Bulletin #97 – Attwater PC NWR - Sparrows and others

David McDonald Photography
Friendswood Texas
December 5, 2009

Bulletin #97 – Attwater PC NWR - Sparrows and others

Hello friends,

There are several families of birds which are very confusing and challenging to birders, especially beginners. These would include warblers, gulls and sparrows. I am comfortable now with identifying warblers in the spring, but the other 2 groups still give me problems. But that is probably because I haven't spent enough time just looking for them and identifying them myself.
For many birders, sparrows are just LBJs (little brown jobs) and they all look alike. However taking the photos really helps, as it allows me to ID a bird at home even if I couldn't in the field. Part of the problem is the field guides. Peterson Eastern Birds has all the sparrows looking pretty much alike - LBJs. Sibley seems to be the best in showing the actual colorations, and National Geographic is also good. But as you can see from these photos, many of the sparrows have distinctive plumages and can be IDed with some practice.

On the upper Texas coast, we have 1 resident sparrow species, the Seaside Sparrow, a large grayish sparrow with a yellow spot in front of the eye. it lives in salt marshes only. I highlighted it in Bulletin #96.

However in winter, we get an influx of sparrow species. 3 of them I have not photographed. All are members of the Ammodramus genus. These sparrows tend to be skulkers and hard to see. These three species are on my to do list for this winter, so I started over Thanksgiving weekend looking for them. Fortunately, Texbirds is an online resource where birders report their sightings and I was able to find locations for all 3 of them.

On Thanksgiving morning I went to Attwater Prairie Chicken NWR west of Houston, where 2 of the 3 had been seen. It is a great place for sparrows.

To see the sparrows, you have to go early in the morning (before 10am) as they become inactive at that time and hide in the tall grass.I immediately found my first target bird on the entrance road. This was the Le Conte's Sparrow (Ammodramus leconteii). This is actually a beautiful bird with mostly orange face and breast with a white belly and buffy orange flanks with dark streaks. The early morning light, as photographers know, has a reddish cast and the bird just glowed in the sunlight. Notice the flat head on the bird.

Later in the day, I found another Le Conte's Sparrow sitting on a fence post and the light was behind the bird, so I used the flash. The colors aren't nearly as dramatic.

Another related sparrow is the Grasshopper Sparrow (Ammodramus savannarum) I already had photos from Florida of this bird, but this was my first time to see them in Texas and ID them myself, without a guide.

This bird has rusty color above the eye and below the eye with the rest of the face gray. This makes the white eye-ring very prominent. The bill is large and he has a flat head. The breast and flanks are rusty too, but this bird has no streaks on the underside at all. Notice the back has some rusty red feathers as well.

The first photo is an adult and the second has less dramatic colors and is probably a 1st winter bird.

The next bird is the Lincoln's Sparrow (Melospiza lincolnii). This bird has a gray face and head with several brown stripes. But the ID mark is the caramel colored breast band with streaks.

The next one is an LBJ, the Savannah Sparrow (Passerculus sanwichensis). It is probably the most common winter sparrow here and is IDed by the brown face with a white or sometimes yellow streak above the eye. The white breast with brown streaks is also part of the ID package.

Next is a very distinctive large (7") sparrow, the White-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys). This bird is an easy ID with the black and white striped head and plain gray throat and underparts. Note that juveniles may have beige rather than white stripes on the head.

The last sparrow from this trip is the Chipping Sparrow (Spizella passerina). This sparrow has a gray face and underparts. There is rufous cap on the head, pink bill and most importantly, a black line through the eye.

When looking for sparrows, you have to be careful of LBJs that aren't sparrows. Here is a Sedge Wren (Cistothorus platensis) that was in the same grassy field with the sparrows.

The last bird I photographed on this trip was a Northern Caracara (Caracara cheriway) This large (23") black and white raptor was sitting on one of those small steel fence posts. His ID is easy with huge bill, red/orange face and a bushy crest.

When flying, they are also easy to ID as they have white on 'all 4 corners'. They have white head, tail and wing tips.







Quiz answer - I asked if there were any other birds with scientific names that had the same genus and species name. I received 1 answer, the Bank Swallow (Riparia riparia). The one I was thinking about was the Yellow-headed Blackbird (Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus).However, I found 2 others; Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) and Eastern Kingbird (Tyrannus tyrannus).

All comments and suggestions are welcomed and appreciated.

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald

email: davidkmcd@comcast.net

photos copyright 2009 David McDonald

To have these trip reports sent to your email, please email me at the above address and ask for subscribe.

Bulletin #96 – November birds

David McDonald Photography
Friendswood Texas
November 25, 2009

Bulletin #96 – November birds

Hello friends,

Thank you to all those who attended my talks on "Winter Birds of the Houston area" at Webster Presbyterian Church and the Deer Park Garden Club earlier this month.

Many species of winter birds continue to arrive on the upper Texas coast.

I had my first sighting this fall, of a Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus) at Brazos Bend State Park. This brown thrush with breast spots is IDed by the rufous tail. It is also the only brown thrush with spots that winters here.

West Galveston Island had some nice birds. I went to a salt marsh to look for sparrows, but the only bird I found was a Marsh Wren (Cistothorus palustris). This bird is identified by the rufous color, long bill, eye-stripe and streaking on the back. These are the best photos I have taken of this secretive bird.

I also took this photo of a Black-Crowned Night-Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax) on a dead tree. When I got home and developed the pictures, I saw that this bird had an unusual plumage. It has a brown back and just a few wing spots. Sibley call this a first summer bird.

This bird has an unusual Latin name in that the genus and species are the same. I am sure there are other birds with identical genus and species names. I know of one other in North America.

Quiz - do you know of any other birds with genus and species names the same? Email me if you find one and I'll give the answers next bulletin.

I next drove to another salt marsh area at Surfside Beach. Here I did find some sparrows, but just Seaside Sparrows (Ammodramus maritimus). This is a large (6") dark gray sparrow with a large bill. The yellow spot in front of the eye and heavy breast streaking ID this bird.

The first photo is an adult with some caramel color on face and breast.

Here is a juvenile plumaged bird with much less color, but it still has that distinctive yellow spot.

At Brazoria NWR, I found an American Bittern (Botaurus lentiginosus) along the auto route, completely out in the open. These birds are normally shy and elusive. In an attempt to approach him closer, I took the photos from the car.

I drove closer and got right beside him, so I could just get his head in the photo.

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I drove back around the one-way auto loop and he was still there. This time I got out of the car, but he took off while I was 30 yards away. Here he is flying. His yellow legs can be seen.

I also saw this unfortunate female Northern Shoveler (Anas clypeata) duck. She has her foot stuck in a branch and thus has to drag it around with her as she swims. I don't know how she will fly, as it seems to be jammed into her wing feathers as well.

I read some books about birds and birding, so I thought that I would give a brief review of a book that I just finished and enjoyed.

The book is "A Supremely Bad Idea" (3 Mad Birders and Their Quest to See It All) by Luke Dempsey. It is about 3 birders from New York City and their trips to birding locations across the USA. They travel to Florida, Arizona, Michigan and Texas. As I have birded in AZ, FL and TX, I have been to most of the actual locations they went and saw the birds they found. So it brought back some great memories.

However, the book is hilarious as he describes the people they meet, the places they stay and situations that develop. I actually stayed in the same motel in the Rio Grande Valley, Texas (Alamo Inn) that they stayed at.

The book was extremely funny and I laughed so hard, it brought tears to my eyes. I recommend it highly as a fun light read.

All comments and suggestions are welcomed and appreciated.

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonaldemail: davidkmcd@comcast.net

photos copyright 2009 David McDonald

To have these trip reports sent to your email, please email me at the above address and ask for subscribe.

Bulletin #95 – October/November birds

David McDonald Photography
Friendswood Texas
November 10, 2009

Bulletin #95 – October/November birds

Hello friends,










LaFitte's Cove (#68 on UTC Birding Trail) on west Galveston Island has at least 3 species of woodpeckers present. Besides the Ladder-backed Woodpecker in Bulletin #91 which is still present, there is a male Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens). This bird has a white back and a red occipital patch.

After I got home and looked at the photos, this one was amazing to me. He is working on this slender stick and has his head turned completely upside down! It gives me a crick in my neck just looking at him.

The other species of woodpecker was the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (YBSA) (Sphyrapicus varius). There were at least 2 males, a juvenile and an adult. They seemed to be together, so maybe a family group. The juveniles must molt early in the autumn, as I have never seen a juvenile here without any red on his head. However, Sibley states that the juvenile plumage lasts from August to March. The juveniles have no red at all as seen in the bird in Maine in the first week of October from Bulletin #93.

By mid October, this juvenile bird had a few red feathers on his head and under the throat. All YBSAs have a red top of head. The male also has a red throat. He is eating holly berries on a native Youpon Holly tree.

Here is a full adult plumaged male YBSA. Notice the solid red on crown and throat.

And here they are together on the same tree. This is why I thought they might be a family group. I saw them together several times.

In my travels I found an oak tree that had been worked over by a sapsucker. They make a horizontal line of small holes in the bark to let the sap drip out. My interest was drawn to the tree by butterflies on the trunk.

Here is a Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta) drinking the sap.

And another location on the same tree had another Red Admiral along with several species of flies and bugs enjoying the free meal. Notice the 6 horizontal holes with sap dripping out.

A Burrowing Owl (Athene cunicularia) has appeared on Bolivar again this winter. It is the first in 2 years. I photographed one in Ft Travis Park in winter of 2007 and it is my all-times favorite photo.

Here is a photo of the current owl on Bolivar. Unfortunately, it is a field that has no entry, so it will be tough to get a close up like the one in 2007

American Avocets (Recurvirostra americana) winter in huge numbers along the Texas coast, with flocks in the thousands on Bolivar flats just before spring migration. These long legged wading shorebirds are gray with a white wing bar in winter. I have found my first birds for the winter in the past 2 weeks. Interestingly, the thin black bills are different in the sexes with the males being straighter and the females more upcurved. I saw them feeding in a shallow pond and they upend like a dabbling duck.

Here is a male with just a slight upcurve to the tip of the bill along with a second bird upended.

Here is a female American Avocet who has a much more upcurved bill.

The winter hawks are arriving. I managed to photograph 2 of the 3 species of falcon we have here.

Here is a male American Kestrel (Falco sparverius). The 2 vertical black lines on the head along with rufous back ID the bird. This male has gray wings. A female would have rufous wings.

Here is a 1st year Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus). It has a brown back and pale top of head, but the distinctive black mustache is visible. This is only the second Peregrine that I have photographed. He was 50 yards away in a field. For those people who want all the details, it is the tundra race of this bird, as it has the large white patch on the side of the head.

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonaldemail: davidkmcd@comcast.net

photos copyright 2009 David McDonaldTo have these trip reports sent to your email, please email me at the above address and ask for subscribe.

Bulletin #94 – October birds

David McDonald Photography
Friendswood Texas
November 1, 2009

Bulletin #94 – October birds

Hello friends,

Since back from my trip to Maine, I have gotten out to bird for at least a few hours each weekend. I am preparing for a talk on Winter Birds of the Houston area to be given at Webster Presbyterian Church on Nov 10th from 7-8:00 pm. This church is just of I-45 in the NASA/Clear Lake Area. If interested in attending , please call the church office at 281-332-1251.

As I talk about a number of birding locations, I am trying to visit most of them before the talk to see what winter birds have already arrived in the area.

Brazos Bend State Park (BBSP) had several interesting birds. It is the only place in the Houston area that regularly has Least Grebes (Tachybaptus dominicus). This tropical bird has been breeding in the park for only the past decade and always in the same small pond (Creekfield Lake) across from the visitor center, so they are easily found. Currently there are 2 adults and 2 juveniles in the family group. At only 9.5 inches, this cute bird is the smallest grebe in the world and reminds me of the rubber ducks we put in children's bathtubs.

Here is an adult covered with duckweed. The yellow eye and small size are an easy ID.

Here is a juvenile. It is distinguished by the striping across the face. He is really covered with the duckweed.

Another good bird at BBSP was a Groove-billed Ani (Crotophaga sulcirostris). This was the first appearance of this tropical bird in the park in 5 or more years. It was also my first time to see it on the upper Texas coast. For those unfamiliar with this bird, it is a member of the cuckoo family and 'ani' is often used in crossword puzzles with the clue as cuckoo. It is a thin black bird (13.5" long) with large bill. The upper mandible had horizontal grooves. Sibley describes it as appearing disheveled. This one fits the description as it appears to need its breast feathers combed to smooth them.

A migrant in the park was this winter plumaged Solitary Sandpiper (Tringa solitaria). It is browner in basic plumage than breeding plumage, but the spotted back, prominent eye-ring and yellow legs confirm the ID. It was my first encounter with this bird in this plumage

There are Eastern Phoebes (Sayornis phoebe) everywhere now. This is the only winter resident flycatcher except for an occasional vagrant or straggler. They bob their tails and call incessantly, so are easy to confirm the ID. They have no eye-ring and no wing bars and have a dark head.

A problem for many birders and especially novices, is fall plumaged warblers. If you look at Peterson's Eastern Birds field guide, he has a page called 'confusing fall warblers'. He coined that term, and everyone seems to have picked up on it and many birders fell intimidated by it. I know I was initially.

However, when I got the Peterson's Advanced Birding field guide written by Ken Kaufman, it gave me hope that I would be able to ID warblers in fall migration. In it, he states that the warblers all molt just before heading south in fall migration, so have fresh plumages. But more importantly, many adult warblers look exactly the same as in spring. So that leaves just the juveniles that may look drab, but they mostly have a few of the adult ID marks to help sort out the ID problem.

So, here are some fall warblers I found at LaFitte's Cove (#68 on UTC Birding Trail) on west Galveston Island. Here is a Black-throated Green Warbler (Dendroica virens). It is an easy ID as the yellow face, green back and some black on the throat are same as in the spring.

This Blue-winged Warbler (Vermivora pinus) looks just the same as in the spring - bright yellow, bluish wings with white stripes and the black line eye-line to the beak. It isn't an ID problem.

Palm Warblers (Dendroica palmarum) are duller in the fall, but they still have yellow rumps and yellow undertail coverts. They have a bit of a brown cap with white eye-stripe on their head. They also bob their tails unlike most other warblers. Here are 2 different birds, one much paler than the other(may be light differences as well).

Here is the Tennessee Warbler (Vermivora peregrina). They are among the plainest warblers even in breeding plumage with gray heads, pale eye-stripe and greenish backs. In the fall, the adults look almost completely green on their head and back, but they still have the pale eye-stripe. Also, notice the bright white undertail coverts. This is another important ID mark.

I was fortunate to have an expert birder with me yesterday when I took these 3 photos of the Tennessee Warblers, as I had not seen them in fall plumage before and probably would not have known what they were.

Here is another confusing plumaged Tennessee Warbler. It is mostly yellow, but the eye-stripe is still present. In Sibley, he calls this a 1st winter female.

Lastly, is a tiny bird that is often confused with warblers. The Ruby-crowned Kinglet (Regulus calendula) is only 4" long vs almost 5" for warblers. However, they are insect eaters, so they flit through the branches and may fly-catch just like warblers. It is a very common winter resident here. It is IDed by small size, olive color with wing bars and yellowish tinge on wing feather edges, and broken eye-ring. Kinglets also have the habit of flitting their wings continuously as they move through the trees

Like many birds, they are named for their most obscure field mark. These birds only raise their red feathers when excited. Here is an old photo with the ruby crown feathers displayed.

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonaldemail: davidkmcd@comcast.net

photos copyright 2009 David McDonaldTo have these trip reports sent to your email, please email me at the above address and ask for subscribe.

Bulletin #93 – Maine #2

David McDonald Photography
Friendswood Texas
October 24, 2009

Bulletin #93 – Maine #2

Hello friends,




The Great Black-backed Gull (Larus marinus) is our largest gull at 30" in length with a 5.5 foot wingspan. It is a white headed gull with black back and pink legs. In the winter plumage, most white headed gull get extensive brown streaking on the head and neck. This gull stays almost completely white, as this winter bird shows.

Here is a winter plumaged Lesser Black-backed Gull for comparison. He has extensive brown streaking on his head and neck.






There were only a few land birds that I found and photographed. One of the best is everyone's favorite, the Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalis). This bird was perched in a pine tree. When I set up to photograph him, he flew right across the road about 50 feet from me and 30 feet off the ground. This was my closest encounter with this magnificent bird.







There was a juvenile Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (Sphyrapicis varius). These juvenile birds have a lot of brown. Both adult males and females have red crowns and the red feathers start to appear through the winter. This bird has no red feathers at all on top of the head or on the throat.








A moment later, I was lucky to catch him as he flew off, with the spotted underwings spread wide.

I also found 2 butterflies to photography. The first is the American Lady (Vanessa virginensis). This butterfly is in the same family as the Monarch.

The other is the Clouded Sulfur (Colias philodice).

As we went up to Maine for the fall colors, I thought I would show you a few photos.

Here is the first and click 'next' 3 times to see the others

Here is a photo of the dramatic coast in Acadia National Park.

Lastly, the hotel we stayed at in Bar Harbor overlooked the port. Bar Harbor is a stop on the cruise ship itinerary, so we were lucky to see several different ships in port during our visit. One afternoon we had a violent storm and afterwards a beautiful rainbow appeared over the harbor, encircling one of the ships.

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonaldemail: davidkmcd@comcast.net

photos copyright 2009 David McDonald
To have these trip reports sent to your email, please email me at the above address and ask for subscribe.

Bulletin #92 – Maine

David McDonald Photography
Friendswood Texas
October 17, 2009

Bulletin #92 – Maine

Hello friends,

My wife and I spent last week in Maine at Bar Harbor on Mt. Desert Island. I wanted to go there for several reasons. It was during the height of the fall tree color and I hadn't seen autumn colors in 10 years. I grew up in Ontario, Canada so I appreciate the fall foliage. The only problem is, that leads on to winter and cold that I detest.

The second reason was that on a family vacation as an 8 year old, I almost drowned on a beach there (my first trip to the ocean) and sort of had a feeling that I had to go back there again.

Lastly, I was hoping to photograph some eastern and northern bird species.

There was a report of a rare European goose in Maine 2 days before I left. I also wanted to see a moose (never seen one) and I scheduled a whale watching trip to see some new mammals and the Atlantic pelagic species. I missed the goose, the moose and there were no whales on the trip!

This was also a bad time to be birding as the summer residents had all left, and most of the winter birds from the arctic hadn't arrived. There were only 2 species of shorebirds despite this being an island with 30 miles of coastline. The birds were at only 1 location - nowhere else. I am sure spoiled to be on the upper Texas coast. There are birds everywhere, all year long.

Here is a Semipalmated Sandpiper (Calidris pusilla) in winter plumage. The term semipalmated means that the feet are partially webbed. You can see this feature on his left foot. The second photo of 2 birds shows the one in front with s few rufous feathers around his head. The rufous coloration is the breeding plumage, so he hasn't completely molted to winter plumage yet.

The other shorebird was a Semipalmated Plover (Charadrius semipalmatus). He is also in winter plumage with yellow legs, brown back, a single ring on the chest and no black on the forehead. As you guessed, he would also have partially webbed feet, but this photo doesn't show it.

If you would like to see a photo of this bird showing the webbing, I have one taken in Texas in 2007. Photo

A new bird for me to photo was the American Black Duck (Anas rubripes). These very dark plumaged ducks are sometimes considered to be the same species as mallards. For the present, they are different species, but they do hybridize with mallards where their ranges overlap. They look like a very dark female mallard, but have a violet speculum (wing patch), rather than the blue of mallards.

Here are a couple of photos with the second showing the violet speculum.

Another duck was the Common Eider (Somateria mollissima). This large (24") duck is the only duck with an all white back in eastern North America. The male in breeding season has white back and black breast. In non-breeding plumage, he is more brown. the female is all brown. The bill is yellow and extends onto the face up to eye-level. Here is a male on the ocean and a second one closer-up sleeping on a rock just offshore. The third photo is a female. This was a lifer for me.

I also got some photographs of a Common Loon (Gavia immer). This bird is known as Great Northern Diver in Europe. These large (32") water birds cannot walk on land as their legs are so far back on their body. In breeding plumage, they have a black head and neck with partial white ring around the neck. The back is spotted. This bird was just starting to molt from breeding plumage as he has white cheeks.

A moment later, I caught him rearing up out of the water with wings extended. Waterbirds often do this, but you have to be lucky to catch it on film.

The last bird is a Black Guillemot (Cepphus grylle). There are 5 members of the alcid family exclusively in the North Atlantic . I had hoped to see and photograph all of them, but this was the only one I found. In breeding plumage these birds are all black with a large white wing patch. In winter. they become mostly gray. Here is a bird that appears to have caught an eel-like fish.

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonaldemail: davidkmcd@comcast.net

photos copyright 2009 David McDonald

To have these trip reports sent to your email, please email me at the above address and ask for subscribe.

Bulletin #91 – Fall Migration #2

David McDonald Photography
Friendswood Texas
October 2, 2009

Bulletin #91 – Fall Migration #2

Hello friends,


I have had the most disappointing fall migration with numerous visits to various birdy locations and nothing to see or photograph. Last Saturday, I spent 6 hours at various locations in west Houston and the Katy prairie and took not a single bird photograph.

Here are a few of the birds I did find over the past few weeks.






Here is a male Baltimore Oriole (Icterus galbula). The orange body with black head and wings makes this bird a rapid ID.






















His cousin is this female Orchard Oriole (Icterus spurius). She is yellow with gray wings and wing bars.

The Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (Polioptila caerula) was the most common bird. I had several photos of them in the previous bulletin, but one of the characteristics to separate gnatcatchers in the field in the undertail coloration. This is the best photo I have obtained of this feature. He has white outer tail feathers with black interior feathers.

I saw this Eastern Kingbird (Tyrannus tyrannus) on top of a tree. These birds are flycatchers. As I watched him, a dragonfly flew above him and landed on another bare twig within 3 feet of the bird. I thought this s little strange that the kingbird didn't take it for lunch.Here is a photo of the bird with the dragonfly over his head.

LaFitte's Cove nature preserve on Galveston Island produced a few good photos for me.

Here is a Black-and-white Warbler (Mniotita varia). These birds are usually numerous in the fall, but I saw only 2 this year.

Also, I refound the female Ladder-backed Woodpecker (Picoides scalaris) in LaFitte's Cove. This is about 50 miles east of their normal range. I had first seen a female of this species here in late 2006. I had seen her annually until this year. I was afraid that she might have died or been displaced during hurricane Ike in Sept 2008. This was my first encounter with her in 2009, so it must be the same bird, as woodpeckers in general are non-migratory.

I am interested in all wildlife and will photograph other animals, insects etc if the opportunity presents itself.

I was at LaFitte's Cove at dawn one morning and found a pair of Coyotes (Canis latrans) in the marsh. This was my first encounter with coyotes since starting to do photography. One was actually lying on the ground. Here are a couple of photos.

At the end of August, there were swarms of small white butterflies in LaFitte's Cove. These are Great Southern Whites (Ascia monuste). The male in the first photo has black edges on the forewing. The female in the second has brownish wing edges. Notice however, the aqua tips on their antenna. This feature struck me instantly when I looked at them through the binos and is a field mark.

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald
email: davidkmcd@comcast.net

photos copyright 2009 David McDonald

To have these trip reports sent to your email, please email me at the above address and ask for subscribe.