Lots of birds in the Zooming slide show this month – from the Whooping Crane Festival in south Texas as well as Josey Ranch (Carrollton TX), the Springfield Botanical Gardens (Springfield MO) and Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge (near Sherman TX). I find myself picking images that show bird behavior rather than portraits.
There are spring flowers in this collection as well…more of those coming in April!
Enjoy the March 2024 slide show!
We signed up for a shorebird identification field trip for the third afternoon of the Whooping Crane Festival. We got on the bus after lunch and, it turned out, spent the whole session at Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center…which was fine with us since we had wanted to return there. We spent less time with the guide and just enjoyed all the birds at the place. There is a lot to see; the boardwalk makes it easy to see birds without disturbing them. The shallows are a popular place for them to feel secure enough to rest and bathe…and snack.
American white pelicans – in a big group or singles.
The common gallinule was near the alligator (again). I decided to take close up views of the feet (very long toes).
A black necked stilt wondered along through other species…looking aloof.
The green-winged teals were bathing…preening.
Grackles were bathing and preening too….or making raucous noise in the reeds and glaring at my camera.
A pied-billed grebe wandered near the reeds…hiding in plain sight as usual. Once I noticed the bird, I took a series of pictures as it found lunch.
A northern shoveler snoozed…another perched on a post in the water.
Ibis preened and stretched their wings.
I took a series of images of a bird in the shallows…thoroughly cleaning its feathers. It takes a series of contortions. The bird appeared to be enjoying the water!
A blue-winged teal showed the blue on its wing when it bathed.
Now for some group pictures. They are good for size comparison and ID practice. The first has 2 black-necked stilts and a male northern shoveler.
The second had a black-necked stilt and 4 American avocets.
The smaller birds were easily startled and would explode up into air…circle and return very close to where they were before the panic.
There were neotropic cormorants seemingly content to just sit in the sun.
There was a tricolored heron that seemed to be posing for pictures. I couldn’t resist!
The alligator did not move at all in the several hours we were there!
Overall – the place lived up to my expectations; we could have done it on our own rather than with the bus/guide. I am beginning to understand better that we have learned enough about birding to leave more free time to during festivals…or go early/stay late.
The last field trip of the festival would be the next morning at Fennessey Ranch.
We were at the dock for the 7 AM departure of our boat on the third day of the Whooping Crane Festival.
I took a few pictures before we boarded – the moon over the harbor area.
Our destination was the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge where Whooping Cranes feed in the marshy/shallow areas…only visible via boat and it took over an hour to get there from Port Aransas. We passed familiar areas early on and saw a group of American white pelicans, morning light with moon setting over the shore, roseate spoonbills and white ibis in the distance, and the Aransas Pass Lydia Ann Lighthouse.
Then we entered an area that was different than our previous tours and more open water…with occasional platforms with cormorants and great blue herons hunkered in the chilly morning wind. There was a tall bridge as well.
Then there started to be a lot of small islands full of birds: Cormorants, great blue herons and brown pelicans. One area seemed to have a lot of great blue herons and I wondered if the island was their roost. There were also groups of laughing gulls. (Click on the small images to see a larger version.)
And then we started seeing Whooping Cranes. Even at a distance – they are easy to identify because they are so large…and so white. The young are rusty looking – particularly their heads. Many sightings were of 3 birds: 2 adult birds and a colt; it must have been a good year for increasing the whooping crane population!
There were other birds to see too between whooping crane sightings – roseate spoonbills, green-winged teals, willets, American avocets, more great blue herons, buffleheads, cormorants, an osprey, and reddish egret (that took off as a wave covered the spit of shells the bird was standing on).
I took some closeups of some shells…out of the water at low tide.
I also realized how wakes of boats impact the shoreline…why there are often blocks on the shore to reduce the erosion wakes can cause. It doesn’t take a big or fast-moving boat to cause damaging wakes in smaller channels.
And then we took a break as we headed back to Port Aransas – no more photos until the jetty with the usual brown pelicans.
We got back to the dock with plenty of time before our afternoon field trip for lunch; we then headed back to the Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center.
Our second day of the Whooping Crane Festival continued with another boat tour after returning from the King Ranch and a quick lunch. The afternoon emphasis was on bird photography. The difference was subtle. The guide did suggest some settings to accommodate photographing in the very bright environment of a sunny day. I opted to take the normal opportunities to photograph birds as usual…but then took some photographic challenges too.
I started before we even boarded the boat. Grackles were taking snack packaging out of a trash can. The female seemed to be unimpressed with her partner’s antics.
I attempted to get a double-crested cormorant taking off from the water…managed to capture the form and splashes of water but the eye doesn’t show….plenty of room for improvement.
There were terns (probably common terns) diving toward the water for fish. I tried pointing my camera in that direction and pressing the button to take multiple pictures in fast succession. It was hard to hold the camera still as the boat moved! The shape of the bird as it nears the surface of the water was something I couldn’t study until I looked at my pictures on a bigger screen. This was my first attempt at photographing feeding terns!
The back of a white-tailed hawk – the only sighting of this species of the trip. It isn’t a great picture in the traditional sense….but it does tell a story. The bird was sitting in dead mangroves; the mangroves died during very cold weather a few years ago and recovery is slow; hurricane damage to the Aransas area would be even worse than before if one comes through before the mangroves can become established again.
The birds always seemed to be a little further away than optimal…and the boat was rocking. But I took pictures anyway: white ibis, little blue heron, osprey, great egret, and great blue heron. I tend to take photographs rather than make notes about what I am seeing…it’s easier with the camera already in hand!
And then there were the reddish egrets… with their pink and black bill.
And finally one started foraging…moving rapidly in the shallows. It seemed to veer off suddenly…something there that the bird didn’t expect?
I took group pictures of birds on small islands in the water…always interesting to see how many I can identify on my big screen later. In the one below, I see brown pelicans (adult and juvenile), American white pelicans, cormorants (double crested probably)…all in the foreground.
As I zoomed in on birds that were not in a group I noticed a black skimmer and some Caspian terns.
It’s always a thrill to see a bird I would not have seen without being on a birding field trip like this red-breast merganser. It was a single bird…swimming rapidly away from the boat…and I probably would not have noticed it without someone pointing it out. I’m not sure it was the guide or another participant that noticed it.
The same was true for another black-crowned night heron. I photographed one on the King Ranch in the morning! I was pleased that I was able to find and focus on the bird more easily than many of the others on the boat.
The light began to change as we neared the end of the day. There were enough clouds to try a non-bird landscape shot of the water the sky…a bit of land at the horizon.
I changed a setting on my camera to try an artsy image of a cormorant and the shore as we came back toward the dock.
And then the boat stopped just before we got to the dock….for dolphins. I couldn’t top my husband’s dolphin picture in the bow wave of the big ship, but it was fun trying to anticipate when they would surface!
And then one last picture before we got off the boat! It was a great second day at the Whooping Crane Festival. The next morning was an early one….getting on a boat at 6 AM to see Whooping Cranes in the Aransas National Wild Life Refuge. We headed to the hotel for an early evening to be ready for it.
Continuing deeper into fall…celebrating the seasonal changes!
Fall days – sunny and cool. A great time of year to get outdoors…perfect temperatures and blasts of color.
American White Pelicans. Seen in two places: Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge (Texas) and Sequoyah State Park (Oklahoma). It’s migration time. These are big birds that are fun to watch on the water and in the air. I always celebrate seeing them.
Apple Crisp. One of my favorite ways to use the fall apple harvest. It’s a little splurge on my diet…but well worth it.
First chili of the season. Another seasonal favorite.
Getting registered for an early winter birding festival. We signed in on the first day of registration and found that one of the sessions we wanted was already full; we picked an alternative and celebrated our itinerary when the registration process was complete. We are anticipating a wonderful week in December!
Butterflies and milkweed at Lake Springfield boathouse. Migrating monarchs and pipevine butterflies on thistles….milkweed seeds spilling out of pods…some favorite fall sightings.
Successful cleanup of my daughter’s fall yard (part 1). This is the second year I have offered to help my daughter do some fall yard cleanup. Our first work session was in October this year. I celebrated how much we got done in just few hours….we work well together! I am anticipating a second session in November.
Virginia creeper turned red. I let the Virginia Creeper grow in my front flower bed…spill over the low rock wall….and am celebrating that it has now turned red! Hurray for native plant fall colors!
Miniature pumpkin harvest. I was pleasantly surprised that my miniature pumpkin vines produced lots of pumpkins. As I harvested them, I celebrated the season…and the natural decorations for my breakfast table.
Company and fall cleaning. I had company twice during October and am celebrating their visits AND that the visits acted as an incentive to get my house cleaner and picked up going into the coming holiday season.
There was a hill on the other side of the lake – darkening the horizon. We were on a boat dock that jutted out into the lake a short distance (identified on our walk the previous day as the ‘sunrise spot’). There were two pelicans on the water when we arrived! They flew off to start their day elsewhere before the sun was up.
The park is a mix of developed and natural; there is a golf course and communication towers along with the cabins and lodge.
But the forest and native plants seem to be holding their own.
A fisherman was also enjoying the morning on a neighboring dock.
A heron was still (or preening) in the shallows of a nearby cove.
The sun lit a nearby hilltop…
And waves of cormorants (and maybe some gulls too) began coming around the point flying northward.
The vegetation lit up with morning light.
Two killdeer flew into the nearby shore. They continued their conversation with each other while we took pictures.
As we packed up the car – the last picture of our visit: starlings on the wire.
Sequoya State Park (near Wagoner, Oklahoma) is about 3 hours from where we live. We opted for an overnight trip last week – staying at one of the duplex cabins in the park. It was a reconnoiter type of trip: how many birds would we see (and the vantage points to see them) and were the onsite cabins/amenities OK (and should we look at other state park destinations in the future). Our arrival was well before check-in time, so we walked down to Inspiration Point. I spotted a damselfly on the walkway almost immediately.
The big event of that walk was a kettle of American White pelicans over the lake. They were far enough away that the images were not very good – but it was fun to watch them swirl – noting how the light made them almost impossible to see for a few seconds; then they would turn and were easily seen.
The fall foliage was just beginning.
There was a rock ‘table’ with stones situated for seats under two trees!
We visited the nature center then drove to a parking area to hike the Fossil Trail that hugged the eastern side of the peninsula. We were rewarded by views of pelicans and cormorants (probably double crested) – still too distant for good images but I liked the color the light gave the water.
There was the usual shelf fungus, insects (katydid…and something that bit me), lichen, plants going to seed…all under a forest canopy with a little fall color.
We were out again at sunset near our cabin – overlooking the western side of the peninsula and the lake beyond. The sky was perfectly clear so there were no interesting reflections off clouds; I included silhouettes of trees instead! There were gulls coming to roost on the water as the sun went down.
Tomorrow the post will include sunrise at Sequoyah!
It was a very hot day when I made the road trip from Missouri to Texas in September. It was over 90 degrees when I made the exit to go to Hagerman – thinking that maybe the government would shut down before I headed home, and I wasn’t sure if the refuge would be accessible then.
There were a few migrants at the refuge that I hadn’t seen since last spring: White-faced Ibis,
Neotropic Cormorants (evidently this bird is expanding its range), and
I didn’t see any of the migratory ducks…maybe they will be there next month,
There were the usual egrets and herons. A snowy egret strutted in the shallows.
Several of the great blue herons looked like juveniles.
Some of the egrets (great and snowy) and a great blue heron were enjoying feeding in grassy areas that had been flooded.
I saw a snag with at least 8 white birds in it.
I zoomed in to take as many pictures as I could of individual birds. There were snowy egrets,
Cattle egrets, and
A juvenile little blue heron!
A great blue heron and great egret were on a snag in the water – the heron had just gotten a fish….the egret looks on.
Hagerman was ready for more birds that were probably coming soon in increasing numbers…and some will stay for the winter. Hopefully I will see more of them when I go in October.
Tomorrow’s post will focus on the non-bird sightings at Hagerman in September.
The American White Pelicans migrate through Hagerman and the birds were there during my two visits in late March. The first day was sunny and breezy. Breeding adults have a plate that protrudes from the upper bill; all the birds I photographed were adults…heading to breeding grounds further north.
The birds were mostly in the water although a group were standing on a snag in the water…along with a Double-crested Cormorant (note the size difference).
I did a short video of a group feeding together. They manage to synchronize their movement…herding fish toward the shallows! It’s a pelican ballet.
The second visit was cloudy and colder…and there were not as many pelicans. The wind made the feathers stand up on the top of ther heads.
So many things to celebrate in February…I’ve picked my top 10 that are in roughly chronological order during the month.
I started out the month in Carrollton, Texas.
Red Yucca. The seed pods always look interesting to me. I like their curves and points. The warm brown and burnt black colors.
Fried catfish and okra. Sometimes a high-fat splurge is OK….delicious.
A sunny and warm day. In February, the days are often gray and cold….so when the weather bucks the trend…it’s time to get outdoors to celebrate.
The Laredo Birding Festival was not that long…but there was something to celebrate every day.
Roadrunner. What a way to start a birding trip…seeing an iconic bird of the area at a rest stop before we even got to Laredo!
Great Horned Owls. We saw these owls on two days! What a thrill.
Sunrise on the Rio Grande. Celebrating the start of another day….the beauty of a river that draws life to a dry area.
American White Pelicans ballet. I had never witnessed pelicans feeding together in a coordinated way. They were synchronized and graceful…the joy of watching the natural world in action.
Audubon’s Oriole. Celebrating a colorful bird that just appeared while we were relaxing on a veranda after lunch.
And then we were home again.
A Day at home. I always celebrate being at home after I’ve been away. The view from my office window…fixing my own favorite foods…relaxing.
NISE Training. Robinson Nature Center provided a class on some kits they’ve purchased from the National Informal STEM Education Network. I enjoyed the gravity well (Exploring Universe Orbiting Objects) activity and hope there are opportunities to share it with visitors to the nature center. I also passed the information (here) along to my daughter since it had potential for physics related outreach activities her university does. So multiple reasons to celebrate this training!
We were up at 4:30 AM to prepare for our day of birding at the Laredo Birding Festival. After a delicious breakfast buffet we boarded the van shortly after 6:15 AM and headed to the Yugo Ranch - currently owned and operated by 6th generation descendants of Ygnacio Benavides, who live by the same conservationist philosophy as their ancestor – where we would spend the morning and early afternoon. We parked the van near the ranch buildings, and everyone bundled up since it was a cold morning.
There was a Texas Ebony tree near where we parked. There were a lot of seed pods on the ground around the tree. The birds and other wildlife had already finished off the seeds.
All during the morning we saw Vermilion Flycatchers – the bright red attracting attention.
Crested Caracara flew overhead and there were a pair in a tree just barely within the range of my camera.
When we made a loop back to the ranch buildings, I managed to photograph a wren which was easily identified later from the picture as a Cactus Wren. It seemed to be very interested in the chimney.
We drove out to look at some ponds on the ranch…and spotted a familiar bird: a Killdeer.
There were also Great Kiskadees like we saw several years ago during the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival.
There were groups of Northern Cardinals…a small flock. In our area of Maryland they are usually only seen in pairs or males contesting turf…the small flock was new to us.
The high point of the morning was a Great Horned Owl. It was surveying the area from a tree growing on an island of the pond. It sometimes looked our way….decided our group was no threat at all.
Looking closely at the picture I took of a cormorant – I realize that it is a Neotropic Cormorant (rather than a Double-crested Cormorant) because the eye is surrounded by feathers rather than a bare patch of skin.
There was an American Wigeon just barely within the range of my camera zoom.
As we headed down the road in our van, there was a Curve-billed Thrasher in the road. I was ideally positioned to take pictures through the windshield of the van!
Also on along the road, a Pyrrhuloxia was spotted. For this picture I had to contort a bit to get the picture through a side window.
We had been seeing Harris’s Hawks and I finally got a picture of two that were near each other on a telephone pole. This species hunts as a team!
The next stop was Ranchito Road Lagoons. The high point of the afternoon happened at this location: American White Pelicans feeding in unison. I had not seen this behavior before. It was like a ballet and they did it for the whole time we were at the location.
A Black-necked Stilt and
Lesser Yellowlegs were feeding in the shallows.
On the way back to hotel we stopped at the Laredo Landfill. It was very windy (dust and some trash flying everywhere) so we didn’t stay long. There were quite a few Cattle Egrets huddled together near the entrance. And lots of Chihuahuan Ravens that were closer to where we stopped. I later wished that I had walked over to get a picture of the Cattle Egrets since we didn’t see them in any other festival location.
What a productive day of birding around Laredo!
Our last morning of the Winter Delmarva Birding Weekend was at Newport Farm – a privately owned area near Ocean City with lots of conserved and managed wetlands. We gathered outside the gate along the road before carpooling into the farm building area.
In one if the first ponds, we saw Tundra Swans and Brant. Both species breed much furthers north and are only around in winter along the Maryland coast.
Soon after we saw them, the swans took off for their day of foraging elsewhere.
There were American White Pelicans on one of the ponds as well. I managed to catch one of them getting breakfast. This is another bird that is only in the area during the winter.
At the end of a road with water on the sides – a fox looked out over a meadow, then noticed us. It seemed torn about which way to go….started back toward us then ran into the trees before it got close to our group. These pictures were at about the maximum of my camera’s zoom capability!
Two Great Blue Herons were at the edge of one of the ponds. Maybe they have a nest nearby….eggs will be laid soon.
There were lots of plants that still held berries and seeds for wildlife.
The clouds were thick enough that the morning never got very bright.
Maybe the pelicans were enjoying a relaxing morning…not being very active. I photographed a group where only one seemed to be very awake…and keen to swallow breakfast that must have been in his pouch…tilting the head back, the pouch upright.
And that was the last of the 3-day weekend of birding close to the Atlantic coast of Delaware and Maryland.
The last morning of the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival was rainy. We’d signed up for a field trip about birding by ear and habitat at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. It was one of the few field trips that was not cancelled entirely but it was changed considerably by the weather. We talked through the topic of using other than markings for bird identification – songs, habitat, silhouettes, behavior…and then did the best we could to observe some birds. We didn’t do any hiking…just observed what we could from the visitor center and from within the car along the wildlife loop. Still – it wasn’t a bad morning for seeing birds. The visitor center has feeders that attract Painted Buntings this time of year. What a treat to see these brightly colored small birds!
Then it was out to the wildlife loop to look at water birds. The first one we saw was a smallish white bird at the edge of the water. In was in the right habitat for a heron or egret…about the size of a cattle egret but in the wrong habitat since they are usually in fields. It was a juvenile Little Blue Heron with green legs and a washed out looking face….definitely not a Snowy Egret.
There was a group of Northern Shovelers feeding – living up to the ‘shoveler’ name.
Glossy Ibis were feeding in the shallows and mud.
There were some Roseate Spoonbills feeding almost out of range of my camera. Watch the one in the center in this sequence.
There were was a mixed group of birds: Roseate SpoonBills, American Avocets, and a Great Egret. That area near that shore must have been rich pickings.
A little further along the shower there was a group of American White Pelicans in the water. The group might have been working together to herd fish into the shallows – easy feeding.
Last but not least - a Tricolored Heron made an appearance. It too was looking for breakfast in the shallows.
Overall – it was not a bad ending for the festival. It would have been better had it not be raining…and even better if the sun had come out. We picked up some snacks intended for some trips that were cancelled and headed back to the hotel to pack for the trek home the next day. Both my husband and I enjoyed the festival and I’m sure we’ll do it again – leaving more time between field trips (and before/after the festival) to do some photography at our own pace. It’s a rich area for birding and more comfortable in the winter than it is in the summer.
I visited Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge earlier this week. The day was too cold and too windy….but was the only one that fit it the schedule. I remembered to take pictures of the metal work near the visitor center.
In the garden near the front of the visitor center, I didn’t see any butterflies…but there were dried blooms from last season left on the trumpet vine growing on the arbor and a clump of bluebonnets (we’d seen larger patches as we drove to the refuge along the highway).
We decided to use our car and a moving blind and protection from the wind….making our way slowly around the wildlife drive of the refuge. There were not many birds but enough to make some photography attempts. The most unusual was a Eared Grebe in breeding plumage. Someone in the visitor center had commented about seeing a pair but we only saw one.
There were some American avocets a little too far away for a good picture on a cloudy day. They can be identified with the picture I took….and there is a Great Egret in the foreground.
There were also Snowy Egrets (black bill and legs, yellow feet).
Very far out in the water on snags were American White Pelicans and Double Crested Cormorants.
The Greater Yellowlegs was closer and intent on finding some lunch.
The Great Blue Herons were numerous and seemed to all have the blue topknot of mature birds.
We saw one turtle positioned for maximum sun (warmth) but there were probably more.
There were still some Northern Shovelers on the water; most of them have left for their breeding grounds in the north. A pair of Blue Winged Teals were hiding in the plants beside the road as we were leaving; they are close to their breeding grounds based on the allaboutbirds map…so might have just been making a last stop over.
I took a few shots of wild flowers as we drove out of refuge….just rolled down the window and used the zoom!
Our main activity for the last day of the Rio Grande Valley Birding festival was breakfast (sumptuous) as the The Inn at Chachalaca Bend followed my a walk around the grounds looking at birds. We started near the Inn’s deck on the bank of La Resaca de las Antonias. We saw a Belted Kingfisher on the electrical wires crossing the Resaca almost immediately!
A Great Blue Heron and Great Egret had a little conference in the distance.
There was a broken tree trunk (or old telephone pole) near the water….a perch for an Altamira Oriole.
Directly across from the Inn an Anhinga dropped down into the water to capture a fish then walked back up a palm that was slanting over the water.
Nearby on a snag, a Golden Fronted Woodpecker searched for breakfast.
There was a ruckus and then a larger bird flew toward us over the water and sat on the electrical wire nearest us: a Ringed Kingfisher.
There was Great Kiskadee on the wire further away
And a Black-crowned Night-Heron in the vegetation across from where were standing.
The kiskadee flew away and we notice a kite (probably white tailed…but hard to tell for sure).
We left the Resaca to hike around some open field areas. We saw an American Kestrel looking at the meadow.
As we headed back almost to the edge of the path through a forested area, we looked up and saw masses of migrating American White Pelicans! There were several groups…maybe as many as 1,000 birds.
The path branched off to the edge of the Resaca again and we saw a Snowy Egret (note the yellow feet which is a distinctive feature for this bird even if the focus is not very good for the picture).
As we got ready to leave, we gathered back at the Inn and saw a hummingbird at the feeder (probably Ruby-throated).
There were a few plants I took pictures of…but they were secondary to the birds!
Copyright © 2024, Gwen Morrison. All rights reserved.
Celebrating the whole of life....
Thanks for visiting my blog! Enjoy the photo picks from 2023:
Copyright © 2024, Gwen Morrison. All rights reserved.
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