenty of dangers, such as fishing lines and such, but I think that most birds who are caught in a fishing line do not survive. I suspect that, especially in the case of the gulls and the osprey -- they went after prey that fought back -- or though of themselves as the hunter instead of the hunted -- a shark, barracuda, or other such predatory fish.

Now after saying that, I wanted to show this heron. I'm not exactly sure how it's injury came about. I took this picture on our second day, at Fulton Harbor. I remember seeing this bird last year. In spite of the broken leg (which improperly healed, so is forever useless), this bird does well. It probably has a lot of handouts from fishermen and folks at the restaurant, but I've also seen this bird stand on the dock with the water two feet below, and pluck out a fish. Pretty awesome, I'd say.

Gone Coastal!

We've just returned from a trip to Rockport/Fulton, Port Aransas and Aransas National Wildlife Reserve (our own ANWR!).

We took lots of great pics and had a great time. We added some new birds to our life list and verified a few that were on there from a previous birding tour.

I don't have time to post much more right now -- and there's a lot of processing that I need to do on the pics. It might take me a few days to get everything posted -- so stay tuned! I'll get started this afternoon or evening...

Little Boy Kitty has a name!

Isn't he cute? If you take a close look, you'll see that his eyes are rimmed in black and he has a black mark going away from the eye on either side. So we decided to name him "Specs". We'll probably call him "Speckles" as a nickname. But "Specs" goes with his reserved nature -- he likes to think about things. He's finally settled down some. In fact, I've had both kittens in my lap for much of the weekend. Marc says they're going to miss me when I go back to work tomorrow.

Tyrannus Tyrannus

We saw several of these birds today, but this is my best shot. We got off without a bird book, so was unable to identify this bird in the field. When we returned home, I looked it up to see what it was.

Marc was commenting as I was thumbing through the book that it was probably some kind of flycatcher. He was right. This is the Eastern Kingbird.

The bird book calls these birds Tyrant Flycatchers (family Tyrannidae) because of their "bold aggressive behavior..., notably [in] kingbirds."

Besides the coloring, the identifying mark for this bird is the white stripe at the tip of the tail.

Beleaguered Hawk

We saw this same hawk a couple of times. The first it was being pestered by a Mocking Bird. Later it was chased by a Red-winged Blackbird. I'll admit to editing that picture a little (I removed the blackbird and a pesky power line).

Mr. and Mrs. Quail

While we were driving around today, we got out several times to get pictures of various birds. Often we would hear the Bob-White Quails singing. But I never saw them. As we rounded a corner on Woods Rd. we saw this pair. They flew into a low tree, and I was able to get these shots.


The bird above is the male, and this one to the left is the female. A really nice pair.

Kittens

We have two new members to our family. Earlier this week, we adopted a couple of new kittens. I really wished we could have taken all four because the others will likely end up in a shelter. But two is really enough for us.

Marc wants them to be indoor-outdoor cats (once they're older, of course). We'll see... We decided not to name them right away because we wanted to see their personalities.


The little black kitten is the female. She's lively, inquisitive and has warmed up to us quickly. I worked from home today and she has slept beside me all day (when she wasn't walking across my laptop!) Marc decided to name her Pixie -- it's a really good choice!

This is "Little Brother". I love his markings -- he's a beautiful cat. However, he's very wary of us and runs at every chance. I think Pixie will bring him around. But we still haven't gotten to know him well enough to give him a name -- so he'll just have to remain Little Brother for a while.

Hummers!

The hummers have finally returned! We've had several at our feeders already. I also see them perched in some of the bushes around the house. (Our new feeders don't have perches.)

Today as we were returning, I saw this hummer in the tree at the corner of the porch. When I "processed" the shot, I noticed a lot of feathers on the branch -- maybe this one is considering this spot for a nest site!

Scissor Tailed Flycatcher

We saw a lot of scissor tailed flycatchers today. This one was on Woods Road. It was a really windy day and he was struggling balancing on the barbed wire fence.

I took several shots of him balancing and looking around. After a while, he had a bit of an itch, and after scratching, some of his peachy under-wing feathers fluffed over his wing. The peach color is very visible when they fly.

Cone Flowers

Snowy Egrets

Snowy Egrets fascinate me. I especially love their yellow feet. It's like they're all dressed up and wearing fancy shoes! We saw this fellow (or lady) not far from the duck below. There were two of them and they would flit away whenever we got too close.


It was a rather windy day, and once the egrets flew up above the protection of the ditch, their wispy feathers began to blow. It gives them an even "fancier" appearance -- only improved by those yellow feet!

Unidentified Duck

We saw a pair of ducks in a drainage ditch (not a great background for photos!). The male immediately flew, but the female stuck around for a few pictures.

She flashed a bit of blue as she was walking around, leading me to think she might be a blue-winged teal.


And when she flew, I saw the flash of blue, and I was sure that was what she was. However, once I got home and checked out the bird book, I began to have doubts. One is that her bill is dark, and she doesn't have a "white crescent" at the base of the bill. Also her legs are orange -- not yellow. The pictures suggest that she may be an American Black Duck. This duck has blue along the trailing edge of the wings, orange feet and white/gray on the inside of the wings. The only "gotcha" is the "dark olive bill" -- this duck's bill seems a bit darker than that.

Here's a bit of an artistic shot of the wings.

German Sausage Dinner and Woodpeckers

Yesterday was our annual "German Sausage Dinner". This is a fund-raiser and community event sponsored by my church. Most of the churches in our small community have similar events where the community can come together to eat and visit. Of course, when you're the sponsor there's a lot of work involved (but it's a lot of fun too!).

One activity that everyone enjoys is the Silent Auction. This year I submitted three photographs, two Northern Cardinals (see "Yard Birds" for similar shots), and "Hawk on a Cross" (another view of the bird in "Sunday Birding"). All three sold well, which was really exciting for me, and good for the fund raiser as well.

The other interesting thing that happened was some of the folks there told me that there was a large red-headed woodpecker out front just before I came. I asked, "Was it big? Was it a Pileated?" Of course they all said yes! Well, I should know better than ask two questions at once. ;-)

I've been reading about the Ivory-billed Woodpecker lately. I doubt I'll ever see one (since they may or may not be extinct), but we had a pair of their cousins, the pileated woodpeckers nesting in our yard a few years ago. Of course, we weren't photographing birds back then, so I don't have any pictures. I would really like to get some shots of some pileated woodpeckers -- who knows, I might make a discovery and find they are actually ivory-bills! (One can dream!)

Anyway, this morning after church, I was visiting with some folks when I saw a woodpecker on a tree. It looked like a red-bellied woodpecker. I was disappointed (though I shouldn't have been, I don't think I have that one on my life-list!!). Even so, I'll have to keep an eye out. Maybe I'll get a shot of it soon.

Crested Caracara

For those of you who visit this blog regularly, you will realize that I am particularly fond of birds of prey, and you might think that the Red Tail Hawk is my favorite. But the truth is, the Red Tail is #2 on my list. This bird is #1.

One of the first uncommon (to me) birds that we saw when we moved out to the country was a Crested Caracara. I have always wanted to get a good shot of one, and yesterday on our brief outing, we saw this fine fellow. While he was sitting on the telephone pole, he gave us several great poses.

But once he decided to fly, he was particularly difficult, putting his back to us, and putting several poles and wires between himself and the camera. Still they are such majestic birds! (We try not to think of the fact that they are carrion-eaters, who only rarely hunt.)

Dickcissel

The other day, Marc told me he had found a whole flock of little birds with yellow chests and a "little black spot" right in the middle. I could hardly imagine what this bird really looked like.

However, yesterday, even though we were on a pretty tight schedule, we spent 30-45 minutes on one of our favorite birding haunts, Woods Rd. And there we found these lovely birds!


Across the road from the first picture, was a pair. The bird to the right (obviously a male) gives us a bit more of a side view, enabling us to see the yellow eyebrows and rufus shoulders.


I'm not 100% sure, but I think this might be a female. They lack the black patch, and the yellow eyebrows are fainter. She has her back to us and you can see the plain patch on the rump.

Marc and I both struggled trying to find this lovely bird in our bird book. With all the yellow, the obvious place to start was the warblers, but no joy... I had noticed that the beak was a bit thicker, and when I turned over to the Cardinals and Grossbeaks -- there it was! The classification of this bird is Spiza americana. Sibley makes this comment, "Dickcissel may belong in the family Icteridae or here in the Cardinalidae, but is not clearly related to either."

Either way, it's a new one for our lifebook -- and we're really excited about that!

Spring and Life

Wow -- it's been 20 days since I last posted. My apologies to all!

A couple of interesting things have happened. One is that I have a new position at work... along with the old one -- so I've been doubled up on work of late and pretty tired by the time the weekend rolls around. The other interesting thing is that around here, all the birds fly north for the summer. Those are my excuses, and I'm sticking to them! ;-)

Well... not all of the birds have flown north...

It appears that the really light-colored (Krider's) Red Tail is still around, suggesting it is a resident. We also saw a broad-winged hawk in a bush right beside our driveway. Marc thinks it might have been injured. And we've had an Indigo Bunting at the feeders lately. We've put up a hummingbird feeder, but have had very few takers so far.

We're kind of stuck at home lately trying to get our washer repaired -- so I'm not getting out much to do bird pics. Hopefully we'll have some this weekend if the repair guy comes early enough!

Blue Birds

After complaining about my inability to get any good shots of bluebirds, a friend told me that she had bluebirds in her yard and they often nested in her birdhouses. Yesterday she called to tell me that a pair of bluebirds had babies and invited me over. The light was bad, so I put it off until today. And it was a perfect day for it.

I was able to take several really great shots of the birds (the parents only, the babies are only a few days old). The first shot is the female. And as you can see, I was having some fun with PSP and the frame tool.








Here's the male. The birds would often wait outside and look around to be sure there were no predators waiting before going in. They would also peek out the entrance for several minutes before "zooming" out to get more bugs for the hungry babies.

This has to be my favorite of all. The birds were so fast, that most of the flying shots were merely a blur. I was thrilled with this one. One interesting thing, if both birds came together, the female would wait until the male fed the babies before she went in with her catch. In fact, sometimes she would wait for him even if she arrived first. No feminist movement among bluebirds!

Sparrow

Not the greatest location for this shot (around the bird feeders), but that's where you'll often see sparrows, when they're not on the ground! This is a great action shot of a Chipping Sparrow, taken while visiting at a friend's house.

He's hopping from a feeder to a bracket, which I removed to show the bird better. You'll notice, I've also been playing with the text tool. Hope it's not too much of a distraction.

Wildflowers

We went out today in search of bluebonnets and other wildflowers. It's getting toward the end of the season, so finding some good fields of bluebonnets was a real challenge.


We did find this one field of mixed bluebonnets and other wildflowers. I liked the combination of gate, flowers and clouds. I had to do a bit of adjusting, because the light was poor today.

Change of Seasons, Change of Species

"Spring has sprung."

In Texas, this is the season for wildflowers, and especially for Blue Bonnets. The stand on the right is from my neighbor's yard. We don't have very many ourselves, because we have mostly trees, as you can see from the picture of our driveway, below.


It's been pretty cloudy (and in some cases, rainy) the last few days, and by the time I get home, it's pretty dark. My blue bonnet pictures have been a bit challenging. This macro shot was taken with a flash. As was the top photo, but that one required a lot of brightening.

Another flower that we see along with the Blue Bonnets, is the Indian Paint Brush. These lovely flowers on the right are a bunch of Paint Brushes -- the mixture of red and white and blue and white seems somewhat patriotic.

With all the rain we have been having, it's not a surprise that we are seeing a lot of lilies. This "round" of blossoms are called "Spider Lilies". My mother-in-law used to grow these in her yard. We had a few at our old house that we got from her. We may need to collect a few and see if we can get them to grow in the shade.


The bird species have been changing as well. Today is the first that I've seen Scissor- tailed Fly catchers this season. And we saw several.

Another bird that we have been seeing over the last couple of weeks that we hadn't seen since early fall is the Black Bellied Whistling Duck. These are interesting ducks as they are mostly seen in pairs or small family groups -- at least in our area. At Aransas, we've seen them in somewhat larger numbers. The photo below is one of my favorite of whistling ducks -- it was taken in Rockport last year.

Columbian Birds

I wasn't able to get any pictures, but in my peregrinations around Bogota (mostly heading out to lunch!), I saw about 3 different birds.

The first was a brown-gray bird about the size of a cardinal or waxwing. It looked like it may have had a black crest that was lowered. It had a quite complex song with a couple of different phrases. I am unable to find an example after a quick foray online, so I'm not sure what it might have been.

I also saw some doves. From the "Birds of Columbia" site, I found some pictures which suggest it might have been a ruddy ground dove.

The last bird was a large-ish black bird with a yellow beak and legs. It looked like some type of Myna. However, I looked up mynas and they are defined as an "Asian bird". Another possibility from "Birds of Columbia" is the Great Thrush. But I'm not 100% sure on this one.

It was really disappointing that I was unable to get any pictures.

Travel Travails

I spent the last week in Latin America. It was supposed to be two weeks, but I’m home early – what a trip! And I don’t really have any photos to show for it.

I arrived in Ecuador on Sunday just before midnight. For some reason, I had it in my mind that the driver would pick me up at 6:45, so I set the alarm for 5:45. Now I’m a person that needs a lot of sleep and 5 hours or so is not enough! Add to that fact that Quito, Ecuador is high in the mountains where Houston, TX is at sea level! Add to that a couple more factors like airplane food, new medication and that I’m simply not a good traveler anyway and you have the recipe for disaster!

I had barely made it to the office (yes, this was a business trip), before I became ill. I was a bit surprised to discover that my company had a doctor on-site. He recommended that I go back to the hotel and sleep. I thought that was a great idea! Unfortunately, half-way back, they called the driver and told him to take me to the hospital. Well, better safe than sorry, I guess, so I spent half the day in the hospital receiving fluids – but certainly not resting! Finally, about 2pm, I went back to the hotel and slept the rest of the day! I must say the Marriot in Quito was really nice – it had a feather mattress on the bed. I’m allergic to feathers, but with all my other problems, for some reason they didn’t bother me – and so the bed was pure luxury!

[As an aside, I'm told that President Bush was sick from the altitude on his trip to that part of Latin America as well!]

The next day, I was better, but feeling a little weak – I had only had liquids on Monday. That night, my coworker and I traveled to Columbia. (Thank heavens I was not alone, and thank heavens more so that she could communicate in Spanish!) When we arrived in Bogota, we found her luggage, but not mine! As we were filling out the missing luggage forms, one of the airport guys comes running with my suitcase. Whew!

In Bogota, we had a greeter at the airport who took us to the driver. He was worried because it took us so long to come out from the flight. So we take off and arrive at the hotel, only to discover that we’d been booked in two separate hotels. It turns out the reservations had only been made that morning, and all the hotels were full. I had to wait 30 minutes for my room. It was a really nice room – not quite as wonderful as the Marriot in Quito, though.

I had no idea when the driver would be coming, but I decided to make the assumption for 7:45. It was another late night, but not as bad as previously, so I had enough sleep. There were 3 people going to the office, so I had to wait for them – but it wasn’t too bad.

My 3 days in Columbia were nice. Both Bogota and Quito are set in lovely surroundings (though I didn’t see much of Quito!). Bogota seems to be a bit better off than Quito from the little I saw. I missed the office-sponsored dinner in Quito, but in Columbia, we were treated to both lunches and a really nice dinner. I actually had a glass of wine (hadn’t had any for several months – and it was wonderful!). My coworker and I were gifted with pre-Columbian necklaces and matching earrings.

In the Columbian restaurants, I discovered some great things. The second day we went to a place that specialized in coastal dishes. I had grilled shrimp, kabob-style with bacon wrapped bananas – something pretty mild (I avoided most of the bacon), but served with coconut rice – now that was really tasty! After meals, we were offered coffee or a drink called “Aromatica.” This is a type of tea made with different types of fruit and herbs, steeped, and then filtered. It’s mostly fruity hot water, but was very tasty. At this restaurant, it was mostly citrus-flavored. The next day we went to an Asian place and I ordered Aromatica again. This time they brought out the little glass tea bottles with the water still over the fruit. This one was made with apples, raspberries, mint and another herb, maybe angelica? It was also tasty, but different.

The Columbian segment of the trip was great, both socially and work-wise. We arrived at the airport a couple of hours before our flight to head off to Rio de Janeiro. The agent at the check-in said something and my co-worker translated: Where is your yellow fever certificate?

Huh? I don’t have one. Well – it turns out that if I was traveling to Bogota and back to the US, and was only staying in the city, I was OK. But it was not OK to go from Bogota to Rio without this. Ooops. I would need to get the vaccination, and then stay 10 days in Columbia. NO WAY! So I asked, can I go back to Houston? The answer was yes, but the next flight was in the morning. Long story short, I had to get a hotel (near the airport, please!) and be back at the airport at 5am to purchase my tickets.

I had to un-make all my arrangements for Rio, and thanks to the administrator in Bogota, I had a little help. I had planned to get some Columbian coffee, and maybe some more Inca jewelry, but all the shops were closed at 5:30 am. Oh well, I was going home! I finally got here about 2pm on Saturday – and my driver was nowhere to be found. I had to call. But finally, someone came and I made my way home. Whew! What a trip. I’m glad it’s over!

Bird among the Green

Here's an interesting sight. Red tails are not usually "forest" birds. These trees line a creek that runs along the back of a new sub-division (with few houses yet). So admittedly, the area in front of this bird was cleared. But isn't it handsome? This location is close to our house -- even closer as the hawk flies.


And of course, this hawk did. This picture to the left is actually the second in sequence -- the picture below was taken first.














Here's a hawk that we spooked along McAllister Rd. -- not far from the rice dryer.






And today's "pole bird" was found along Morton Rd. It was pretty cooperative, though watching us closely. I only got a couple of shots as another vehicle was approaching.

Thistles

Today might not be the best day for thistle pictures (as the thistle is the symbol of Scotland), but I find these to be fascinating plants.

This picture to the right is a seriously cropped section of the reduced picture below. I was playing with my photo-editing software. I will admit that most of my pictures are cropped, though a few are only resized (for uploading). I have found that the program will also do a good job of adjusting brightness and contrast. I use the clone tool to remove the spots on my sensor that show up on many of the bird pictures. That's about all the editing I do.

Northern Harriers

Today was my day for Northern Harriers. Here is a great shot of a harrier working a field E. of Woods Road. See the white band at the base of the tail? This is the primary identifying mark for this bird. Shape-wise, they are longer and narrower than the Buteos (i.e. Red Tail Hawks).

Here's an interesting scene. Harriers often hunt in family groups (though most of the ones I see are individuals). However, they are still quite territorial. Here's a shot of a harrier chasing a vulture. Though right after I took this shot, it looked like the harrier had given up and flown to another area.

Sad Sight

This was a very sad sight on Neuman road. I'm guessing this happened yesterday, as there isn't much left but feathers. Look at those very long feathers -- I think those may be primaries.

There is very little to identify this bird, but at a guess it may be a Northern Harrier, as they are often flying very low.

This was the location where we have seen a harrier, a red tail and a crested caracara all in close proximity.

Dining at the Dryer

I've mentioned the local rice dryer several times. There are actually several in the area -- this one is called "Midway Rice Dryer". It has a shoot (actually a sort of pipe) that sticks out the side for the "exhaust" which is mostly rice hulls and some broken pieces. The blackbirds, of course, love the broken bits. So do the mice, and we sometimes see Hawks here.

This first picture is interesting. The black birds with the vertical stripes are Red-winged black birds. The black birds with brown heads are Brown-headed Cow Birds. I think the female bird among the RWBB's the other day was a female Brown-headed cow bird.