Spring 2011 Report

With spring migration winding down, I start looking at the birds that I missed during spring migration. This year featured particularly lower warbler numbers (18 species). I'm not sure the reason, but the howling south winds throughout the spring may have had something to do with it. They just didn't stop, and if they did, they didn't stop long. The warblers I missed on the property this spring are:

Nashville Warbler
Yellow-throated Warbler
Blackpoll Warbler
Cerulean Warbler
Ovenbird
Northern Waterthrush
Louisiana Waterthrush
Kentucky Warbler
Canada Warbler

Non-warbler species that I missed on the property this spring are:
Black-billed Cuckoo
Acadian Flycatcher
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
Yellow-throated Vireo
Philadelphia Vireo
Warbling Vireo
Veery
Gray-cheeked Thrush
Orchard Oriole

It's still possible for me to see Kentucky Warbler and Acadian Flycatcher since they nest around here. Of course, I can see nearly all of them in the fall except Blackpoll Warbler when they come south.

As I began looking at the birds I missed, I started wondering what the percentage of years I've seen each species. I've been keeping spring migration records since the spring of 2004, so this makes the eighth year. Here is a list of the warblers and the percentage of years I've seen them:

Blue-winged Warbler - 88%
Golden-winged Warbler - 38%
Tennessee Warbler - 100%
Nashville Warbler - 25%
Northern Parula - 100%
Yellow Warbler - 63%
Chestnut-sided Warbler - 88%
Magnolia Warbler - 88%
Black-throated Green Warbler - 100%
Blackburnian Warbler - 88%
Yellow-throated Warbler - 63%
Bay-breasted Warbler - 75%
Blackpoll Warbler - 50%
Cerulean Warbler - 50%
Black-and-white Warbler - 100%
American Redstart - 88%
Prothonotary Warbler - 13%
Worm-eating Warbler - 88%
Ovenbird - 75%
Northern Waterthrush - 25%
Louisiana Waterthrush - 38%
Kentucky Warbler - 50%
Hooded Warbler - 100%
Canada Warbler - 50%
Yellow-breasted Chat - 88%

That's one thing that makes birdwatching so fun - it's never the same. One year to the next is completely different and you never really know what to expect. One day to the next is different. It's constantly changing, even within the normal patterns of migration.

So far the Eastern Bluebirds haven't begun building a second nest. It's only been a week since the babies fledged, so it will probably be a least another week before they start thinking of brood number two.

I got a couple more good pictures with the BirdCam on Sunday, May 8.

A Chestnut-sided Warbler


A variety of birds including a Yellow Warbler, Indigo Bunting and Northern Cardinal

Project FeederWatch Week 16 and Other Stuff

Project FeederWatch numbers are down this week and last week. This is the time of year that I would rather be out in the woods seeing what spring migrants are coming through rather than watching my feeders. The American Goldfinch numbers have decreased significantly over the past two weeks. They went from 57 over the weekend of 2/13 to 24 over the weekend of 2/20 to six over the weekend of 2/27. I still have a good number of Song Sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos at my feeders. Pine Warblers are still coming to the suet, but it won't be long before they abandon the feeders. The Red-winged Blackbird numbers dwindled some, but there are still quite a few Brown-headed Cowbirds that visit my ground feeder. There was nothing out of the ordinary captured by my BirdCam in the woods last week. I walked down yesterday to fill the feeders and watch them for a little bit. An Orange-crowned Warbler is still coming to the Bark Butter. There were still several American Goldfinches on the feeders. White-throated Sparrows are cleaning up what was spilled on the ground.

I am anxiously awaiting the spring migrants. So far the only ones I've seen are Purple Martins flying overhead. "My" martins haven't returned yet. These are the earliest dates I've seen for the following wood warblers: Northern Parula, March 9; Hooded Warbler, March 16; and Black-and-white Warbler, March 13. Those are typically the first wood warbler migrants on the Upper Texas Coast. The rest come through during April and into the first couple of weeks of May. I am trying a new position for my BirdCam to capture images from three feeders at one time. I should be able to get some good shots of Indigo Buntings, Painted Buntings, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, and Blue Grosbeaks as they visit the feeders. It's possible Summer Tanagers, Baltimore Orioles and warblers will visit the suet. This is the first year I've had the feeders in the woods during spring migration, so I really don't know what to expect to see.

After discovering the two bluebird bodies in the nest that the House Sparrow killed, I removed the sparrow nest and opened the box to encourage the sparrow to move on. I left it open for a week and think the sparrow decided to move to my martin house. He's been singing out there for a while. I closed the bluebird box and on my way to work yesterday saw a male bluebird sitting on the top of the box. There has been a pair checking out the box in our yard. I haven't gone over to Mom's to see if there is any activity at the box in her yard. It's still a little early for bluebirds to actually nest, but they're checking out their options.

BirdCam Fun!

I bought a Wingscapes Audubon BirdCam to put on my feeders down in the woods. I can't sit down there and watch the feeders, so I let the BirdCam take pictures of the birds that visit them. It's a motion-activated camera that only takes pictures when a bird moves in front of it. I was impressed with the quality of the photos. Even when I cropped them quite a bit, the clarity was still there without the pixels showing up. One of my feeders is simply a log about two feet long. I drilled a couple of 1" holes about 2" deep in it. I put Jim's Birdacious Bark Butter in it. Before I got the BirdCam, I knew something was eating it, but didn't know what. I was excited to find an adult female Red-bellied Woodpecker, a juvenile male Red-bellied Woodpecker and a Hairy Woodpecker. The Hairy Woodpecker was property bird #195 for me! I pointed the BirdCam to the tube feeder and got several pictures of Carolina Chickadees and Tufted Titmice. I decided to try the video function on it and pointed it at the log feeder again. I wasn't as impressed with the clarity of it. The videos are kind of grainy. Maybe I'm not doing something right on it. I'm really looking forward to this winter when Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, Northern Flickers, Yellow-rumped Warblers, Ruby-crowned Kinglets and others might use the feeders. I could get some great shots of spring migrants in April, such as Indigo Buntings and Painted Buntings. Anyway, here are some of the pictures and a video taken with the BirdCam. (The noise in the video is the baffle being blown by the wind.)