Armed with ideas from Bill at GCBO, my stay in Rockport exploring some of the area's Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail (Central Coast) sites has been quite productive. At the Whooping Crane Festival on Sunday I bumped into a friend from Florida (Jeff of the Leica Birding Blog and, I might add, an incredible birder) who reinforced one of Bill's suggestions - so I spent Monday morning at the Port Aransas Birding Center(site CTC-057). Thanks to them I picked up this Green-winged Teal, a new addition to the species list. This is a male (or drake) but I also had success getting a few shots of one of the hens. Cinnamon Teal were another target at this site but those that were within camera range were sleeping; I plan to give them another try tomorrow.

In addition to the ducks, I saw herons & egrets, pelicans, gulls, spoonbills, as well as shorebird species that included dowitchers (pretty far away but I think they were Short-billed), American Avocets , and this species, Black-necked Stilt. Word from some of the locals I chatted up were that the Stilt numbers have been increasing over the past couple of weeks as they have begun to migrate northward from Mexico and Central America. This particular one was part of a group that had just been chased (along with several avocets) from another part of the wetland by a marauding Northern Harrier.

As the morning progressed some clouds started rolling in and, just before I decided to pack it in, 2 flights of dowitchers went zipping by right over the boardwalk. There had been a huge flock foraging in the mud flats about 100 yards distant but for some reason decided it was time to leave. I looked over that way fully expecting to see another Harrier lazily around soaring over there. No, the reason for the angst was a missile in the form of a Peregrine Falcon. It wasn't successful on this pass but what a sight to, anyway . . .

And today was my much anticipated day to take a boat ride out to Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, winter home to the largest percentage of the Whooping Crane population. As with any birding tour, what you see can be a hit or miss proposition and we did pretty well seeing 5 or 6 (I forget now) family groups. This is one of the adults from the only one of those groups that were close enough to the shoreline for shooting effectively.

Here is the first Winter bird from that family. In addition to the cranes, the tour included stops on the ride out to the refuge and while we searched for the cranes to see other species, all ably pointed out by the Skimmer's) skipper, Captain Tommy Moore - along with plenty of information about the cranes themselves and their life history. Now I need figure out a way to get back in late March when they start the courtship dancing . . .

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 08:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In this town there lived an outlaw by the name of Texas Red

I don't know what it is about Texas but, I think I mentioned on the first pass through here in December that for days I couldn't get the song El Paso out of my head after driving through that city. Today, for some unexplained reason, while photographing this TEXAS REDdish Egret I remembered there was an outlaw with that name in another song by Marty Robbins, Big Iron. Don't ask me why watching a foraging Reddish Egret would stir such memories, it just happened and I decided that is what I would name this blog entry. It must have something to do with the hazelnut creamer I use in my coffee . . .

Have You Seen The Whistling Ducks?

That was a question I got yesterday from my neighbors here at the RV park. I heard them this morning but certainly couldn't find them but they were certainly here this afternoon. There are 30+ in this picture and there were probably about 75 on the ground when I took it. At the slightest provocation many of them will fly off for 3 or 4 minutes then begin to return; in total there were about 200 when the entire group was there.

I suspect that the reason they hang around here is because on on the permanent residents feeds them. With that many ducks he must go through a lot of food. Cracked corn (known 'round these parts as '"deer corn") is cheap by the 50 pound bag and I am told that some ducks like the stuff. This image is of one on "final approach" as it rejoined the rest of the group.

And to end this somewhat rambling entry, a snapshot of a species I never located while at Quintana Beach last week: Gull-billed Tern. I had heard that this species does not eat fish like other terns but has a diet of insects, marine invertebrates, and other small animals. What I wasn't really prepared for was the fact the the foraging technique is very similar to other terns in that they fly around at an altitude of between 50 and 75 feet then go into a dive (not unlike there cousins), pulling up just in time to prevent a rather brutal impact with the ground. In this case the tern came up with (what appears to be) a Fiddler Crab. Awesome.

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 10:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

My travels around the Aransas Bay area today made it necessary to take a ride on the ferry to get to the headquarters/exhibit area for the Whooping Crane Festival that was taking place in Port Aransas this weekend. On the return trip I glanced in my rearview mirror and noticed that there were some Great-tailed Grackles along for the ride (a couple of females were perched on the bed of my truck and there were some males on the car behind). There were about 7 or 8 total and, when we got about 150-200 feet from shore, they all flew on ahead.

Why expend the energy to fly the whole 1/4 mile or so when you can ride?

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 09:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"UTC" is shorthand for "Upper Texas Coast" and used in the site designations for stops along that portion of the Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail (eg. UTC-122 is the designation for the county park where we stayed). Yesterday (Saturday) we packed up and headed south for the Central Texas Coast. This image is one of 2 white morph Reddish Egrets I found Wednesday morning in a marsh just off of the beach. Thursday was by far the best weather day and was spent with Bill from the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory as my guide in search of sparrows on the Katy Prairie west of Houston. Neither of us had much luck in a photographic sense (though Bill fared better than me) but it was an enjoyable day of birding with a tally of some 40 species including a first sighting for me Harris's Sparrow.

Along the coast it was very windy most days and, if you are a Snowy Plover, you can gain a little protection by hunkering down in a rut left by a passing vehicle. I actually saw this a lot and it was kind of scary; I feared for the birds because, while I was moving slowly looking for birds, most vehicles traveling on the beach were exceeding the posted speed limit (15 mph) by double or more.

Friday was just plain nasty with fog that didn't lift until about 1 o'clock (how does it stay foggy with 15 mph winds?) followed by showers in the afternoon. So I spent the day holed up in the trailer adding more images to the online catalog/database, and managed to get the total up over 2,000. If you remember I had mentioned in this entry that my goal for February was to hit 1,000 images. I have doubled that so needless to say I'm pretty happy with the total though, in a way, it is partially due to the fact there's been a bunch of days with crummy weather forcing me to remain indoors and keep myself amused.

We are now in Rockport, not far from Aransas National Wildlife Refuge where, among other things, I plan to take a boat ride out to photograph some wintering Whooping Cranes on the refuge the first part of the week. This is, of course, a second attempt here since we were driven out (and followed all the way back to Florida) by a nasty winter storm back in December. As soon as I finish here I am going to take a walk over to the "duck pond" here at the campground; yesterday afternoon the neighbors mentioned the whistling ducks that hang out there during the day. This morning while Roxie was taking care of business I watched 3 flights (totaling about 30 birds) land over there. We will know soon.

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 08:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

While researching which birds were being seen where on TEXBIRDS (a listserv to report bird sightings in Texas) i happened upon a post that linked to an article on Planet Ark, Genetics Reveal 15 New N.American Bird Species. It appears that DNA studies are showing that there are some birds that were thought to be all the same but are, in fact, different enough genetically to possibly be considered as separate species:

OSLO - Genetic tests of North American birds show what may be 15 new species including ravens and owls -- look alikes that do not interbreed and have wrongly had the same name for centuries, scientists said on Sunday.

If the findings from a study of birds' DNA genetic "barcodes" in the United States and Canada hold true around the world, there might be more than 1,000 new species of birds on top of 10,000 identified so far, they said.

In addition there were others that have long been thought to be separate species but are so close genetically that they might be considered to be the same:

"Some of these on close inspection may really be better considered as a single species," said Stoeckle. "Others are probably very young species at the borderline."

The Snow Goose and Ross's Goose, for instance, shared 99.8 percent of DNA and the black-billed magpie and the yellow-billed magpie 99.6 percent. Gulls such as the Glaucous and Iceland Gulls were 99.8 percent the same.

One area that the article does not touch on is if the birds that were sampled were geographically isolated from one another. Things might get a bit tricky if you needed to get a feather tested to determine which exact species would be a "tick" on your life list . . .

(Planet Ark is an Australian website with information and news about the environment.)

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 11:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We did very well with last week's bird which was a Ruby-crowned Kinglet, congratulations! For this week we go back to the beach and another darned gull. And, just for fun, extra credit if you can tell me the age the bird would appear with this plumage variation.

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 08:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Grab some popcorn because Tai Haku at Earth, Wind & Water takes us to the movies for the 43rd screening of I and the Bird, the Blog Carnival for Bird Lovers. You will find 24 classic blog entries creatively woven together with 24 classic films. Enjoy!

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 07:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Following a couple of travel days the dog and I landed on the Texas Gulf Coast south of Houston where we are spending a week in the small coastal town (village?) of Quintana. We are settled in at Quintana Beach County Park, a site on the Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail and a visit to the beach this morning turned up a couple of flocks of Snowy Plovers. One of my target species for this week, I hope to also find Gull-billed Terns and White-faced Ibis (which I saw today today but on a grocery shopping trip and had no camera . . .) among others.

It is interesting to note the difference in plumage between the two birds pictured. The first still in nonbreeding plumage while the second has almost completed its molt to breeding plumage. This isn't all that unusual and, in fact, the some of the Laughing Gulls I saw today were at or near full breeding color while others were just beginning to molt.

I'd like to thank Bill at the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory for recommending the campground as well as pointing me to this particular beach to look for the plovers. In addition to their website (which includes a bird quiz), GCBO has a fairly new but very informative and educational blog that is worth a look.

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 08:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Hanging around this morning I was reading one of the blogs I regularly read when I came upon a comment with a link in the signature that I could not resist: Bird Advocate. The link took me to this individual's blog, Bird Advocates, with this description in the header:

We are advocates for the preservation and enjoyment of our native wildlife. It has been proven our wildlife is especially vulnerable to the millions of feral and roaming cats because they evolved seperately. A reality based forum©

I only had a short time to look the blog over but it will soon be added to my list of blogs I read. A post from today is a poem (excerpt, click to read the rest):

Who cries for the birds?

The searches I made for feral, cat, poetry,
plaintive results, all speaking for abused cats.
I'll write my own, sez I, asking
"Who cries for the birds?"

Cats are a problem. Don't think that I don't like them, I have had more than a few around my house in my life. But they are an unnatural addition to the ecosystem and feral cats are a much larger problem than many know.

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 08:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

To many veteran birders last week's quiz bird is affectionately known as "butter butt". Others may refer to them as "Myrtles", a reference to their old name "Myrtle Warbler" and/or the fact that they are the Eastern race or Myrtle subspecies (Western "butter butts" are known as "Audubon's") of Yellow-rumped Warbler. The nickname refers to the squarish yellow patch of feathers at the base of the tail which are reminiscent of a pat of butter (from my old film archives I found this shot of a Yellow-rump from behind).

For this week we have an even littler Little Bitty Bird - have fun and good luck!

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 07:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Everyone who photographs birds has them; a species (or multiple species, at times) that simply refuses to allow you to make an image of them. Eventually you get them and you move on to another nemesis bird. Today, however, I had a run in with a nemesis bird of a different kind. At the picnic area in St. Mark's National Wildlife Refuge I saw a bird that I had not seen before - a "lifer" if I kept a "Life List". Naturally I had a desire to make a few images and add it to my "shot list". The bird in question, a Hermit Thrush, was quite cooperative and allowed me to get close a couple of times. Unfortunately I never got off a single shot. In strict terms, the "nemesis" would be the bird that I couldn't photograph but, in this case, another bird was the culprit: a Northern Mockingbird. Now I know full well that "mockers" can be quite territorial but this one only seemed to have a problem with my thrush. It was A-OK for all the other birds in the vicinity to forage; cardinals, sparrows, warblers, jays, grackles. Everyone but the Hermit Thrush. Both times that I set up the shot this rotten bird would fly in and chase the thrush away just as the focus locked. After the second time I waited around a bit, but it never came back. Arrgh (I'll try again tomorrow anyway).

I'd left Lakeland Monday morning with a couple of birds as my primary targets (Snowy Plover and Gull-billed Tern) and spent the afternoon at Bald Point State Park in that quest. I did not see them but, mixed in with some Ring-billed, Bonaparte's, and Herring Gulls, a few Royal and Forster's Terns I found this lone Caspian Tern. It was not a new bird for me, but it was the first time I had seen or photographed one that was not flying.

Finally, as I made my way back to the parking area from the beach I encountered (and failed again to photograph) my latest "true" nemesis bird, an Eastern Phoebe. This one started in earnest last week in Lakeland and hopefully I'll get it before I leave here Friday.

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 08:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today is the 198th Anniversary of the birth of Sir Charles Darwin and events are taking place around the world in his honor.

His theory of Evolution by Natural Selection, published in On The Origin Of Species 148 years ago, was controversial then and, sadly, remain controversial (albeit to a dwindling minority) to this day. There is no question that Darwin did not have it completely correct. His basic theory has been tested, revised, and, most importantly, expanded upon by thousands of biologists bolstered by advances in technology (for example, Darwin knew nothing of DNA and the role it plays). But his ideas are among the most rigorously tested in all of science and the answer is always the same: life on this planet evolved, is evolving now, and will continue to evolve as long as life persists on this little blue world.

Let's all raise a glass in Chuck’s honor and Happy Darwin Day 2007!

(Still among the doubters? There is much you can learn at the Talk Origins Archive . . . )

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 06:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today was my last day to shoot around the Lakeland area in Central Florida before we move up to the Panhandle for a few days. We are actually leaving Monday with tomorrow set aside for a little shooting east of here if the weather is good. I spent a couple of mornings (and one afternoon at Mary Holland Park in the Bartow where I caught this Osprey carrying a pretty large catfish back to a nesting platform near the tennis courts. These birds are packed around the ball fields and the tennis courts in amazing density - my guess is 10-12 nests in a very small area. I almost wish I could hang out for the feeding frenzy that will be happening once eggs start to hatch. For now it looks like mostly nest building, courtship, and birds engaging in the Osprey "dance" (nudge, nudge, wink, wink, know what I mean?).

Friday morning we were back at Circle B Bar Preserve where I took another stab at the Wilson's Snipes but, once again, came up empty handed. My experience there was that they are quite adept at using their camouflage and all but impossible to sneak up on as they seem to be invisible until the moment the flush - when you are but a few feet away. Like me, this River Otter must have had a rough morning also; it swam to within pretty close range, yawned for me, then swam off in the direction of some nearby coots. The otter's luck with them was about the same as mine with the snipes. Later in the day we were back at Lakeland Highlands Scrub for another attempt to find Eastern Towhee. While there were all around they were just too shy to come out and pose though the Scrub-jays were again cooperative and I added a few more shots of them.

A special treat was in store for today and it did not disappoint: Painted Buntings. Extremely shy and never easy to photograph, they will retreat deep into nearby bushes with nothing more than a slight rustling of leaves by the wind. This female was one of five making occasional visits to a feeder near Haines City (FL).

Visiting less frequently and even more shy were three beautiful males.

All in all I had a great time spent here (even with the first few days of crummy weather and the ongoing Internet aggravations). Many thanks to my friend Reinier (a damned fine photographer) for his willingness to share his local hotspots with me. I always look forward to hanging here knowing that he will take me to some great places with great birds.

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 10:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Sorry I'm late - hopefully next week we will be in a location where the internet works consistently. Last week our bird that looks something like a wading bird is actually more closely related to the rails and cranes: Limpkin. We'll leave the ponds and marshes and move back in to the trees for this week's bird. Good luck!

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 05:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As my regular readers know, I am something of a traveler (vagbond, some say) so the chance to take a trip somewhere suits me just fine. For this week's I and the Bird, MC, the Neurophilosopher, takes us on two voyages. The first of these is with Charles Darwin on the H.M.S. Beagle while the second is on the IatBEagle. So pack your bags and climb aboard for another thrilling adventure with the 42nd edition of I and the Bird.

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 12:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Roxie and I have started on the move again and will be easing our way west over the next couple of months (actually closer to 3). I have decided after the last few days that there is something worse than having no Internet connection: having one that works when it wants to work. With the weather being particularly nasty for the better part of the past two weeks, I've spent a lot of time building the new searchable image catalog on my website. And I have managed to already exceed my goal for the month of 1,000 images in about a week. I'd be even farther along with a consistent connection - last night it took 5 attempts just to send an email to a friend.

With the weather being nice (if not a bit chilly), yesterday was mostly spent out and about in and around Lakeland, FL. The first stop was at a location called Lakeland HighlandsScrub where one of the target species was everybody's favorite, the Florida Scrub-jay (above). If this species is not one of your favorites, they would be given the opportunity to interact with them. They will take nuts from your hand. We didn't have much luck with some the other birds we were looking for there and moved on to another Polk County property, the Circle B-Bar River Reserve. This posing Savannah Sparrow was my best shot at that location, Wilson's Snipes that are in the wetlands proving to be somewhat elusive.

Returning home after lunch I took Roxie (having been cooped up in the trailer all morning) for a long walk around the RV park and discovered a pond with a few birds around the perimeter. About 7 Least Sandpipers (at right) were foraging along the water's edge while several skittish Killdeer were in the grass not far from the pond. The open areas around the park are literally crawling with hundreds of American Robins, too.

This pair was also seen along the edge of the pond though they were much tougher to get close to than the Leasts. I had to really crop this image to get to here but what is nice about it is the fact the image is very diagnostic for seeing subtle differences in Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs in nonbreeding plumage. One important thing I have learned about is the difference in bill length between the 2 species as a way to tell which one you are looking at given that most of the time you won't be seeing them together where size is obvious. The Greater's bill is equal to or a little longer than the head while the Lesser's bill is shorter.

During the latter part of the afternoon we visited a couple of local lakes. The highlight of that adventure was getting shots of this immature Purple Gallinule on the shores of Lake Parker in Lakeland. The feather colors are not as flashy of the, as I understand it they are mostly brown in the nest. Still a great looking bird.

With more Sun on the way today, hopefully it will turn out to be a good shooting day, too.

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 07:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The bird in last week's quiz (#32) was a Short-billed Dowitcher. For this week we have another of the sought after Florida specialties - a bird that looks like it could be a "wader" and might even be seen around "waders" (or at least in similar habitat), but is actually a member of a different family. Have fun and good luck!

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 10:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)