Bulletin #142 -fall birds

David McDonald Photography
Friendswood Texas
9-5-11

Well my 'pet' hawks don't hang around anymore as I can't get any more crayfish. I don't know what happened to the juvenile, as I have not seen it since July 11th. I don't know hawk behavior. Perhaps the adults drive off the young to find their own territory? I certainly am going to hope that is the case rather than something bad happened to the bird.

There are currently 3 adults in the area, and I don't know whether they are trying to pair up for next years breeding season. While I still had some crayfish in mid July, I wantd to try and get an action shot of the adult swooping down to pluck the crayfish off the grass. I just used a 24-105 mm lens and focussed on the crayfish and then set the focus to manual. I managed to get a few photos and here is the best of them. These large birds are quite aerobatic!

Fall migration has begun. I have had several hummingbirds coming to the feeders since I put them up last week. At first there were just single birds, but now I have several in the yard at once.

I have been to LaFitte's Cove in Galveston to look for fall migrants. Here's a Black-and-white Warbler.

The next one is a Canada Warbler.

The last of the warblers I was able to photograph, was a Magnolia Warbler.

Several species of flycatchers were also seen. Here is an Eastern Kingbird.

Several species of empidonax flycatchers were found. They are a difficult ID problem, so I usually have to post them to Texbirds and ask for help. This one is a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher.

An unusual bird for LaFitte's Cove was this Magnificent Frigatebird soaring just above the trees last Saturday.

August was the hottest month in Houston history with 100 degrees or more for daily highs for 30 of the 31 days. It was just too miserable to be out birding, so I plan to make up for it as the cooler fall days bring us some relief.

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald
davidkmcdmd@yahoo.com

photos copyright 2011 David McDonald

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

LaFitte's Cove Bird Report 9-3-11

Galveston Island finally has some water. The tide is very high from the tropical storm in the Gulf. Many of the low areas are flooded with sea water. (along Stewart Road, 8 Mile Road etc) At least there will be some mud flats afterwards for shorebirds.

At LaFitte's Cove this morning, there was an osprey flying low over the entrance road on the way in.

The weather was windy and sllightly overcast, but a little cooler than last weekend.

The woods were free of migrants except for a single Black-and-white Warbler.

The sprinklers were on in the woods watering the trees and thus the drips were running, but no birds were around to enjoy the water.

The best bird was this Magnificent Frigatebird soaring just above the trees. A first for me at LaFitte's.

LaFitte's Cove Bird Report 8-28-11

I spent a couple of hours at LaFitte's Cove his morning. Migration is heating up.

There were 5 warbler species - Yellow, Canada (at least 6), B&W, Magnolia, Yellow-breasted Chat (2).


Canada Warbler

Magnolia Warbler

Black-and-whiteWarbler

Flycatchers included eastern Kingbird, Great-crested Flycatcher, this unknown one.

Unknown Flycatcher

Eastern Kingbird

Others were Red-eyed Vireo, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, numerous Baltimore Orioles, Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher, Brown Thrasher, Ruby-throated Hummingbird.

LaFitte's Cove Bird Report 8-14-11

I checked out LaFitte's Cove this morning to see if any early fall migrants were present.

The whole of Galveston Island is bne dry in the drought with many ponds along Stewart Road etc totally dried up.

The ponds at LaFitte's are 10% or less of normal area. There were s few shorebirds in the pond across the street from the parking area.

In the woods, neither drip was running and several of the small trees planted in the last year or two since Ike appear to have died.

There were 2 warbler species in the woods.  A pair of yellow warblers were seen first.

Then I found a flock or perhaps 1/2 dozen Black-and-white Warblers.



The most common migrants were empids. There were perhaps 10-12 individual birds, but it is hard to count thses little guys. For those of you who are budding empidemiologists (to coin a word form ornithology and medicine) this is a great place to see several different species at one time.

I have tentatively IDed several of them but will confirm with Texbirds and correct the IDs if needed. here are a couple of Least Flycatcher photos.

This one is a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher (the easiest to ID).

And this one may be a drab juvenile Yellow-bellied, but I'm not sure and will update the ID once the experts have passed judgement.

For people interested in going to LaFitte's for fall migration, the best time is 9-12 noon, as the birds migrate south in the early mornings. This is according to a Galveston Island birding guide.

Resident birds included 3 dove species (Inca, Mourning and White-winged) and Mockingbirds. There were no Cardinals or Woodpeckers seen.

Bulletin #141 - local wildlife

David McDonald Photography
Friendswood Texas
7-10-2011

Thank you for all the comments on the last bulletin with the Red-shouldered Hawks. Everyone seems to love raptors and especially when there is a personal interest story in it. I asked if anyone had any experience feeding non-typical birds like hawks, herons etc like I have done on several occasions. No one responded, so I assume that it is rather uncommon.

I have read of 2 cases. One you have probably seen photos of. That is the person in Alaska who collects dead salmon during the spawning season, and freezes them. He puts them out for the Bald Eagles in winter. He has dozens of eagles sitting around his yard. This is fairly straight forward as it is basically carrion.

The other case was in David Quammen's book "Song of the Dodo". There is an endangered falcon on Mauritius (Mauritius Kestrel). A man fron Scotland went to study them. He was able to train them to come when he whistled. He would throw a piece of beef into the air and the birds would catch it in flight, as they would normally take their prey.

Well my 'pet' hawks are still coming to get crawfish. The adult is now coming regularly as well as the juvenile. She is allowing me to approach closer to her. This photo was taken from 25 feet away.

The juvenile allows me to approach to within 15 feet. This photo is uncropped.

What I really wanted as well was a family portrait. Usually the birds sit on different branches or more often in different trees. Occasionally, they have been together, but by the time I got my camera, they had flown off. Last week I hit the jackpot. They usually are waiting foor me to get home form work to feed them supper. I didn't see them when I drove in, but when I went out of the garage, the juvie started screaming. I looked up and found them side by side. I raced in and grabbed my camera and got a couple of photos.

I love this picture. I am calling it 'Learning to Dance'. They both have a foot in the air, and the juvie is looking at the parent as if to see which foot he needs to raise.

Unfortunately, crawfish seasons ends soon, and I won't be able to buy them at the grocery store any longer. If I can't think of some other thing to feed them, they'll be on their own.

Last weekend,as I was in the yard watching my hawks, a pair of Mississippi Kites (Ictinia mississippiensis) drifted overhead. This dark gray raptor has some brown flight feathers.

Cliff Swallows (Petrochelidon pyrrhonata) are a very common swallow over much of North America. They normally nest along cliffs as their name suggests. However, they have adapted readily to overpasses and bridges. This photo was taken under a freeway overpass near my home. The mud nest is shaped like a gourd. The parent is at the opening and a baby can be seen inside.

Cliff Swallows come in 2 forms. The northern population has a pure white forehead. The Mexican population has a dark brown forehead. This adult has a beige forehead, so may be an intergrade between the 2 populations.

I visited Anahuac NWR last weekend. This is a large marshy wetland east of Houston, that serves as wintering grounds for huge numbers of waterfowl etc. It is also one of the 2 best places to see alligators in the Houston area. I wanted to see the extent of our extreme drought on this gem of a wetland. It is devastating how dry it is. For those who are familiar with Anahuac, there is an auto loop around a large pond called Shoveler Pond. The pond is completely gone and dried up. The ditches inside around the loop are 90% dried out and in places have no water at all. This is the only alligator I saw. He is in a ditch that normally would have 2 feet of water. Also, I saw that he was at an opening into the mud bank which suggested it was a burrow.

I saw several more of these burrows as I drove around. Here is another. This section of the ditch had some water. But notice the brown reeds. This should normally be lush green with our normal rainfall. Instead, it looks like California. When I got home, I looked up alligators and burrows. Sure enough, they dig these in winter to keep warm and summer to keep cool.

On the last leg of the auto loop, there was some water in the ditch, but with no rain to aerate the stagnant water, the larger fish are dying. What a shame. I'm sure that we will get some tropical storm rain soon, but many species are suffering in the meantime.

There are nesting Barn Swallows (Hirundo rustica) at Anahuac. Notice that the nest is also built from mud, but is an open cup like normal bird nests made of twigs. I find this very interesting, that the 2 swallow species use the same material to build their nests, but they have a completely different shape. How many babies can you see in the nest?

During spring migration at LaFitte's Cove on Galveston Island, this turtle walked into the drip. It is a Three-toed Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina triunguis), the local subsecies of Eastern Box Turtle. I think it was a life reptile for me.

I mentioned David Quammen's book 'Song of the Dodo' above. The subtitle is Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions. It was published in 1996. It is a fascinating account of species diversity around the globe. He visited many islands on a MacArthur Foundation scholarship and this book was the result. I have read it several times. Despite the academic sounding subtitle, it is eminently readable and enjoyable. I would highly recomend it as a natural history read. I found a place where you can download the complete book on pdf  for free.

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald
davidkmcdmd@yahoo.com

photos copyright 2011 David McDonald

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

Bulletin #140 - local birds

David McDonald Photography
Friendswood Texas
June 22, 2011

With the summer doldrums upon us, I have to look for local birds of interest to photograph. Of course, this is nesting season, so common birds can provide some interesting opportunities.

The first photo is of a Northern Cardinal nest with eggs. As you know, cowbirds are parasitic. This means that they lay their eggs in nests of other birds and the foster parents raise the cowbird chicks, often losing their own young in the process. This nest has 3 different types of eggs in it.

At 12 o'clock is the large spotted cardinal egg. The 2 smaller, but similar eggs at 3 and 9 o'clock are from a Brown-headed Cowbird. The plain white one at 6 o'clock is that of a Bronzed Cowbird. I rarely get to see birds nests with eggs, but this is a first for me to have 3 different species of birds eggs in a single nest.

This next photo is of a bird house outside our kitchen window. I bought this bird house about 14 years ago. It is made of resin to resemble an old straw hat. In all this time, we have never had any occupants until this year, when Carolina Wrens took up residence. They nest on our patio in hanging baskets etc anyway, so I didn't pay much attention to them until I heard some babies chirping and discovered that they were in the bird house. On Memorial Day weekend, I took a few photos out the window. I wanted to get more photos, but they fledged and were gone several days later. Here is a baby waiting at the entrance for food.

I am fortunate to have a large yard with many trees. Thus, I have the pleasure of having a family of Red-shouldered Hawks that spend a lot of time in my yard. They don't bother the small birds and seem to eat mostly lizards, crawfish etc on the ground. We are in the midst of the worst drought in the 34 years I have lived in Houston. Normally, we have 1" rain per week all year, but with La Nina in the Pacific, we have not had any rain since January, and are about 20" below normal for the year.

My bird bath with a drip is used constantly by birds and squirrels. Several weeks ago, I looked out to see the juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk in the bird bath. He really enjoyed himself and splashed around. I took these photos through the kitchen window.

Next to my amazement, an adult flew down and joined him in the bird bath. In the second photo, it looks like the parent is whispering in his ear or giving him a kiss.

 
Since then, I have seen the juvenile most days go to the bird bath, but I haven't seen and adult return for a drink.
 
The juvenile is quite tame and I can approach him to within 20 feet. The adult flies off when I'm 50 feet away. I was able to get a close up of the juvie on a branch over the bird bath on a day when it was 105 degrees and he had his mouth open like a panting dog. Notice the ridges on the palate inside to mouth!
 

 
Two years ago, we had another milder drought and the local ponds, ditches etc were dried up. I had Yellow-crowned Night-Herons walking around my yard looking for food. So I thought to but some live crawfish and put them out to see if I could feed them. It worked and I had a bird come every evening to feast on the crawfish and take them back to the nest. You can see these photos here.
 
This year, I decided to try my luck at feeding crawfish to these hawks. Sure enough, I put out 4-6 crawfish in the evening and they come down to catch and eat them. The juvenile usually just eats them on the lawn, but the adult catches one and flies into a tree to eat it.
 

 

Anyone can feed small birds with seed etc, but how many of you have been able to feed more unlikely customers like herons and hawks? I would be interested to hear of any stories you may have.

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald
davidkmcdmd@yahoo.com

photos copyright 2011 David McDonald

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

LaFitte's Cove Bird Report 6-4-11

Doldrums for sure. Even the ponds are almost dried up in the worst drought in years.

The ponds along the boardwalk and on the sidewalk to the gazebo are completely dry.
The pond across from the parking lot had water but not a single bird of any variety.
The pond beyond the gazebo had a Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, Snowy Egret, and a Killdeer with a chick.

The woods had several doves (mourning, inca), cardinals, mockingbirds (including a spotted juvie) and surprisingly a Catbird. This is latest I have seen one, but the checklist shows them as occasional birds all summer. They don't breed here.

I didn't see or hear any woodpeckers or the resident Blue Jays.

(c) 2011 David McDonald