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

Eastern Bluebirds

This time of year is always a tough one for me. I know the joys that spring brings - migration, nesting birds, new life and growth. I also know that spring is followed by summer and all it brings - heat, humidity, hurricanes and mosquitoes. So, as winter begins to wind down, I always reluctantly look forward to spring. This morning, I had one of those times which makes me very excited about spring coming. A male and female Eastern Bluebird were showing courtship display and checking out the nest box about fifty feet from my bedroom window. For the past two years, we've had bluebirds nesting in a box in my aunt's yard, but I was never able to attract them to the box in my yard. I moved the box out of the line of sight of the box in my aunt's yard with the hopes that we would have two pairs of bluebirds nesting. So, with those two around my box, I'm looking forward to spring to see if that comes true.

Other than that, not a whole lot is going on around here. There are still lots of Yellow-rumped Warblers in the trees around. The Carolina Wren continues to come for my suet. All the "normal" birds - Northern Cardinals, Blue Jays, Carolina Chickadees, Eurasian Collared Doves and American Goldfinches - continue at the feeders. I was out early this morning to hear the beginning of the chorus of territorial calling that starts as spring approaches. I enjoy listening to that every morning.

Property Bird #188!!!

On Monday, November 17, all of us were outside working in the yard a little at the house. I took my last days of vacation this week. I heard a really strange bird call, which sounded like it was coming from the pasture. The call was familiar, but I couldn't place it. I was looking intently out there trying to find what was making that call. I heard it again and realized it was coming from above. There were 20-25 birds flying in a V-formation. I ran inside to get my binoculars thinking they were some sort of weird sounding geese. As soon as I stepped inside, it hit me what they were based on the sound - Sandhill Cranes! I ran back out with my binoculars and got some great looks at them. I looked and looked for a big white crane to be flying with them, but no luck there! Over the next 30 minutes, three more flocks about the same size flew over. I came inside and entered the sighting into my Birder's Diary and Petey the Parrot did his little celebration and said, "Rawk! This is the first sighting of a Sandhill Crane in property list for Paul!" When Petey does that little celebration, I know I've got a new property bird. I was very excited about it. Sandhill Crane will be #188 on my list now. Just 12 more and I can get to 200. That's going to be tough to do. I'll have to see some rarities to get to that number. Either that or have several gulls, terns or sandpipers to find my new pond.

Other than that, not much new has been going on around the property. I have pretty much the same birds at my feeders. I'm not seeing many Chipping Sparrows yet. Hopefully they'll show up next month. I am excited to have a pair of Carolina Wrens coming regularly to my suet log. I see Downy Woodpeckers and Red-bellied Woodpeckers in the yard pretty regularly, but they haven't found the suet yet. I keep hoping to look out and see them on the feeder. Cardinals have pretty much been non-existent at the feeders recently (although there are a male and female on the on the feeder now.) They must be finding enough food in the wild to satisfy them. But, the Eurasian Collared-Doves, Carolina Chickadees, Blue Jays, House Sparrows and Carolina Wrens are usually present at the feeders at most times during the day. I'm seeing more Eastern Phoebes this year than I remember in years past. Seems like they are everywhere! The Yellow-rumped Warblers love my birdbath with the drip. They are on it quite a bit. So, it's fun to see what's around this time of year.

Year Property Bird #138

On Sunday I was outside for most of the afternoon and saw my first flock of geese fly over. Most of them were Snow Geese, but I got my binoculars out and found a few Ross' Geese flying with the flock as well. The Ross' Goose made 138 property birds for the year. The Yellow-rumped Warblers are thick in the hackberry tree behind the house. I've also seen several Eastern Phoebes around. A Northern Flicker is in the trees to the west of our house quite a bit. I haven't had much of an opportunity to get out birding on the property. I'll be out quite a bit in the coming weeks, but unfortunately I'll have a chainsaw and be working to clear the fence line of the trees and limbs that were blown down on it during the hurricane. Maybe I'll get a chance to do a little birding while I take a break from work.

I'll be in Bandera this weekend hopefully seeing some western birds I haven't seen this year. I probably won't see many that I haven't seen since I was in Leakey earlier in the summer. But, maybe I'll get some winter sparrows that I didn't see then.

Some Winter Activity

We've had a few winter birds showing up around the feeders here. I had four American Goldfinches this past week. They came to the finch feeders several times. I haven't seen them in a few days, though. I hear them calling occasionally from the trees. Two Chipping Sparrows have been visiting my ground feeder where I have put millet. They also hang out in the tallow tree in our front yard with the Yellow-rumped Warblers and Eastern Bluebirds. One of my favorite winter birds is the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker that comes to my suet log. He showed up last year and has started coming again this year. So far I haven't had a White-throated Sparrow visit my feeders. I wish I had more time to go walking in the woods to see what is showing up down there.

I went walking in our woods on Sunday and found several winter migrants there along with most of the "regulars." I found a couple of Northern Flickers, a Hermit Thrush, an Eastern Phoebe and a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. I will be interested to see what has come in with the strong north winds we had yesterday.

Two Great Horned Owls have been calling to each other over the past week. I hear them every night when I go outside. They are hanging out around the three acre clearing in the woods that the drilling company cleared.

Update on the drilling: The clean-up is going slowly. They have pulled up some of the boards from the drilling area. They have also pumped the drilling mud back into the casing. They are leveling the pond area and will dig out some more of it once more of the boards are taken up. I think that it's going to be one of my favorite spots on the property. It's so quiet down there. I'm going to build some Wood Duck boxes and see if we can get some nesting around it.

I sit here wondering what's down in the woods with the passage of the cold front. How many warblers and other migrants are hunkering down in our woods waiting for the south winds to return? Can I go down there? No. I have to go to LTC this weekend and miss one of the better birding moments of the spring. Sigh. And then I'm busy the next two weekends taking lifeguard classes. They didn't have anything available in May, so I get to take two weekends in April. Fortunately I can get out in the evenings and see what's happening. I'm scheduling NOTHING during the day for the last weekend of April and first weekend of May.

On another note, I haven't seen the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker at my feeder lately. I wonder if he's gone up north to establish his breeding territory. What I have seen at my feeders lately is House Sparrows. I'm not real happy about that.

Once again, the Purple Martins have not nested in my gourds or house. I'm really disappointed. When I look on the Purple Martin Conservation Association website, I'm doing everything right - good location, good clearance, good EVERYTHING!!! So why can't I get martins? I hold out hope because of a customer at the Dallas WBU store who came in all excited one day and told me that she finally had martins nesting with her. I asked how long she had been trying to get them and she said, "Ten years." Six more to go . . . I keep a glimmer of hope. I sold a martin house to a guy mid-May one time and warned him that the martins wouldn't nest with him that year. He said he understood but wanted the house up anyway. Two days later, he came in and told me that he had a pair of martins hanging out around his house. A week later he came in and told me that they were nesting. So, there's always hope. It just diminishes GREATLY the further through April we go.