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

Hummingbird (the legend), O’ and Invasion!

Hummingbirds are legendary, though often missing in many traditional European or African myths and farytales due to their exclusion to the Northern Hemisphere.

There are, however, plenty Native American, Mayan and indegenious legends and stories.  Here are a few that I liked (from the Humingbird Website)

http://www.hummingbirdworld.com/h/native_american.htm

Pueblo shamans use hummingbirds as couriers to send gifts to the Great Mother who lives beneath the earth.

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There is a legend from Mexico about a Taroscan Indian woman who was taught how to weave beautiful baskets by a grateful hummingbird to whom she had given sugar water during a drought. These baskets are now used in Day of the Dead Festivals.

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In a Navajo legend a hummer was sent up to see what is above the blue sky. It turns out to be absolutely nothing.

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And my personal favorite comes from Cochti:

One of the widespread beliefs is that hummingbirds, in some way, are messengers between words.  As such they help shamans keep nature and spirit in balance.  The Cochti have a story about ancient people who lost faith in the Great Mother.  In anger, she deprived them of rain for four years.  The people noticed that the only creature who thrived during this drought was Hummingbird.   When they studies his habits, the shamans learned that Hummingbird had a secret passageway to the underworld.  Periodically, he  went there to gather honey.   Further study revealed that this doorway was open to Hummingbird alone because he had never lost faith in the Great Mother.   This information inspired the people to regain faith.  After that the Great Mother took care of them.

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I have found that my buff-bellied and ruby throateds are aggresively feeding this year.  I suspect it’s caused by the severe drought that Texas is undergoing.  This video is low res but still astnishing in the numbers of hummers all feeding and showing teritorial aggression.

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Let’s hope another legend is true then, that they are

the perfect omen for rain!

Stop EVERYTHING Fall Migration has Arrived

I had thought that I would research and blog about fall migration, but then I found this lovely in-debth article on the Texas Parks and Wildlife Page — never been one to re-invent the wheel. So here you are: everything you ever wanted to know about why thousands of people flock to South Texas for fall migration.

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/publications/pwdpubs/media/pwd_bk_w7000_0511.pdf

(You’ll notice that the flyways are for Spring Migration, but most of you will know — or either you’ve landed on the wrong spot — that Fall Migration is simply reversed.)

 

BIRDS MIGRATE AT NIGHT

By Jan Haug

Songbirds migrate at night, 

sea birds by day.

Night birds navigate by the stars,

day birds, at least partly, by the sun, 

the pre-fractal line of the shore, 

swiftly.

The tern, arctic terns, sea swallows

fly from the Arctic to the Antarctic, 

and return again in summer.

They fly both hemispheres, 

the Old World and the New,

swiftly.

There’s a longitudinal division,

they fly up and down, not 

round and round. Do they meet 

on snow-covered ice? Are they tempted 

by other landscapes, different shores?

Swiftly

brought back within the fold?

Magnetic lines, they say, are also

perceived by birds

who once walked upon the earth

as dinosaurs. Archaeopteryx from Germany

swiftly,

by all accounts, a dino-bird,

squashed and fossilized

tells us a lot about being

one thing and becoming something else.

Have hope, anxious humans, it may happen

swiftly.

 

 

And for your astonishment, I present a few more astounding photos from Greg Lavaty.

Rosette Spoonbill

Elegant Trogon

White Tailed Kite

Northern Jacana