December Surprises

This was one of my December "cookie" days and I was up to my ears in flour. As I do many times when I am working in the kitchen, I glanced out the window viewing the backyard and bird feeders. In my vision like quick flashes of flight flew two hawks into the familiar hiding rose bush of my birds. Birds flew in all directions as the hawks dived into the bush. One flew out with prey in in its grasp, the other calmly walked out into the yard and stood still for a couple of seconds. He looked around and proceeded to walk back into the underbrush. I have never witnessed such a calm attack from a Hawk. He must have decided to take one more look before walking to the brush pile under the Red Maple tree. My husband and I watched for what seemed to be several minutes. My husband looked at the bird book and identified this Hawk as a Red-shouldered. We had just settled back into routine when my husband tells me another Hawk is setting on the brush pile. I just cannot believe this turn of events. I look out the back windows, sure enough, another Hawk sits in almost the same place on the brush. He is smaller than the first visitor. I find the different bird books, we have several for comparison. I, after much study and comparison, decide this must be a juvenile Sharp-shinned Hawk. We discuss the happenings and believe there must have been a rat or mouse in that brush pile that attracted the Hawks. We have never witnessed Hawks sitting for such a long time in the yard. I did not mention earlier but Jim had to go outside to the yard to get the Red-shouldered to fly. He just kept setting there on the brush looking around. The yard was vacant of birds for a long time as you can imagine. This was one of the few times other than at bird bandings that we have seen or photographed Hawks. We may get a quick view as the fly through the yard more in winter than summer. I look forward to today, we will be keeping close watch on our backyard. December may hold other surprises. We are thankful for the blessing!

Eastern Meadowlarks and Other Winter Visitors

We are delighted to see a flock of Eastern Meadowlarks visiting the front yard each day. I have seen them in past years although never this many. Their beautiful yellow with the black V on their breast shines in the sun . They are busy moving and gleaning insects and weed seeds from the area. It is so wonderful to witness a new bird in your own yard. We try to keep our binoculars handy checking the feeders, trees, ground under feeders as well as nearby shrubs. We have a large rose bush that our sparrows as well as other yard birds fly into at any sign of danger. I have found that you never know and should not be surprised to see a bird you may not have seen in your yard before. We are now enjoying Dark-eyed Juncos, White-throated, White Crowned and Chipping Sparrows everyday. We have Orange-crowned and Yellow-rumped Warblers as well as Pine Warblers loving our peanut butter suet. The Blue Jay, Mockingbird, Cardinal, Tufted Titmouse,Carolina Chickadee and Carolina Wren are residents. Large flocks of Mourning Dove are always on our electric lines. We also see Eurasian as well as Inca Dove in the yard. Our winter friend, the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker is usually on our tree trunks each morning. Our House Finches continuously feed on the feeders and the American Goldfinch will be joining them for winter seeds. All seems to be fairly normal considering our severe drought this year. Rain is happening and we are blessed this wonderful Christmas season!

Sparrows

Sparrows have certainly been more difficult for me to identify. My attitude as a new birder was they are brown and usually seen on the ground. I have chosen to share photos of the Lincoln Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow,immature White-crowned Sparrow and the Rufous-crowned Sparrow, in that order. The Lincoln is one of a small group of birds that breed in the stunted spruce in the boreal forest. This forest is cold in the winter. The Lincoln comes south to visit. We see them in our yard. Many of the sparrows like to hide in brush piles, We make a pile of cedar branches. The birds love to fly into it when they feel threatened. The hawks are more plentiful in the yard during the winter. The White-crowned walks through the leaves moving them as they look for seed I have thrown on the ground for them. I am becoming much better at identifying my sparrows. I am excited to have several in the yard and look forward to sharing other visitors with you.

Lost Maples Natural Area

These photos of the beautiful fall colors in Lost Maples speak for themselves. We were blessed with a beautiful cool Texas day. The park was busy as this was Thanksgiving weekend and families were out enjoying the beautiful weather. The maples are so colorful as well as the sycamore and sumac. The natural grasses and lichen kept catching my eye as you can tell by my photography. I hope you can get a sense of the beauty we were privileged to see.

Pedernales Falls

I love this Park. I have visited the bird blind many times in past years. My husband and I look forward to viewing birds that we do not see in our area. When we arrived workers were cutting boards with an electric saw and doing other repairs to the blind. We were not sure we would see many birds. We sat down with binoculars and soon we were delighted to see the Rufous-crowned Sparrow, Spotted Towhee, Lesser Goldfinch,Dark-eyed Junco,and other winter birds of this area. We also saw Carolina Wren, Northern Cardinal,White-winged Dove,Chipping Sparrow,Carolina Chickadee,Black-crested Titmouse. We love to camp here or just come for a short day visit. This park is always fun and birding is good. We also visited Blanco State Park for the first time. The bird viewing area is very nice there. This is a small park with beautiful river setting. Texas State Parks are beautiful and we certainly enjoy them.