Time for Project FeederWatch

Project FeederWatch starts on Saturday, Nov. 13. I signed up again this year. It's fun to know that my observations are going to help the scientists at Cornell Lab of Ornithology understand the overall picture of the bird populations across the U.S. My count days will be Sundays and Mondays. If you're not familiar with Project FeederWatch (PFW), it is a program where people watch the birds for two consecutive days at their feeders, birdbaths, or anything they have put out specifically for birds and report the highest number at any given time. I am hoping that having the feeders in the woods and the ground feeder on the west side of my property will help the numbers of birds I see.

On Sunday, I noticed a sparrow that looked a little smaller than the House Sparrows at the ground feeder in my backyard. I grabbed my binoculars and saw the first Chipping Sparrow of the season. Several people have told me in the store that they have already had American Goldfinches coming to their feeder, so I went ahead and put out my thistle feeder. So far I haven't seen anything on it. I keep hoping every time I get my memory card from my BirdCam that I'll have a picture of a Red-breasted Nuthatch on the feeder, but no luck on that yet. The wintering birds have arrived in good numbers. Yesterday there were Yellow-rumped Warblers all over the place. Eastern Phoebes were calling. I saw a Hermit Thrush last week. Northern Flickers make their presence known with their cirr call. I still haven't seen any Ruby-crowned Kinglets or Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers.

The boys and I have begun clearing trails in the woods to make walking easier and give us access to different parts of the woods. As we go, I'm cutting wood for firewood. We got within 30 feet of finishing our first trail yesterday, but darkness got us before we could finish. We should be able to get that done on Sunday pretty quickly. There are several small tallow trees to cut out and one pretty good size one in the way. I'm hoping by spring migration to have several trails cut through the woods. It would be nice to be able to get to areas now where walking is nearly impossible because of all the blackberry vines and trees that have fallen.

Here are a couple of pictures of a Tufted Titmouse on one of the feeders in the woods. I just love these little birds!

Eastern Bluebird Photos

I set my BirdCam up on my birdbath since I've had several Eastern Bluebirds coming each evening. I got some great shots of them yesterday and today. Here are a few of them:













You can see all my birdbath photos taken with my BirdCam on my Facebook page. I really love having bluebirds around. They fly over a lot and make their churr call. I wonder how many of them in the winter are migrants and how many are residents. I keep hoping I'll have more than one nesting pair in the spring.

Winter migrants are showing up more and more. I had my FOS (First of Season) Yellow-rumped Warbler today. I thought he was going to come to my birdbath and have his picture taken with the BirdCam, but the bluebirds were too aggressive toward him and he left. An Eastern Phoebe called in the front yard this morning. A Northern Flicker was calling in the woods. I keep waiting to hear American Goldfinches, but so far haven't heard one. I'm also expecting to see Ruby-crowned Kinglets and Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers any day now.

My hummingbird garden is doing really well. The abutilon is blooming and is about 4 ft. tall now. My first firespike is about to bloom. The turk's cap has been blooming for several weeks now. One of my coworkers gave me some hemelia to put in there along with another plant that I can't remember the name of. It will be great next year. I'm looking forward to the plants being established next winter and hopefully I'll see a Rufous or other wintering hummingbird at it. I do still have a Ruby-throated Hummingbird coming to my feeders.

Florida Vacation and Winter Migrants

We took a vacation to Florida from Oct. 7 to Oct. 14 and really had a great time. I didn't do much birding there except to watch what was around the resort and a very little bit at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. With little effort, I did add two life birds to my list - Smooth-billed Ani (#370) and Florida Scrub Jay (#371). I didn't expect the Smooth-billed Ani, but four flew overhead calling which I was able to match up with the song from the Stokes CD that has bird songs for the eastern U.S. The Florida Scrub Jay is an endangered bird that occurs only in Florida. They need periodic fire to sweep across the land to keep the scrub habitat low. Before modern-day fire prevention, fires would clear the land once every two to five years. Now we don't allow wildfires, so much of the jay's habitat has been lost. The people at Merritt Island NWR periodically set controlled burns which keeps the habitat intact for the jays. I had to walk about 1/2 mile along a trail before I finally saw them. Two of them were flying from the ground to the top of a dead tree. When I stopped to look at them through my binoculars, about a million mosquitoes found my legs! We could see the Kennedy Space Center from the refuge, and I could see Space Shuttle Discovery on the launch pad waiting for its Nov. 1 launch. That was pretty exciting! Merritt Island NWR also is a place where Florida manatees are pretty common, so we went to one of the places where they frequent called Haulover Canal. Unfortunately, the manatees didn't cooperate with us and we didn't get to see them. In all of Florida, there were more Anhingas than I've ever seen. It seemed like there was one on every little pond we would pass. The resort where we stayed was built on a large lake with a couple of small ponds on the grounds. Great Blue Herons, Little Blue Herons and Great Egrets frequented the ponds. One day a couple of Wood Storks were probing the mud on one of the ponds. I wish I had more time to go birding, but it was fun in what little time I had.

The winter migrants continue to filter in here on our property. I went into the woods to mount my BirdCam on Friday evening and heard a Northern Flicker calling. On Saturday morning as I was leaving for work, an Eastern Phoebe called from the power lines in my front yard. I'm just waiting to see the Chipping Sparrows show up at my feeders and the Yellow-rumped Warblers to show up in the trees. According to reports on Texbirds (a birding listserv for Texas), Red-breasted Nuthatches are showing up in Texas. We don't get a lot of them every year, so this year seems like it could be an irruption year for them. If I could get one on my feeders in the woods, it would be a new property bird for me.

Feeders in the Woods

After finally getting the tire on my four-wheeler repaired, I took some seed down to the feeders in the woods. I haven't filled them in months. It was just too hot to walk down there! I'm pretty excited to see what finds them this winter. I hope Northern Flickers, Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Brown Creepers, Yellow-rumped Warblers, Pine Warblers and House Wrens find the suet and Bark Butter. It's possible, but not probable, that Golden-crowned Kinglets or nuthatches will show up down there. I'd love to see some Dark-eyed Juncos and White-throated Sparrows on the seed. Maybe even Brown Thrashers will find it. Once the birds begin using the feeders again, I'll put the BirdCam down there to see what is visiting.

I'm thinking of putting a ground feeder on the west side of the property along the road that the drilling company cleared and putting millet on it. My concern is that it will turn into a cow feeder instead of a bird feeder. I'll have to see what happens. Maybe I can put up a little fence around it to keep the cows out. I'd love to have a feeder there to see what sparrows and possibly towhees are there in the winter.

The hummingbirds appear to just about be gone. I'm going to take down most of the feeders and clean them up for next year. I'll leave a couple out for the next couple of weeks and see what happens. I really hope to get a wintering hummer this year. That would be a lot of fun!

Cool Mornings

I love the fall season when the first cool mornings arrive. I like to take my coffee outside and watch as the bird activity picks up. Cardinals are normally the first birds to arrive at my feeders. They are usually followed closely by Blue Jays and Red-bellied Woodpeckers. The Ruby-throated Hummingbirds buzz around my nectar feeders. They are down to the point now where one bird tries to dominate all the feeders. There are still enough around where she has a tough time with that, but she tries. I saw my first winter resident migrant this morning. A Brown Thrasher was in the thick yaupons along the fence line. If he hadn't made the "chip" call, I probably never would have seen him. Fall migration was really great in my yard on Sunday, Sept. 19. A male Baltimore Oriole caught my attention in the hackberry tree in my back yard. I got my binoculars to take a look at him and also found a Philadelphia Vireo and Black-and-white Warbler in the same tree. I normally don't get a lot of migrants in my backyard, so that was a lot of fun to see them. Also, an Indigo Bunting visited my ground feeder yesterday.

The hummingbirds were not as plentiful this year as they have been in years past. So far I've only gone through just over 20 lbs. of sugar. They aren't draining my feeders after a couple of days now either. Others have said they are having higher than average numbers of hummingbirds at their feeders. In a couple of weeks, the majority of them will have migrated out of here down to Mexico and Central America.

I've had a ton of fun with my BirdCam! I have put it on my birdbath to see what visits it during the day. Here's my favorite picture of a Eurasian Collared-Dove that just splashed the water to take a bath.
The birdbath as it was made was far too deep for birds to get in and bathe in it. I had tried putting bricks and other rocks in it to make it more shallow, but the birds never seemed to be comfortable getting in. So, I went to Home Depot and bought 40 lbs. of concrete and filled in the birdbath to make it more shallow. I added some of the rocks into the concrete to give the birds a little better footing. Now it goes from very shallow at the edges to about 1" deep in the middle. The birds have been using it like crazy now! So, if you're looking for a birdbath to add to your yard, and you actually want the birds to use it, go with the more shallow ones over the really deep ones.

Hummingbirds are migrating

The Ruby-throated Hummingbird migration has begun. Hummingbirds are showing up at feeders in Southeast Texas now. Their numbers will continue to increase as the birds, some that nested as far north as Canada, make their way south to the coast. Unlike in the spring, the hummingbirds follow a land route for their southward migration and do not fly straight across the Gulf of Mexico. So, all the adult birds that came through in the spring move southward along with the juveniles that hatched this year. The result is a lot of hummingbirds on the move! It is time to put your feeders out. The nectar solution is four parts water to one part plain white table sugar. Boil the water and add the sugar. Stir to dissolve the sugar. Let it cool and put it in your feeders. Change the nectar in your feeders every three days to prevent mold, mildew, fungus and bacteria from growing. Some of these can be lethal to the hummingbirds. Store excess nectar in your refrigerator for up to two weeks. Watch for mold in the nectar before filling your feeders. We should see hummingbirds at our feeders into October. A feeder can help hummingbirds keep up the energy they need to continue southward. Planting flowers in your backyard can help too. My hummingbird garden has turk's cap, abutilon and firespike. Next year it will have some red salvia.

I haven't been birding on the property in quite a while. It's just too hot and humid. The fall neotropical migration hasn't begun in full yet, so I will wait until September to get out and see what is going on.

I have seen quite a few Mississippi Kites flying around as they are about to begin their southward migration. Hawk Watches are gearing up for another season. If you've never checked out a hawk watch, you should go. There is one at Smith Point in Chambers County and one in Lake Jackson. You can see an unbelievable number of hawks and have people who are experienced in hawk identification help you learn how to be better too.

New Property Bird - #196

This one has kind of a funny story to go along with it. I was driving to work on Friday on FM 3180 about halfway between I-10 and FM 565. I saw something along the left side of the road on the shoulder. As I passed it, I realized it was two Fulvous Whistling-Ducks with two or three ducklings. The first thought I had was that they need to get off the road or they're going to get killed. My second thought was that I could get them, take them down to my pond and count them as a new property species. Deciding that would be unethical, and not to mention that it would put me really, really late for work, I went on. Saturday morning, I was walking to my car to leave for work and heard a high-pitched whistling above me. I looked up, expecting to see Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks and it was a flock of five Fulvous Whistling-Ducks. So, I got to count them on my property list without cheating!

The Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are beginning to show up. I've seen at least two individuals at my feeders. I'm trying to get pictures with the BirdCam, but that's proving to be a little frustrating! It seems they are so small they don't trigger the motion sensor even when it's set on the highest sensitivity. When I get it close enough for them to trigger it, it is too close and the pictures are out of focus. I did get a couple of shots of a female where you can really see the iridescence on her back. Hopefully I'll have more to post later.