GBBC 2008

The Great Backyard Bird Count is coming up soon, February 15-18. This is a nation-wide survey organized by national Audubon and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. It's easy to participate by counting birds in your yard or other locations. And it's easy to enter the data into the GBBC web site. You can also follow the results in real time and see how many of what species are being reported from Austin or any other city.

Last year I had a blast counting birds for the GBBC in the NASWC area. I found the only Green Heron and Brown Thrasher reported from Austin in our neighborhood. If you're interested, check out their web site. And if you'd like to join me or count some birds on your own in the NASWC area, send me an email.

Fog and Pollen

I birded part of the T&C playing fields this morning with a plan of going downstream to the Parmer bridge. It was foggy and sunny at the same time, which did some neat stuff with the light. Here's a picture I took of the creek while the sun was still low. The fog also made sound travel better through the air. More than once I heard someone and thought they were 20 feet away. But they were really on the other side of the creek and across a field. Unfortunately another sound that carried this morning was a bulldozer on the D.R. Horton development between the playing fields and Parmer Lane. I was disappointed that this noisy work was going on at 8:00 AM on a Sunday morning.

So I changed my plan and decided to explore some of the undeveloped Amber Oaks business park land north of the playing fields. In the north T&C parking lot I found about 20 Cedar Waxwings and got this picture of one. Between Town and Country and the Jefferson Center there was lots of bird activity. In an open fields I found 6 species of sparrows: Lincoln's, Song, Savannah, Field, White-crowned, and White-throated. There were also House Finches, Lesser Goldfinches, and American Goldfinches eating seeds off the tops of the grass.

Most of the Amber Oaks property is dominated by Ash Juniper trees and their pollen is one of my few allergies. Today the pollen was blowing off the male trees like smoke! I even got a picture of it. Look at that cloud of pollen to to the right of the center tree.

Gray Catbird

Gray Catbirds are closely related to the Northern Mockingbird. They're a little smaller and like to stay in low dense brush. They are migratory, and during the winter in Texas they usually only occur on the coast. But many Gray Catbirds are being seen further inland this season. I've seen one several times in our neighborhood since late December. It has always been on the flood plain property in the dense bushes west of the new footbridge. This morning I found it again and finally got these decent pictures of it. It was eating the berries around it which I think are Poison Ivy.

It sure was a beautiful morning today -- it was great to be outside and see the sun again. And I saw some great birds in addition to the catbird. On Broadmeade I ran into about a dozen American Robins which I haven't seen much this winter. And I counted 92 Cedar Waxwings in several flocks throughout the morning. Near the Amber Oaks drainage pond across the creek, I was standing on the edge of a patch of woods when a Great Horned Owl flew in and landed nearby. It was soon being harassed by Blue Jays. On my way back home I ran into a great mixed flock of birds on Stillforest including:

• 5 or 6 Carolina Chickadees
• 2 Black-crested Titmouse
• 1 Blue-headed Vireo
• 1 Brown Creeper
• 2 or 3 Ruby-crowned Kinglets
• 2 Orange-crowned Warblers

I got this picture of one of the Orange-crowned Warblers.

A Fun Morning

This morning was cold, clear, and windy. I got a later start than usual and just birded the T&C playing fields downstream of Meadowheath and Lake Creek from the playing fields to the Parmer Lane bridge. I was glad to find a Green Heron on the creek, rare here in the winter. And I got this picture of 5 Least Sandpipers just downstream of the last crossing. As I walked up the north bank of the creek to the hike and bike trail I saw a Red-tailed Hawk hovering over the undeveloped field north of the soccer fields. It went down fast and the next time I saw it it was on top of a light post eating something it had caught. On the other side of the creek a flock of about 30 Starlings caught my eye. They were flying very close together which is something they do if a hawk is nearby. Sure enough, there was a Sharp-shinned Hawk flying below them and they made a couple passes at it before it disappeared downstream. I continued down the trail and then heard the Red-tailed Hawk behind me. I turned around and saw it flying south, carrying some kind of rodent and being chased by a Crow.

I was thrilled to watch these hawks and was a little disappointed it all happened too fast and too far away to get pictures. But then a little further down the trail I got a beautiful photo opportunity. I took this picture of our state bird surrounded by brilliant red berries. The bush with the berries is a Possum Haw, a native plant that loses its leaves but is covered with berries in the winter.

Eastern Phoebe and Marsh Wren

I birded the neighborhood most of Sunday morning. It was very cold until about 9:30. I found a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker on Chester Forest. Stillforest was relatively quiet but there were 2 Eastern Phoebes on Hazelhurst. (Pictured is an Eastern Phoebe I photographed near the creek back in September.) This is our only winter-resident flycatcher and it's quite common, but I usually only see them near the creek. By the new hike-and-bike trail footbridge there was the usual flock of Yellow-rumped Warblers. And a Cooper's Hawk flew across the smaller tributary creek scaring up lots of other birds. But I found the bird of the day on Lake Creek near the Parmer bridge where there's a small patch of marshy habitat. A few weeks ago I found wintering Swamp Sparrows there and I found 1 on Sunday too. But a Marsh Wren also briefly came into view. (I tried to get a picture of it but it just wouldn't come out of the reeds.) This was a new bird for my neighborhood list, bringing it up to 171 species! I need to explore that little marsh more -- maybe there's a rail or 2 in there!

I recently finished a NASWC article about our more common neighborhood wrens. You can find it here.

NASWC Bird Walk

For the January NASWC bird walk of 2008, 4 of us found 26 species of birds. That number is a bit low because we started a little later and it was windy. Even though things were king of quiet we saw some great birds. The bird of the day was a female Merlin which we found at the end of the walk, perched on top of a power pole by the new footbridge. We got great looks at it and I got this decent picture. Other highlights:

• We started off with great close looks at about 25 Least Sandpiper in the creek bed.
• 3 flocks of Cedar Waxwings flew over us during the morning. This bird has been low in numbers this winter, and today I saw more than I have all winter.
• A male Red-bellied Woodpecker was agitated as a European Starling went in and out of a hole in a dead tree limb that probably belonged to the woodpecker.
  
• We saw 7 or 8 Inca Doves, our smallest neighborhood dove.
  
• We watched a Turkey Vulture in the creek bed picking at a large fish skeleton.
  
• 5 Ring-billed Gulls flew over us as we were on our way back.
  

First Bird of 2008

As a birder it's fun to see what bird I'll see first each new year. Today I finally got out of the house just after noon (shameful for a birder!) and found a Ruby-crowned Kinglet in my backyard. Pictured here is a Ruby-crowned Kinglet I saw 2 days ago on Broadmeade. It's a common winter resident in our neighborhood and can be found actively foraging in the trees. It's 1 of 2 small green birds we have here in the winter. The other is the Orange-crowned Warbler. You can tell them apart by the kinglet's big white eye ring and wing bars. The Oranged-crowned Warbler lacks both of these. But both can be found in the same flock of birds up in the trees this time of year. Here's another picture of the Ruby-crowned Kinglet showing it turning its head almost 180 degrees. People think of owls having this ability but most other birds do too.

I ended up birding the neighborhood for over 2 hours. On Stillforest I ran into a nice mixed species foraging flock which had the 2 birds above plus a Blue-headed Vireo, Bewick's Wren, Carolina Chickadees, and Black-crested Titmice. I spent a lot of time on the flood plain property where I found (probably) the same Gray Catbird I saw a few days ago. There were lots of Yellow-rumped Warblers there as well. And near the new hike and bike trail parking lot I saw a Cooper's Hawk in the air being chased by an American Crow. I got this picture of them; the hawk is on the left and the crow is on the right. Not bad for a windy afternoon. Happy New Year!