Creeper and Waxwings

Sunday morning was gloomy but pleasant outside and I spent a couple hours birding the neighborhood. Just as I started I ran into a large mixed species foraging flock of songbirds at Broadmeade and Chester Forest. I watched these birds for awhile and was most excited to find a single Brown Creeper. This is a winter resident species that I only see a few times per year. It's a small brown speckled bird that resembles a wren, but has a stiff tail like a woodpecker and usually stays on tree trunks. It doesn't peck the trees like a woodpecker but just pokes around with its delicate curved bill for insects in the bark. It has a distinctive foraging style of shimmying up the trunk of one tree, then flying downwards to the bottom of another tree and shimmying up that one.

For the past couple weeks I've gotten fleeting glimpses of a few Cedar Waxwings which I recognized by their distinctive high whistling calls. This is another winter resident species which is much more common than the creeper. Yesterday I finally found a large flock of them on Meadowheath. I estimated there were 250 birds flying around and perching in the trees near Briar Hollow. I took this photo showing most of the flock, and the photo below showing some of these sleek birds a little closer up.

Winter Wren

I took today off and birded part of Lake Creek Trail this morning. I spent over 2 hours covering about half a mile from the parking lot at Braes Valley to the footbridge. The weather was cold, clear, and still; and the birds were quite active. I was most excited to find a single Winter Wren in the woods near the footbridge. This is our smallest wren, and is the only species of wren that occurs outside of the Americas. It lives in temperate regions across the entire northern hemisphere. As its common name suggests, this species only occurs in the Austin area during the winter. And I have only seen it a handful of times in our neighborhood. This was the first time I got a photo of one, and I couldn't resist sharing it even though it's not very sharp.

In the Zone

Despite a headache and a mild lack of enthusiasm to get out in the cold and cloudy weather, I spent nearly 4 hours birding Lake Creek Trail this morning. I started at the Parmer Village development and ended up finding 60 species which is a pretty high count for our neighborhood. It was a very fun morning and several times I really felt like I was in the birding "zone". I had a few of those experiences that make me feel like I've just faded into the background and I'm watching birds simply living their lives unaffected by me.

• I re-found the 2 Black-crowned Night-Herons that Moria Darnell found on November 13 by the Parmer Lane bridge.
• Nearby a Song Sparrow started singing about 15 feet away from me in the reeds.
• A few minutes later I heard a Sora voice a few single notes from deep in the cattails.
• Upstream in the woods by the last dam I found 2 Spotted Towhees and 1 Brown Thrasher (the first one I've seen this fall) deep in some dense brush, foraging on the ground and oblivious to my presence.
• On the other side of the playing fields near the footbridge I was standing just off the trail when a Sharp-shinned Hawk flew by me from across the creek, right through some dense brush like it wasn't even there.

Here are a few pictures I took.

Friday and Sunday

Friday morning I showed a visitor from France our neighborhood hike-and-bike trail. Awhile back Chris Shaw, a British expat living in France, found my blog and asked if we could go birding while he was in Austin to visit his in-laws in Brushy Creek. We ended up spending 4 hours birding and taking pictures on Lake Creek Trail with his brother-in-law Pete, and we had a great time. The highlights were good looks at Vesper Sparrows, American Pipits, Least Sandpipers, and a female Belted Kingfisher by the footbridge. Above is a photo I got of the kingfisher.

As I previously posted about, Moria Darnell was birding the trail on Friday morning as well and found 2 Black-crowned Night-Herons by the Parmer Lane bridge. This morning I was able to re-find these 2 birds myself and got this mediocre photo of one. (This makes 197 species on my neighborhood list.) The fact that these birds were still in the same area suggests that they might not be just passing through on their way south. So I am very curious to see how long these herons hang around. According to most range maps Austin is just north of their year-round resident range.

On both Friday and Sunday I saw lots of sparrows. Native sparrow species are mostly in our neighborhood only in the winter, and it was so nice to see that most have now returned in substantial numbers. On Friday and Sunday I observed my first Spotted Towhee and Swamp Sparrows of the fall, as well as Vesper Sparrows, Savannah Sparrows, White-throated Sparrows, Lincoln's Sparrows, and singing Song Sparrows. Here's one of the Vesper Sparrows. Notice the strong white eye-ring.

Black-crowned Night-Heron

This morning Moria Darnell found 2 Black-crowned Night-Herons in the neighborhood, near the Parmer Lane bridge. She sent me this photo of one of them. This is the first time I know of that this species has been recorded in our neighborhood. I don't know very much about the distribution of this nocturnal species. I see them much more often on the Texas coast than I do in the Austin area. The similar Yellow-crowned Night-Heron is a common summer resident here, but Black-crowned Night-Herons might just pass through during migration. Way to go, Moria!

More Winter Birds

I spent 3 hours birding the neighborhood in the quiet fog this morning. I enjoyed seeing some bright red Virginia Creeper on a few trees, one of our only examples of fall color so far. I covered some of the streets between my house and the T&C Playing Fields, and birded Lake Creek Trail between the footbridge and the parking lot at Braes Valley. At the corner of Chester Forest and Stillforest I found this first-year Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. (The light was low so the picture is not very good.) The bird let me get quite close and I could see that it was working on a row of existing sapsucker holes in the tree trunk. Sapsuckers create rows of holes like this and drink the sap that oozes out. (They also eat insects.) Once you know what they look like it's amazing how many sapsucker holes you can find on trees. Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers are newly returned winter residents here.

Our newly returned Ruby-crowned Kinglets were numerous this morning. I found one mixed species foraging flock on Stillforest that had 15-20 of these birds in it. And for the first time this fall Yellow-rumped Warblers were easy to find and see. I saw 12 this morning, mostly by the creek where I watched some of them eating Poison Ivy berries. I got this picture of one bird near Holbrook Trail.

While I was walking back home on Broadmeade, 2 American Goldfinches flew over me making their soft distinctive call. These were the first I've seen this season.

NASWC Bird Walk

I wasn't sure if anyone would show up the morning after Halloween, but 7 of us participated in the November NASWC Bird Walk this morning. We enjoyed clear and cool conditions and found 37 species of birds. Here are some highlights:

• At 7:00 AM mist was over the Parmer Village drainage pond, partially obscuring 3 American Coots and 4 Pied-billed Grebes. The picture above shows one of the grebes in the mist.
• By the last dam we got great looks at a Blue-headed Vireo, one of the more colorful winter-resident songbirds that has recently returned. Some of us also saw an Indigo Bunting, which is on its way south. It's a bit late to see them.
• Also by the last dam this Double-crested Cormorant was perched on a dead tree over the water. These large duck-like winter-resident birds swim under water and catch fish.
  
  
  
• A few of us took a close look at a clear shallow area of the creek and we found it loaded with tiny life. I was surprised by this snail crawling upside down on the surface tension of the water!
  
  
• Further upstream we got good looks at 2 Nashville Warblers, 2 Ruby-crowned Kinglets, and 1 Orange-crowned Warbler.
• Throughout the morning we got brief looks at several species of native sparrows which are newly returned winter residents of our neighborhood. They included Vesper Sparrows, Lincoln's Sparrows, Song Sparrows, 1 Savannah Sparrow, and 1 Chipping Sparrow. I got this picture of one of the Song Sparrows.