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.

This week's Arrivals

This week brought new visitors to the yard. I have been anticipating the
arrival of more fall birds. My binoculars revealed the presence of Chipping Sparrows and White-throated Sparrows yesterday. They were busy searching through the leaves and twigs for food. It is fun to watch how intently they search and never seem to get in each others way. The Orange-crowned Warbler found the suet . It was as if he had been here before and knew exactly where it would be . I like to believe the birds come back each year remembering the food and water as well as different trees and bushes they enjoy. We have several curious Chickadee families that live here. They are always flitting through the yard calling out their presence. They know every feeder in the yard and will grab a seed from each along the way. The Crows have moved out. They have spent many weeks in the Pecan trees devouring the nuts. They and the squirrels have cleaned the trees and moved to new places. We are enjoying the Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers which are visiting quite frequently. I have not photographed them this year. I hope you are enjoying your fall visitors and delighting in their
antics in your yard.

Butterflies and Sparrow

The fall yard is so interesting. summer is winding down and winter is right around the corner. There are several varieties of butterflies gracefully flying from flower to flower. I was blessed to photograph the Monarch and the small Buckeye. The Cloudless Sulphur was also flitting across the red Turk's Cap and the Monarch seems to love the Lantana and wild onion in the yard.
My husband and I noticed small birds foraging on the ground near our feeders. The binoculars revealed Song Sparrows. These small sparrows must have arrived with the cold front last evening. We have been seeing only House Sparrows which we really would rather not have. There are so many of them coming to the feeders. Needless to say we were happy to see the beautiful marked male Song Sparrow. I watched several of these sparrows stay in the same area all evening. At dusk they were still scraping the ground looking for food. I will certainly put some seed out for them today. I expect to see the Chipping Sparrow soon. We usually have many in the winter as well as the Lincoln Sparrow.