A Couple of Hours on May 4

I had hoped the north winds last night would have kept some of the migrants down and they would leave tonight. That wasn't the case. The woods were pretty quiet today. I did pick up three new birds for the year on the property - Gray-cheeked Thrush, Common Nighthawk and, the most surprising, Bald Eagle. I saw the eagle twice. The first time he was low enough where I could make out the white tail against the blue sky without my binoculars. The second time, he was really high and I could just make out his features with my binoculars. The Checklist of the Upper Texas Coast lists Bald Eagles as rare this time of year. That was published in 1998, and the eagle population has increased since then. It was a very exciting sight for me! Another really fun thing today was watching two sets of Carolina Wren parents feeding their fledged young and a pair of White-eyed Vireos feeding their fledged young. The vireos sure weren't trying to keep their location secret! They were being very noisy and the young birds were begging loudly. I haven't seen any activity at the Spanish moss where I thought the Northern Parulas were nesting. Either they didn't nest there or she's sitting on eggs still. I'll keep watching it and see if there is any activity around it in the next week or so.

I discovered my list from Apr. 25 that I didn't input into my record keeping program. I wrote them down in a different book and forgot I put them there. Anyway, I entered them and realized that the Blue-winged Teal I saw was the first one for my property ever! Actually it was a flock of two drakes and two hens. They make property bird #185 for me. So, my yearly counts are actually higher than I thought.

Birds Seen 4/25 (26 species): Great Egret, Cattle Egret, White Ibis, Turkey Vulture, Bald Eagle, Red-shouldered Hawk, Eurasian Collared-Dove, Mourning Dove, Common Nighthawk, Chimney Swift, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Eastern Wood-Pewee, Great Crested Flycatcher, White-eyed Vireo, Blue Jay, Purple Martin, Carolina Chickadee, Carolina Wren, Eastern Bluebird, Gray-cheeked Thrush, Magnolia Warbler, Summer Tanager, Northern Cardinal, Indigo Bunting, Red-winged Blackbird

'08 Birds Seen as of 5/4: 117
'04 Birds Seen as of 5/4: 103