Photo-based Bird Guides

Expert birder and ex-Austinite Rob Fergus has a very interesting new blog post: "Evolution of the Bird Photo Field Guide". Bird field guides are usually based on either photographs or illustrations (plates) of birds. I and most other birders I know are fans of the illustration-based guides for the reasons Rob describes in his post. So I've never paid much attention to the photo-based guides. But maybe I should! I'm especially intrigued by the Kaufman guide based on photos that have been doctored to be more useful for identification. My current bird field guide recommendations are here. Maybe I should reevaluate them!

Broad-winged Hawks Fledged

Just a quick note. I was out for a half-hour jog this evening and went by the Broad-winged Hawk nest at Broadmeade and Norchester. I saw no birds on the nest, and after some searching finally found one juvenile in an adjacent tree. So sometime since Saturday the nestlings have fledged!

Young Birds, Dry Creek

I spent about 2 and a half hours birding the neighborhood yesterday morning. I was hoping for partly cloudy weather conditions but the skies were mostly clear (until the storm in the afternoon). I was surprised to see that the small creek that runs between Meadowheath and Braeburn Glen was mostly dry. Here's a picture I took at Meadowheath and Briar Hollow. In the 4 years I've lived here I don't remember seeing this creek so dry. It seems like there was always at least a small amount of water flowing.

I found 37 species of birds, all of them being expected year-round or summer residents. There were lots of young birds around, which is always encouraging to see. I checked on the Broad-winged Hawk nest and saw 2 nestlings and 1 adult. On Lake Creek I took this picture of a juvenile Yellow-crowned Night-Heron. I believe these birds nest in the neighborhood like the Green Herons do, and here was evidence that at least one nest was successful! I also saw juvenile Northern Cardinals, Black-crested Titmouse, American Robins, and Bewick's Wren. 2 less common summer residents I found near the Lake Creek Trail footbridge were a White-eyed Vireo and a Yellow-billed Cuckoo.

On Lake Creek Trail near the low water crossing on the flood plain property the air was full of seeds from Cottonwood Trees. It was neat to see them all floating and blowing around. Here's a picture I took of some.

Broad-winged Hawk Nestlings Photos

If you've read my blog lately you know that I have been keeping my eye on a Broad-winged Hawk nest at Norchester and Broadmeade. Friday was the first time I saw a nestling peeking out at me from over the edge of the nest. Today after work I wandered over with my binoculars and camera hoping to get some pictures. Success! Here's a picture of one of the parents and 2 nestlings on the nest. (The nestling on the left had its head down.) After a few minutes the parent flew down and buzzed me! It veered within 5 feet of me and flew across the street where it called a couple times. I moved to another viewing angle and then I saw 3 nestlings! The third must have been lying down in the nest -- it was not visible at all from my first angle.

After watching the nest for a little while longer and not finding a better viewing angle, the parent buzzed me again! So I took the hint and headed home. Here's another picture from the original angle showing both visible nestlings' heads. These nestlings probably won't be on the nest for much longer. I bet they'll be able to fly in a week. So if you live in the neighborhood, check them out soon!

Broad-winged Hawk Nestling

Friday evening I walked by the Broad-winged Hawk nest at Broadmeade and Norchester. (I was on my way to one of the NASWC wine tasting parties which have been lots of fun and a great way to meet neighbors.) I was excited to see a single nestling looking at me from over the edge of the nest. I've been watching the nest for over a month but this was the first nestling I've seen. This morning I checked the nest again while I was out jogging. I did not see the nestling but one of the parents was flying around nearby making its long single-note call. These birds are very interesting to me because our neighborhood is just barely in the extreme southwestern edge of their breeding range. Red-shouldered Hawks are similar and much more common around here. This picture is of one of the parent Broad-winged Hawks that I took on May 11. I'm hoping I can get some new pictures of the nestling soon.

Painted Bunting, Blue Dragonfly

Sunday morning I birded the neighborhood for about 3 hours. I found 41 species, all year-round or summer-resident birds. It was fun seeing juvenile American Robins with speckled breasts learning how to find food for themselves. But the bird of the day was a male Painted Bunting that I saw briefly as it flew by me on the T&C playing fields. This is a summer resident in the Texas hill country and I've seen them in the neighborhood during the summer in the past couple years. But I was wondering if I would see them again since the Amber Oaks corporate center is developing more of their property, and the new Parmer Village DR Horton construction project cleared a lot of habitat. I always see a few of these brilliantly colored birds during spring migration. I hope they continue here during the summer as well.

On my way back I saw several of these blue dragonflies on Lake Creek Trail near the T&C soccer fields and I got this picture. After comparing my picture to my one dragonfly book, I'm pretty sure it's a Comanche Skimmer (Libellula comanche), although I don't know my dragonflies.

A Warm Afternoon

In Texas, you can't pick a worse time to go birding than an afternoon in June. But I hadn't been out all week, and there was a breeze and some cloud cover. So I grabbed my binocs and my camera and spent about an hour and a half birding up Stillforest and then back down Broadmeade. I had a better time than I thought I would, talking to a few neighbors and just barely finding 20 species of birds. Near Chesterforest and Stillforest I did not see any birds on the Red-shouldered Hawk nest, but I did find 2 juveniles perched nearby. I assume they are siblings from the nest. I got this picture of one.

On my way back I found an American Robin nest on Broadmeade near Hazelhurst and got this picture of one of the parents feeding the chicks. I think there are at least 3 chicks on the nest. At Norchester I checked on the Broad-winged Hawk nest and saw 2 adults. I have not seen any nestlings or juveniles yet.

It was surprisingly fun even though I mostly only saw common summer- and year-round-resident species. This makes me hope that my next NASWC article idea will be popular. I'm going to list the 20 most common year-round resident birds in the neighborhood with short descriptions and links to more information about them. And I'm going to challenge people to try and find them all and send me their progress. Then in the NASWC newsletter we'll list people who have seen at least 10, at least 15, and all 20 species. Hopefully it will capture a few people's interest!

NASWC Bird Walk

Today 5 of us participated in the June NASWC bird walk. June is usually the least interesting month of the year to bird in central Texas because for a few weeks there are no birds migrating either north or south. But we did surprisingly well, finding 42 species. Here are the highlights:

• We saw 5 species of egret or heron including Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Green Heron, and Yellow-crowned Night-Heron. Green Heron was by far the most common, and I got this picture of one of them hunting.
• We heard and got brief looks at 3 Yellow-billed Cuckoos, the first I've seen in the neighborhood this year. This is a summer resident bird and they have been here for weeks. But they can be very sneaky and I just hadn't seen one yet.
• Near the downstream edge of the T&C playing fields we got great looks at a single Bronzed Cowbird, getting close enough to see its red eye.
• In the same spot as 2 weeks before from the Lake Creek Trail footbridge, we watched an Olive-sided Flycatcher catching bugs from the top of a dead tree. This was the only sure north-bound migrating bird of the morning.
• We totaled 6 flycatcher species. In addition to the Olive-sided we found an Eastern Wood-Pewee (another possible northbound migrant), Eastern Phoebe, Great Crested Flycatcher, Western Kingbird, and Scissor-tailed Flycatcher.
• In the flood plain property woods on our way back we got quick looks at 2 possible owls, but didn't see them well enough to identify them.

The weather was surprisingly comfortable and we had a nice breeze on most of the walk. Not bad for the first morning in June!