Spring!

Leaves are coming in on the trees. Warmer temperatures are here. My yard needs to be mowed. Birds are singing. All signs that spring is here! I have been walking in the woods as often as possible. On March 7 I saw the first Northern Parula of the season. They are typically the first of the wood warblers to migrate into the area. They nest in a tree right on the property line. It has a lot of Spanish moss. They build their nests in the tufts of moss. I have seen Purple Martins, Northern Rough-winged Swallows and Tree Swallows so far. Hooded Warblers, Black-and-white Warblers, Yellow-throated Warblers and Louisiana Waterthrushes should be showing up anytime now. A pair of Eastern Bluebirds has taken up residence in the nest box in our yard. Their nest was completed on Monday. I keep checking for an egg, but none so far. I've got my sparrow spooker ready to put on as soon as I see an egg in the nest. The Purple Martins that nested in my gourds last year haven't returned yet. I'm anxious for them to be back! I'm going to take the cover off my chimney this year and allow Chimney Swifts to nest in it. As new houses are constructed, metal flues instead of clay have been used leading to a loss of "habitat" for Chimney Swifts and their population has dwindled. So, I'm going to do my part to help out. I wish I could build a Chimney Swift tower, but it is cost-prohibitive.

I have checked my BirdCam at the feeders in the woods regularly, but only have Red-winged Blackbirds, Northern Cardinals, Carolina Chickadees, Tufted Titmice and Carolina Wrens. Indigo Buntings should start showing up next week and Painted Buntings should show up a week after that. They really show up in good numbers the second week of April along with Blue Grosbeaks and Rose-breasted Grosbeaks. I should get all of them at my feeders. I've been researching what I can feed to attract orioles and tanagers. I've read sunflower hearts for tanagers and suet or fruit for orioles. I'll have all that down there to see what shows up. I hope that some of the warblers find the Bark Butter and get their picture taken by the BirdCam.

I watched a couple of Red-shouldered Hawks flying around along the gully and found their nest. I hope I can get close enough with my camera to get some shots when they're feeding the chicks. That will be fun!

Several winter birds are still around. When I was walking yesterday, I saw Hermit Thrush, Orange-crowned Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Ruby-crowned Kinglets and American Goldfinches. It's a fun time of year to go birding!

Birds Seen 3/15 & 3/17 (38 species):
Great Egret, Black Vulture, Turkey Vulture, Red-shouldered Hawk, Mourning Dove, Barred Owl, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Downy Woodpecker, Pileated Woodpecker, Eastern Phoebe, White-eyed Vireo, Blue Jay, Purple Martin, Tree Swallow, Northern Rough-winged Swallow, Carolina Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Carolina Wren, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Eastern Bluebird, Hermit Thrush, Gray Catbird, Northern Mockingbird, Orange-crowned Warbler, Northern Parula, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Chipping Sparrow, Song Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, Northern Cardinal, Red-winged Blackbird, Common Grackle, Great-tailed Grackle, American Goldfinch, House Sparrow

Property Birding, 1/18/10

I spent an hour and a half birding on our property today. The birds were active! I didn't see anything I wouldn't expect to be there. There were a few pretty neat things. I stopped by the Barred Owl box I put up last spring and there has been some kind of activity at it. I could clearly see that something has been going in and out of the entrance hole. I'm not ready to say it's for sure a Barred Owl, but it's promising! Also, a little further down the trail, I found a Red-shouldered Hawk constructing a nest. They nest every year close to us. When they have chicks in the nest, we can sit outside and watch them fly back and forth carrying prey to feed them. The last neat thing was watching an Osprey fly directly overhead while I was at the new pond.

I realized I keep putting things on here about where I was when I saw something and most people have not been out here to be familiar with our property. Here's a rough map of what our property looks like.


The yellow line shows our fence line. To the east is mature woods with oak, hackberry and ash. In the middle is pasture which is being slowly overrun by tallow trees. To the west is a neat mixture of grassland and cedar/pine woods. I do 90% of my birdwatching on the eastern part of the property. I do like to go to the cedar/pine woods to the west to find Barn Owls. The old pond will have Hooded Mergansers, Anhinga and other ducks on it. So far, the ducks haven't come to the new pond made by the drilling company. It's still pretty open and there isn't much cover for them. It's a wonderful place to go birding. As of today, I've seen 193 species of birds on it.

Birds seen 1/18/10 (36 species): Snow Goose, Double-crested Cormorant, Turkey Vulture, Osprey, Red-shouldered Hawk, Killdeer, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, Pileated Woodpecker, Eastern Phoebe, White-eyed Vireo, Blue Jay, American Crow, Carolina Chickadee, Carolina Wren, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Eastern Bluebird, Hermit Thrush, American Robin, Gray Catbird, European Starling, American Pipit, Cedar Waxwing, Orange-crowned Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Pine Warbler, Chipping Sparrow, Song Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, Northern Cardinal, Red-winged Blackbird, Brewer's Blackbird, Brown-headed Cowbird, American Goldfinch, House Sparrow

Dreary Day for Project FeederWatch

Sunday was a dreary day as far as weather is concerned. Fog blanketed the area for the majority of the day. But that didn't stop the birds from coming to the feeders. We added four more species to our Project FeederWatch list: Blue Jay, Brewer's Blackbird, Red-winged Blackbird and Brown-headed Cowbird. I never look forward to the blackbirds coming because I know they'll form enormous flocks that will empty my feeders all too quickly. Time to switch to safflower, I guess. I am thinking of trying to put the cage that excludes larger birds over a portion of my ground feeder to keep them off at least a little of it. The American Goldfinches began showing up in numbers. I had five at a time on my feeder yesterday. I have never had just one goldfinch on my feeders for two weeks before. That was kind of weird!

There were some interesting birds that didn't come to the feeders yesterday. A White Ibis poked around out in the pasture for most of the day. A Red-shouldered Hawk called loudly from a tallow tree in the pasture and gave us some great looks at him. I tried to get a picture, but this was the best I could do.
More Tree Swallows flew over. They were in a large flock. This time they were all heading southwest at a pretty good rate of speed instead of just hanging around over the pasture. A pair of Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers visited the hackberry tree behind the house. I hoped they would find the Bark Butter or the suet so they would continue to visit. Maybe they'll be back.

Birds Seen 12/13/09 (21 species): White Ibis, Red-shouldered Hawk, Eurasian Collared-Dove, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Eastern Phoebe, Blue Jay, American Crow, Tree Swallow, Carolina Chickadee, Eastern Bluebird, American Robin, Northern Mockingbird, European Starling, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Chipping Sparrow, Northern Cardinal, Red-winged Blackbird, Brewer's Blackbird, Brown-headed Cowbird, American Goldfinch, House Sparrow