Bluebirds, Sparrows, Chimney Swift

I got a late start and spent a couple hours on Lake Creek Trail starting at Parmer Village this morning. The most interesting birds I saw were 3 Clay-colored Sparrows near the last dam on the creek. Most native sparrows can be found in central Texas during the winter, and a few are year-round residents. But Clay-colored Sparrows spend the winter further to the south and breed in southern Canada and a few of our northern states. So here in Austin we only get to see them during spring and fall migration. I usually see a few around this time of year so I was happy to find these.

The most enjoyable birds of the morning were 2 Eastern Bluebirds that I found on the Town and Country playing fields. There was a male and a female catching insects around the small group of trees near the eastern edge of the fields. I've always thought these fields would be good bluebird habitat, but I've only seen them in the neighborhood a handful of times. My guess is that even though the fields might be good habitat, there are too many people there sometimes for the birds to linger. Here's a photo I got of the male:

I spent the evening on my patio and I was thrilled to see a Chimney Swift in the open sky over my backyard. This was the first I've seen this year. These unique birds are summer residents here and I look forward to hearing their twittering again soon. I also briefly watched a male Black-and-white Warbler foraging in the trees on its way north.