Dreaming of Spring

Today's downpour and the promise of more rain and cold over the next week have me dreaming of warmer, sunnier days. And nothing warms the soul like the radiant colors of tanagers during spring migration.


Scarlet Tanager (Piranga olivacea)
These two fellows were both life birds for me, seen last spring at Boy Scout Woods in High Island, Texas, just up the coast a couple of hours from Houston.


Summer Tanager (Piranga rubra)


For more great bird photos from around the world, check out this week's installment of World Bird Wednesday.

Quintana Concluded

Besides the enthralling hummingbirds and abundance of wildflowers featured in my two previous posts, there were plenty of other wonders to enjoy at the Quintana Neotropical Bird Sanctuary.


Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis)
There were cardinals and mockingbirds, ever present and always enjoyable.


Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos)
There was a surprising number of Scissor-tailed Flycatchers in and around the area — surprising to me anyway, since I'd never seen them in the area before.


Scissor-tailed Flycatcher (Tyrannus forficatus)
This was my first opportunity to photograph these slender beauties or even to observe them close up, and I was amazed both at how graceful they were in the hard winds blowing in from the gulf and at how quickly they moved in flight. I've decided that I'll need quite a bit more practice and familiarity with these tyrant flycatchers (or a good helping of luck) if I want to capture any shareable pictures of them in flight.

Another treat of the morning's trip was the opportunity to watch five Common Nighthawks wheeling and diving overhead. I climbed to the top of the sanctuary's observation tower and spent a good twenty minutes trailing them as they moved down the island until they finally passed beyond the range of my binoculars. New addition to my life list!


Common Nighthawk (Chordeiles minor)
There were also plenty of dragonflies and butterflies on hand, busily enjoying the bounty of this small paradise.




Giant Swallowtail (Papilio cresphontes)
I ended the day with a quick drive down the road to nearby Bryan Beach, where the tidal pools hiding behind the dunes often attract a variety of shorebirds, herons and such. This particular morning, two lonesome Willets comprised the total count of shorebirds and no waders were in sight, but the sandbars and the far edges of the water were teeming with Laughing Gulls and terns, including Caspians, Royals and even a couple of Sandwich Terns.


Juvenile Laughing Gulls (Larus atricilla)
However, these three young gulls seemed to be the only ones not taking a midday siesta; they were busy cackling and playing in the water like their human counterparts just on the other side of the dunes, enjoying the beautiful weather while the grown-ups lazily soaked up the early summer sun.


"What, you're still here?"

You Talkin' to Me?

The Birds of Mercer

It was later than I had planned when I arrived at Mercer Arboretum last weekend. The sun was well on its way toward its zenith, and the heat and humidity were already setting in. The parking lots were all empty, as were the skies above.


Heading into the piney woods growth, it had the feel of the Big Thicket area of East Texas where we had visited my grandparents so often as kids. The look, the smells, even the bugs were the same. The only things missing were the sounds of the thicket — the beautiful, ever-present backdrop of birdsongs and insect noises that caress your ears in that wonderland of forest life.


The trails at Mercer wind through the forest floor, offering a beautiful respite from the neighboring airport and the nearby metropolis. There are a couple of pond / swamp areas, complete with knobby-kneed cypress trees rising out of the murky waters.

After about an hour of walking, I finally began noticing the missing sounds of the piney woods. Cicadas buzzed from the trees and undergrowth around me. Mockingbirds sang high overhead. But still no birds within sight.


Then I arrived at Hickory Bog, and the "bridge to nowhere."


Suddenly there were plenty of birds overhead, diving, flitting from branch to branch, and singing their magnificent choruses.

(Click any image to enlarge.)
I spotted a tired-looking robin who perched on a nearby branch, seemingly as interested in me as I was in him.

American Robin (Turdus migratorius)


Unfortunately, most of the birds I saw and heard stayed in the limbs above, where I could only catch glimpses of them from time to time. One of these days, I've got to start learning to identify birds by their butts ... er, I mean, "undersides and outlines," as that's all I was able to see of most of them.

But even I could identify this one:

Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis)

There were three or four male cardinals playing chase through the swampy terrain, dodging in and out of branches and tangles of roots and limbs.



There was a pretty little female cardinal as well, with her glowing red beak offsetting the rusty brown of her feathers, but she stayed well-concealed from my camera lens as she kept the boys hopping around her.


After a time, the cardinals took off, and I turned to find another treasure in the trees just behind me.

(Click image to enlarge)

A female Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens) was slowly working her way up a limb, looking for lunch.


She reached the broken end of the limb and rummaged around, looking from every angle for any juicy little tidbit that might be hiding within.



I sat there for several minutes, quietly watching her work, until she finally gave up and flew off to find food somewhere else. Realizing it was past time for my own lunch (and for getting home to help with the weekend chores), I took her cue and headed back out of the park.

No swarming hordes of migrating Monarch butterflies in sight, but all-in-all a very nice adventure.