Fall Stragglers and a Little Awesomeness

Start off with the neighboring Chachalacas

Sandhill Cranes – we saw them by the flocks this year, huge numbers.

Eastern Bluebird

Scissor-tail

Carolina Chickadee – taken at Christmas in East TX.

Tit-Mouse

Orioles and Yellow Everything

 

1. Hooded Oriole – First seen June 19, 2012.  Actually, this is not one of the early migrators, the Hooded Oriole is a summer breeding bird in our area.

2. The Orchard Oriole – This is the early guy! CornelLabs says, “Some Orchard Orioles may return to their wintering grounds as early as mid-July”.

3. Baltimore Oriole

The last few pictures are female Orioles, likely Baltimore.

 

 

1. The Yellow Chat

2. Yellow Warbler

 

These are the two birds I’ve had trouble ID-ing.  They do not look like the same bird to me –granted the angles and lighting is very different in each picutre– but I think it is a Great-crested in the first pictures and the other one is an Ash-throated Flycatcher.  

 

 

Juvenils; What can you do?

UPDATE: The baby birds in our backyard are doing great. Here are a few of our favorite quick pix.

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Juvenile Yellow-crowned Night Heron

Looks like someone you wouldn’t want to bring home to meet the fam.

 

Golden-fronted Woodpecker

 

Woody, Jr. is voracious and a bit nippy with mom!  

Maybe he needs a lesson from the other one.

Bird Nesting Race in South Texas: parakeets, herons, woodpeckers and more!

For many years my family has watched multitudes of birds nest and hatch in our current location. It wasn’t until this year that we decided to participate in Cornell Labs Nestwatch, a Citizen Scientist project.  

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WHAT IS NESTWATCH

“NestWatch is a nationwide monitoring program designed to track status and trends in the reproductive biology of birds, including when nesting occurs, number of eggs laid, how many eggs hatch, and how many hatchlings survive.”

http://nestwatch.org/about/overview/

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I have been amazed at the new things that we learned when watching the nesting pairs with an eye toward recording rather than just observing.  I recommend the program highly and believe it to be an excellent way to introduce new birders to the hobby, and can’t imagine how educational it could be in the hands of an experienced teacher in a classroom setting.

Here is a gps map of our nest sites, courtesy of Cornell Labs

And a screen shot of my monitored nests.

 

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Now for the fun part: our photo journal for 2012’s Nestwatch (thanks are due to my husband for both assisting in monitoring and photographing).

THE RACE IS ON!  WHO WILL BE THE FISRT TO NEST?

ON MARCH 26 THE YELLOW-CROWNED NIGHT HERONS RETURNED,

MAKING THEM OUR FIRST YEARLY NESTERS!

 We had been expecting a larger colony this year as in the past two years the amount of nesting pairs had grown exponentially. However, this year we actually saw a decrease from 4 nesting pairs to only 3 pairs of Herons.  Also, just about the time the Herons were getting their nest all cozy, we had a freakish hail storm with extremely high winds and though I have no direct evidence I believe that this hindered our Heron colony this year.

First runner up – YELLOW CROWNED NIGHT HERON, 2012.

Juvenile Night Heron

2nd runner up – BLACK-BELLIED WHISTLING DUCK

And the Downies

3rd runner up – GREEN PARAKEET

4th runner up – GOLDEN-FRONTED WOODPECKER

We think there is one hatchling, though it makes enough noise for three dozen!

So far we have successfully monitored on Nestwatch 2012,

4 species, 24 potentials and 7 hatchling/fledglings. 

NOTE: this by no means represents the population of other successful nests in or near our property in McAllen, Texas.  Come visit!

 

Annual Fledging of the Black-bellies!

We have had the pleasure to witness fledging whistling ducks for many years; it never ceases to astound me.  

This is urban birding at its most baffling, defiant best!

The tree with the cavitites that the ducks nest in every year.

The only egress/exit from our property is the small space under this gate, onto this very busy street.

There is no other way out of our yard, as you can see.

But every year, they come and nest and we seldom miss the fledging.  And every year, like clock work, or the endless turning of stars across the sky, the parents round them up (typically within 24 hours or less) and herd them out to the nearest watering hole, god only knows where that is in a city this size.

And every year I wish them salud, and say fairwell until next year!