Bulletin 173 - end of migration birds

I had a birding buddy from the Big Apple and his son from LA visiting on the weekend of April 27th for migration. We had a grand time and saw an incredible variety of migrants, both songbirds and shorebirds.

Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge on the coast by Freeport was absolutely inundated with birds including as estimated 400 - 500 Wilson's Phalaropes (Phalaropus tricolor). Phalaropes are shorebirds that also swim. They pick food off the waters surface with their dainty thin beaks. They are unusual among birds in that the female is the brighter color. Three species of phalaropes exist in the world and this is the only one that occurs regularly on the upper Texas coast. The other two can be seen along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Here is a female in breeding plumage with bright red, gray and black markings.

Wilson's Phalarope - breeding female

The male in breeding plumage is gray with just a faint rusty wash on his neck.



Wilson's Phalarope - breeding male

A single breeding plumaged American Avocet (Recurvirostra americana) was also found at Brazoria. These long-legged birds have rusty heads and necks, white bodies, black wings with a wide white stripe and upcurved beaks. The sexes are similarly plumaged, but the female has a more curved beak than the male. This is a male.

American Avocet - breeding male

There are 3 Ibis species in the USA, 1 white and 2 dark. Ibises are heron sized wading birds with long curved beaks. The usual dark ibis in Texas is the White-faced Ibis (Plegadis chihi). In breeding season, it has a white V behind the eye on the face. The rest of the year, the white is gone and it can be difficult to differentiate the 2 species as the only specific mark is the color of the iris of the eye and the bare facial skin. This bird was right beside the road at Brazoria and allowed a close up of his face to show the field marks. The white feathers can be seen on the face, as well as the red facial skin and iris. usually one is not lucky enough to get this close to a bird.

White-faced Ibis - breeding

The late migration brings in the thrush species. The Wood Thrush (Hylocichla mustelina) is ID by his reddish head, brown back and tail and large dark breast spots.

Wood Thrush

The Gray-cheeked Thrush (Catharus minimus) is very similar to the Swainson's Thrush in the previous bulletin, but it lacks the eye ring. It has a uniform dull brown head, back and tail and spotted breast.

Gray-cheeked Thrush

The Veery (Catharus fuscens) has been a tough bird for me to find and photograph, but this spring, I had several. It is IDed be the uniform reddish-brown head back and tail, as well as a sparsely spotted breast.

Veery

The orioles always are a hit with birders due to their bright colors. The male Baltimore Oriole (Icterus galbula) is bright orange with a black head and wings.

Baltimore Oriole - male

The female is duller.

Baltimore Oriole - female

The Orchard Oriole (Icterus spurius) is chocolate brown where the Baltimore has orange, but the first year male is yellowish with a black throat and often confuses novice birders. I showed one of these in an earlier bulletin this year, but this is the best photo I have ever obtained of this plumage.



Orchard Oriole - 1st year male

Lastly, a male Rose-breasted Grosbeak (Pheucticus ludovicianus) perched against the sky for a portrait.

Rose-breasted Grosbeak - male

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald davidkmcd@ymail.com

Lisa Kelly-McDonald lisajanekelly67@yahoo.com

photos copyright 2013 David McDonald and Lisa Kelly-McDonald

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

Bulletin 172 - mid April migrants

It has been rather slow in migration this year for the last 2 weeks.

Here is a Prothonotary Warbler. It is one of my favorites with his intense yellow-orange color and blue gray wings.

Prothonotary Warbler

Another warbler this weekend was this male Yellow Warbler. He is all yellow, including the wing bars. The male has the reddish streaks on the breast and the female would lack these streaks.

Yellow Warbler - male

This male Black-throated Green Warbler hung around the drip at LaFitte's Cove. Often, he was so close that I could almost touch him and thus too close for a photo.

Black-throated Green Warbler - male

A Red-eyed Vireo posed on a stick over the drip after his bath. His head feathers are sticking up from the bath, He normally doesn't have a crested appearance. His red iris is visible in this photo.

Red-eyed Vireo

Summer Tanagers are among the most strikingly colored birds. This solid red male had a huge mouthful of mulberries.


Summer Tanager - male

The females in the eastern USA can be orange to greenish color. This one was very orange with scattered red feathers. She was right above me and so close, I could not get her completely in the photo.

Summer Tanager - female

Sibley says in his description of this species, that they can have a slightly crested appearance. Here is the same bird a few frames later sporting her crest.

Summer Tanager - female

The male Scarlet Tanager is beyond comprehension with his red body and head and black wings and tail. I always love to see them in spring and always take a photo.

Scarlet Tanager - male

One confusing spring bird is the first year male Orchard Oriole. This greenish-yellow bird has 2 white wing bars and a black throat. It is very different from both adults and for a long time was thought to be a separate species of oriole!


Orchard Oriole - 1st year male

Lastly, a brown bird, the Swainson's Thrush. He is IDed by the plain brown back and large eye ring. He is a rather dull bird after the tanagers. However, all the thrushes are superd singers and if you ever hear him sing, it is wonderful. Here is a link to a You Tube video of one singing by Naturalist97333.


Swainson's Thrush

Lastly, this normally long slender Gray Catbird, was all hunched down like a dove. His black cap and rusty undertail are well seen in this view.



Gray Catbird

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald davidkmcd@ymail.com

Lisa Kelly-McDonald lisajanekelly67@yahoo.com

photos copyright 2013 David McDonald and Lisa Kelly-McDonald

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

Bulletin 171 - First week of April migrants

Migration is off to a great start in the first week of April.

The best bird was this male Cerulean Warbler. This species is a target in Texas migration. There were several this past week at LaFitte's Cove. He is blue with white underparts and a black chest band.

Cerulean warbler - male

Another good bird was a Worm-eating Warbler. He is IDed by the brown color and striped head.

Worm-eating Warbler

A male Tennessee Warbler put in an appearance. This is a common species in migration. It is green backed, gray headed witrh a prominent white eye stripe. Of interest to me was the yellow face. It doesn't show in the guide books, so he may be a first year bird molting from juvenile plumage?

Tennessee Warbler - male

I said in the previous journal the Yellow-throated Warbler was a nemesis bird for me. Well the jinx has been broken this spring as I have seen 3 of them already. I had only seen 3 in the previous 20 years of birding!

Yellow-throated Warbler

Other birds were my first Summer Tanager. The male is all red with a large yellowish bill.

Summer Tanager - male

A beautiful Chipping Sparrow in breeding plumage with his bright rusty cap, unstreaked breast, and black line through the eye.

Chipping Sparrow - breeding

Elsewhere on Galveston Island I was lucky to get close to a Wilson's Snipe in a roadside puddle. I took the photo out of the car window to prevent spooking the bird.

Wilson's Snipe

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald davidkmcd@ymail.com

Lisa Kelly-McDonald lisajanekelly67@yahoo.com

photos copyright 2013 David McDonald and Lisa Kelly-McDonald

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

Bulletin 170 - early migrants

With the arrival of April, spring migration here is officially underway. However, some early migrants come in March and us hard core birders seek them out.

The Myrtle Warblers are getting yellow crown spots, This was the first time I recall noticing these crown patches.

Myrtle Warbler

Speaking of crown patches, the Orange-crowned Warbler keeps his patch hidden and the only time I have seen it was when one was bathing. I have never seen it otherwise and most birders will tell you it is never seen. Well this bird broke the rule. He kept his orange crown visible as he came to the drip at LaFitte's Cove Galveston last Friday.

Orange-crowned Warbler

Even this Nashville Warbler got in the act and showed the red feathers in his crown patch.

Nashville Warbler

A male Northern Parula came to the drip and posed nicely for a photo.

Northern Parula

A surprise bird was this Audubon's Warbler is almost full breeding plumage. This is the western form of Yellow-rumped Warbler and differs from the Myrtle Warbler above by having the yellow throat.



Audubon's Warbler

A couple of early Black-throated Green Warblers were found as well.

Black-throated Green Warbler

I was very pleased to find one of my nemesis birds, the Yellow-throated Warbler. This is only the third time in my life to see this common bird.

Yellow-throated Warbler

The Black-and-white Warbler is a favorite of mine. They work the trunks and larger limbs of trees in a style like a nuthatch.

Black-and-white Warbler

The Louisiana Waterthrush is the earlier of the waterthrushes to arrive. It is IDed by the long eye stripe going down the back of the neck as well as pink legs and buffy flanks.

Louisiana Waterthrush

An unusual find was a Calliope Hummingbird at LaFitte's Cove the last few weeks. This bird at 3.25" in length is the smallest North American bird. This was a juvenile male. My first photo on March 23, shows a few red throat feathers on the right side.

Calliope Hummingbird - juvenile male

By the next week, he had sprouted almost a full throat of feathers.

Calliope Hummingbird - juvenile male

I am looking forward to many more migrants coming through over the next month. I hope everyone can get out to see some of these birds as they pass through.

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald davidkmcd@ymail.com

Lisa Kelly-McDonald lisajanekelly67@yahoo.com

photos copyright 2013 David McDonald and Lisa Kelly-McDonald

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

Bulletin 169 - Winter birds

The Upper Texas Coast (UTC) never ceases to amaze me with the rarities that show up here. In the last few years, we have had Ruff twice, first ABA record of Tropical Mockingbird, Fork-tailed Flycatcher, and 3 birds usually found in the arctic and Alaska that I missed on my Alaska trip in 2010. The first was lifer Smith's Longspur at New Years 2012, then a lifer Black-tailed Godwit last June and last month a juvenile Rough-legged Hawk on Galveston Island for my second sighting of that species.

The Rough-legged Hawk (Buteo lagopus)  is a large (21") buteo of the high arctic tundra in Canada and Alaska. It is listed as occasional in the UTC. However, I cannot remember in my 20 years birding, another mention of one, and there was no photo of it on the Houston Audubon web site. The males have dark streaks on the underside, but the juveniles and females have a black belly. This bird was easily seen over several weeks, as it hunted in the same area and returned to sit on top of a telephone pole. It was IDed as a female with the black belly, but when I posted my photos on Texbirds, an expert who has banded these hawks in Montana, sads it was a juvenile as the dark band was not on the underside of the tail. Notice the small bill and feet, an adaptation for the cold tundra. The legs have feathers and these can be seen in this photo.



Rough-legged hawk - juvenile on Galveston Island

Many ducks are found here in winter. I haven't shown many photos in the past couple of years, so yesterday I went out and took some.

Here is a male Northern Shoveler (Anas clypeata). The green head and brown and white body along with the huge bill make this guy an easy ID. However, in the photo, I had never seen the blue-gray feathers before. I checked Sibley and these are the upper wing coverts that usually are hidden unless the bird is in the air. So I always learn something new.

Northern Shoveler - male

In the last Bulletin, I showed and talked about the Redhead (Aythya americana). I had never seen them in the ponds at LaFitte's Cove on Galveston, but yesterday, there were almost a dozen birds. This male had his head stretched upwards in an unusual pose.

Redhead - male

Now look at this pair, swimming towards the camera. They have really fat cheeks, reminding me of chipmunks! I don't know whether all ducks have this peculiarly shaped head. I will have to watch more closely in the future.

Redhead - male

 Here is a female Lesser Scaup (Aythya affinis). She is all brownish except for the white spots behind the bill. Notice the small black spot on the end of the bill. This is called the nail and is very narrow like this in the Lesser Scaup and wider in ther Greater Scaup. Although some overlap occurs, it can be a good field mark to separate these species. It also happened to be my first photo of a female of this species.

Lesser Scaup - female

The last duck is probably my favorite, the smallest North American duck, the Bufflehead (Bucephala albeola). The males have black back, white body, dark iridescent head with a large white occipital quadrant.

Bufflehead - male

One of my favorite photos of ducks is when they rise out of the water and flap their wings. Here are a couple of photos of this duck doing just that.



Bufflehead - male

And another. In this one, despite the overcast day, you can get a hint of the iridescent purple on his head.



Bufflehead - male

So how do you get these neat action photos? If you have ever watched ducks for any length of time, occasionally they will bathe by ducking their head repeatedly under the water. After several times, they will always rise up like this and flap their wings back and forth a couple of times to dry off. So if you see a duck bathing, get ready to take some of these action shots.

Lastly as spring is here in Houston, our waders are getting their breeding plumage. For herons, they often change the color of the bare skin around the eye, as well as the bill getting very bright.

Here is a Reddish Egret (Egretta rufescens) with a bright blue patch of bare skin, and very pink base of the bill.

Reddish Egret - breeding

I just noticed that I crossed the 50,000 hits mark on this blog.

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald davidkmcd@ymail.com

Lisa Kelly-McDonald lisajanekelly67@yahoo.com

photos copyright 2013 David McDonald and Lisa Kelly-McDonald

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

Bulletin 168 - South Padre Island area

There was an exceptionl find of a rare bird on South Padre Island in January. This was a Flammulated Owl (Megascops flammeus). This small (6.75") migratory owl is likely the most difficult owl in North America for birders to find and see. One was located in a clump of bushes and trees at the South Padre Island Convention Center.

Lisa and I flew down for a weekend to try and see and photograph this bird that would be a lifer for both of us.

We did see the bird, but unfortunately, he kept himself very well hidden in the middle of the thicket and was almost totally obscurred by leaves.

Occasionally you could see the outline of the bird and perhaps 1/2 the body.  He is identified by the gray color with reddish streaks on his face and body. I did catch some red streaking a couple of times, so I know this was the bird. Also, there were dozens of other birders there, as this was only the second winter record for Texas of this species.

So here is the best of my photos which shows about 1/2 the bird. If you look at the blue sky in the middle, the gray feathers of the bird can be seen immediately to the left of the blue and below.

Flammulated Owl - South Padre Island

However, at Laguna Atascosa NWR, we saw an Eastern Screech-Owl (Megascops asio) in a clay pipe above the door of the Visitor's Center. It was a lifer for Lisa and made a 2 owl trip for her! Here is one of her photos of this cute little owl.

Eastern Screech-Owl
photo by Lisa Kelly-McDonald

While we were waiting and hoping for the Flammulted Owl to come out of hiding, a female Western Tanager (Piranga ludoviciana) foraged in the thicket as well. This bird is yellow with 2 white wing bars. It was my first photo of a female. It was quite an unexpected find as this species normally winters in Central America.

Western Tanager - female

There is a very nice nature and birding center adjacent to the SP convention center. Lisa and I saw an American Bittern right under the boardwalk and too close to photograph. We watched it skulk through the reeds for at least 15 minutes. It was another lifer for her and so close too!

Here is a cute Pied-billed Grebe (Podilymbus podiceps) in the marsh at the nature center. It is in the winter plumage and has lost the ring around his bill.

Pied-billed Grebe - winter

 

Redheads (Aythya americana) are colorful ducks with the male exhibiting a very rounded red head. The similar Canvasback has a reddish brown head and a very sloped forehead . 90% of the North American population of Redheads winter in the Laguna Madre, the bay between South Padre Island and the mainland. Thus, large rafts of these birds can be seen in this area. Here were a few at the nature center on SPI.

Redheads

Northern Caracaras (Caracara cheriway) are distinctive raptors tha belong to the falcon family. Even though I have photgraphed them numerous times, their coloration, bare facial skin, and huge beak always make them an ideal subject.

The adult has a black head and body, with orange face and yellow feet.

Northern Caracara - adult

He allowed me to approach in my car, right beside him, for an extreme close-up portrait. Notice the fluffy neck feathers and shaggy crest.

Northern Caracara - adult

A while later I found this juvenile. He has a pink face, brown body and gray legs. Sibley shows the first year juvenile with a black head. I guess this might be a very young bird, as the head is obviously brown.

Northern Caracara - juvenile

 There was a butterfly enjoying some flowers while we were looking for the Flammulated Owl, so I had to photograph it as well. It superficially looked like a Monarch, but I knew the wing shape wasn't quite right. Here it is on a flower.



Queen - male

And here it is with his wings spread out.

Queen - male

I looked in my butterfly book and it is a Queen (Danaus gilippus). This is the same genus as the Monarch. Notice there are no black veins in the top of the wings above. Also, the 2 black dots in the hind wing seen in the second photo identify it as a male!

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald davidkmcd@ymail.com

Lisa Kelly-McDonald lisajanekelly67@yahoo.com

photos copyright 2013 David McDonald and Lisa Kelly-McDonald

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