Nice Temp and Nice Birds

I'll just quickly cover new birds that have been showing up in the neighborhood for the past 2 weeks. I was able to get out onto our neighborhood hike-and-bike trail last weekend and this weekend and found several first-of-Fall bird species and lots of south-bound migrants. Here are the highlights:

• A few of the elegant hawks, Mississippi Kites, have been passing over the neighborhood on their way south. I saw 2 last weekend and 1 this morning.
• Southbound warblers in the area include many bright and beautiful Yellow Warblers, and this morning I was pleased to find 1 Wilson's Warbler.
• Many small flycatchers in the Empidonax genus (mostly Least Flycatchers) are moving south through our area, and last weekend I also saw 2 Olive-sided Flycatchers. Here's a picture I got of one:
  
  
• Orchard Orioles have been a relatively common south-bound migrant for the past few weeks. This morning I saw 2 Baltimore Orioles as well.
• This morning 2 Upland Sandpipers flew over me as I stood on Lake Creek Trail in the middle of the Town and Country playing fields. This is a species more often heard than seen during its migration south, so I enjoyed watching them fly over.

Keep your eyes on your hummingbird feeders. My neighbor Don Markette emailed me recently about a Rufous Hummingbird that has been visiting his feeders. The males are dramatically reddish brown almost all over and are passing south through the Austin area. Also, a few even spend all winter here, so keep your feeders up as long as you like and maybe you'll see one!

Juveniles and Migrants

I spent about 3 and a half hours birding Lake Creek Trail this morning, starting at the new parking lot at the end of Braes Valley. I was lucky to have some cloud cover for about half the time, and the birding was fun as usual. (In fact, I found most of the interesting birds this morning without ever leaving the sidewalk. What a great hike-and-bike trail we have!) About half-way to the footbridge a hummingbird flew by my right ear so close that I could feel the air move. I could not identify it or any other hummingbirds I saw today, but I assume they were all either Ruby-throated Hummingbirds or Black-chinned Hummingbirds, the 2 common summer resident species here. At least 2 juvenile Tricolored Herons are still on the creek, and I got this picture of one of them on the way to the footbridge. A few of these mostly coastal birds show up in central Texas every summer and there have been more reports than usual this summer.

Near the same spot this juvenile Great Blue Heron was hunting and let me get closer than usual, so I got this relatively high resolution picture. Juvenile birds are often not as wary as adults have learned to be.

There were quite a few other juvenile birds on the trail this morning -- mostly dozens and dozens of European Starlings and House Sparrows. And several adult and young American Robins were on the trail too. I'm glad all of these birds had successful breeding seasons despite the drought. Our spring-fed creek is especially valuable to them this year. I got this picture of one of the adult robins in a chinaberry tree (an exotic invasive species I wish we could get rid of).

There were a few south-bound fall migrants out there this morning. The first was this tiny Blue-gray Gnatcatcher that was foraging in the trees at the north end of the Town and Country soccer fields. First I just heard its faint raspy call, then it came out into the open and looked for bugs in the yellow netting of several soccer goals.

For the past couple weeks I thought I've been hearing the harsh flight call of a Dickcissel or 2 on the trail downstream of the playing fields. But I was never sure because I never got a good look at the birds making the call, and there are so many Starlings in that area that can make similar sounds. But today I heard the call again and finally got a good look at this female Dickcissel, another fall migrant.

And I was happy to see that there are still a few Painted Buntings moving south through our neigborhood. I found a male and a female nearby, but did not get a good photo. There was one more fall migrant that I found on my way back -- a Bell's Vireo. I have a few spring and fall records of this species in the neighborhood, but this was the first time I've seen one in the fall before September. I got this poor picture of it. It was a nice surprise on the long hot walk back to the parking lot!

Flycatchers, Hawks, Herons

I spent about 3 and a half hours birding the neighborhood this morning. Despite the hot weather there were some interesting birds around. I found 50 species, including a good variety of flycatchers, hawks and herons. At several spots on the hike-and-bike trail I heard the "whit" call note of empidonax flycatchers. These are small gray birds that are moving south through the Austin area right now. This group of flycatchers is infamous for being difficult to identify except by their songs. I was able to identify 2 Least Flycatchers by sight, and I was excited to finally hear the "fitz-bew" song of at least 2 Willow Flycatchers. Nearby I also found a single Eastern Wood-Pewee, another sounth-bound migrant flycatcher.

At one point I heard what I thought was the call of a Killdeer, but it wasn't quite right. I looked up and saw 2 hawks soaring, and then I realized what I heard might have been a Broad-winged Hawk. When I got my binoculars on the soaring hawks I found I was right -- they were Broad-wings. As I watched them a third hawk flew into view and I recognized the light-body-and-dark-flight-feather pattern of a Swainson's Hawk. What a treat! Near the footbridge I found one of our year-round resident Red-shouldered Hawks perched on a wire over the creek. This is a pretty common sight -- these hawks like to perch on the wires and look for snakes and other prey in the creek bed. But it was sharing the wires with dozens of European Starlings, and none of the birds seemed to mind. I have never seen these birds sharing a space so peacefully before.

From there I walked downstream across the T&C playing fields to check a spot on the creek that has some good shorebird habitat. I did not find the variety of shorebirds I was hoping for, but I did find several herons and egrets. There were about a dozen Snowy Egrets hunting in the shallow water, along with just 1 juvenile Little Blue Heron. I got this picture of the Little Blue panting to cool itself in front of 3 Snowy Egrets. You can see that the bird hasn't quite molted into its complete blue-gray adult plumage yet.

In the same spot I was pleased to also find 2 juvenile Tricolored Herons with the Snowy Egrets. I assume these are the same birds we found on my monthly bird walk last weekend. I got this picture showing both, with one out in front actively hunting.


While I was out this morning, some gray clouds moved by overhead, but all they provided was occasional shade. Later this afternoon there was a light light rain that ended all too prematurely. I hope we get some relief from the drought and the heat soon!

NASWC Bird Walk

This morning 8 of us participated in my monthly NASWC bird walk and I could not believe our great luck! In addition to finding 40 species of birds, we enjoyed an unseasonably cool and pleasant overcast morning. We started at the Parmer Village drainage pond and the only time I saw the sun was when it rose through this small window in the clouds. Here are some highlights from the walk.

• While standing by the creek near the last dam, a single Tricolored Heron flew by and landed upstream. Later we found 2 juvenile birds and I got the picture below. These are usually coastal birds, but a few wander inland (usually juveniles) this time of year. These 2 were the first I've seen in the Austin area this summer.
  
  
  
• In and around a patch of woods by the creek we found several early south-bound migrating songbirds. The first was a female Black-and-white Warbler hopping up and down the larger branches and trunks of a liveoak tree. Later we found a single female Summer Tanager eating grapes off a wild grape vine. And along the outer edge of the woods we saw at least 4 Painted Buntings (both males and females).
• In this same patch of woods we started to hear many American Crows gathering and making lots of noise. One of our group discovered that the crows were harassing a large owl, probably a Great Horned Owl. A few of us got fleeting glimpses of this owl through the trees as the crows chased it away.
• In the creek bed there were 4 species of shorebirds. In addition to several year-round resident Killdeer, there were south-bound migrating Least Sandpipers, Solitary Sandpipers, and Spotted Sandpipers.
• On our way back we got great looks at a pair of Lesser Goldfinches as they fed on thistle seeds. These colorful year-round resident birds were no more than 20 feet away from us.