Paton Center for Hummingbirds

For years I had known that southern Arizona south of Tucson was a place to see hummingbirds.  We try to do something fun each day of our trips, so when I saw how close we were going to be to the Paton Center for Hummingbirds, we decided to take a detour.  There was certainly the possibility for life birds there. For my non birder friends, a life bird is a bird species that you have never seen before.  There are hummingbird species in this most southern part of Arizona that can be seen no where else in the United States.  I had an evening and a morning.  When I entered the property, I knew it was going to be glorious. It reminded me of Salineno in south Texas - feeding stations, water stations, and chairs for comfortable viewing.  This was originally owned by Wally and Marion Paton.  They opened their yard for birders beginning in 1973.  The property is now managed by the Tuscon Audubon.  

I did not wander much that evening, so I did not see some other parts until the next morning.  

That evening the most common hummingbird was the Broad-billed Hummingbird. While I HAD seen it at the Tucson Desert Museum in a hummingbird house, I had never seen it in the wild!  The males are really striking with their bluish purple throat and red bil

Other birds seen that evening were White-winged doves, Ladder-backed Woodpecker family, Lesser Goldfinch and Blue Grosbeak.

Costa's Hummingbird was another delight.

We drove to Nogales to spend the night.  There IS a hotel in Patagonia, but we were trying to mimimize our expenses so Nogales was significantly cheaper.  The hotel in Patagonia looks great, perhaps I can stay there another time when I come back to spend more days at the Paton Center.

The next morning I set about exploring the trails.  WOW!  There is a big hummingbird/butterfly garden. I saw my first Butterfly Weed Milkweed in bloom.  There was a small pond with a mulberry tree that the birds were coming in to eat the mulberries.  I spent at least an hour on the bench there watching a hummingbird feeder and the other birds coming in. 

Then I moved farther along the trail towards the residence.  A lovely covered seating area with all sorts of feeders: hummingbird feeders, seed feeders, oranges, etc.  Another birder and I started chatting.  Hummingbirds seen Black-chinned hummingbird, Rivoli Hummingbird (Magnificent), Violet-crowned Hummingbird, and lots of Broad-billed hummingbirds.  At one point I thought we might have had White-eared Hummingbird, but iNaturalist did not confirm it.  

Violet Crowned hummingbirds were the third life birds for me at this place.  

The last hummingbird species I saw there is the one that is my summer guest: the Black-chinnned Hummingbird 

Another bird showed up and gave me a good look but NOT a photo was the Yellow breasted chat.  I think I had seen it during the City Nature Challenge in Austin, but not a good looks wee.  So this was also a life bird.  Albert’s Towhee was a new bird species for me, as was the Brown-crested Flycatcher.  There were Pine Siskin - not as exciting this year because I had so many at my house during the irruption.  In addition there were Gambel’s qual, White-winged doves, a woodpecker, (probably Gila), Phainopepla, House finches (eating oranges), Scott’s Oriole, Black-headed Grosbeak, and Blue Grosbeak.

This is really only a 2 day drive from where I live.  I hope to go back. 

Side note - a week or so later their Facebook page noted that they had to take down their feeders temporarily because of bear sightings.  So glad I was there while the feeders were going. 

Big Bend - The Adventure Begins

Today was the first full day in the Big Bend area. I am traveling with, Nancy Damron a photographer friend.

We began the day taking FM 170, the River Road section of Big Bend Ranch State Park.

It was a chilly morning, the vultures were waiting until it warmed off to soar over the valley.

There were cliff swallows over the river. I was hoping to capture one of them visiting the nests. Perhaps tomorrow I will get lucky.

Big horn sheep showed up above us on our way back to Terlingua. 

Going into Big Bend National Park, I added a new bird species to my life list, a Phainopepla.

I added several birds to my year list - Say's Phoebe, White Throated Sparrow, Black Phoebe, etc.

I was really planning on birding around Santa Elena Canyon, but the golden canyon walls beckoned to be photographed.  Not a great photo, but it is a glimpse of my world today.

Least Bittern

At the Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center in Port Aransas, there were several least bitterns that were less secretive than other least bitterns I've seen. I saw at least 2 and one stayed right next to the boardwalk to the delight of my fellow shorebird field trip buddies.

I had seen least bitterns here a year or so ago and last summer at Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge. The one at Anahuac disappeared into the reeds at the sound of my camera clicks.  The ones today gave us good opportunities to look and photograph.  I hadn't realized how large their feet are in relation to their small body size. Least bitterns are the smallest of the heron egret family.  They are found mostly along the coast.  I think they are one of the most beautifully colored of the herons and egrets with the green heron a close second.

Birding Hornsby Bend

Hornsby Bend is a name associated with many things - a sewage treatment plant, a Biosolids Management Plant . . . and . . . an amazing place to see many species of birds!  

in 1959, G. Frank "Pancho" Oatman noticed ducks flying across the Colorado River.  Following them, he was the first birdwatcher to explore the sewage treatment facility.  He found waterfowl in large numbers, several that had not been recorded in Travis County.  

Today, many birders frequent both the roads around the ponds and the trail along the Colorado River.  A birding visit to Hornsby Bend never disappoints.  While the species of birds varies through the seasons - there is always a wide variety.  

I spent time around the ponds today.  Here are some of the Highlights:

There were hundreds of northern shovelers, possibly 1000. Some resting on snags, others basking on the shore, while others use that amazing beak to forage.  They were everywhere.  Sometimes they form large groups that spin like a pinwheel stirring up the surface of the water to find food.

 

There were both male and female lesser scaup to enjoy.

There were several eared grebes. A couple of them gave me good photo opportunities.

There are always shorebirds.  I am still working on learning to identify this large group of birds.

Least sandpipers are usually found in flocks of 10 or more.  They are a small shorebird and they fly off and land together.  Note the green legs.  They also have a characteristic posture in how they insert their beak in the mud to find their food.

I think this is a spotted sandpiper. I have yet to see one in all of its fine breeding plumage.  Out of breeding season it is much plainer without the spots. It does have a characteristic behavior - bobbing as it forages.  

Today I saw 14 species and this was just from around the ponds.  One of these days I need to take the trails through the woods to the Colorado River. I've done it once - and there are even more bird species to see.

Birding in Yellowstone

The bird above is a dusky grouse, formerly called the blue grouse.  We were thrilled to get to see in on the Blacktail Plateau drive.

I had enough time in Yellowstone to try to identify the birds we saw.  I kept my intial list on my notepad on my iPhone.   To get my bird list better organized I entered them after the fact in my phone app, Bird Log. I probably should have used Bird Log to do my initial observations, because I had to go back and correct the coordinates. While I labeled my bird sighting Yellowstone, it picked up my geographic location when I started putting the information into Bird Log in Washington State.  I had to go back to the website to get the coordinates for this sighting back in Yellowstone. 

After I completed the bird list and submitted it to eBird, I emailed myself the information because I wanted to post my bird sightings here on my blog.  I know that I saw a few more birds that I couldn't identify, one a hawk that might have been a Cooper's Hawk.  I get frustrated because there are still so many birds I don't immediately recognize.  However, when I think back to my 2002 visit, I know so many more birds than I did then. 

Here is the list the way it shows up on eBirds.  I like the way it automatically organizes the list by species groupings.  BIrd Log is a great app for keeping up with the  birds you see - whether you submit to eBird or not.

mammelton
2012-09-09 03:54
yellowstone national park
Traveling
50 miles
420 Minutes
Observers: 1
All birds reported? Yes
Comments: This represents a week of birdwatching in Yellowstone National Park. I was more interested in how many species rather than exact counts. 
100 Canada Goose
Specie Comments: Too many to count and all over the park
20 Mallard
7 Lesser Scaup
50 Common Goldeneye
10 Common Merganser
1 Ruddy Duck
1 Dusky Grouse
Specie Comments: I have a photo
1 Common Loon
1 Eared Grebe
2 Osprey
2 Bald Eagle
1 Northern Harrier
7 Red-tailed Hawk (Western)
2 Peregrine Falcon
13 American Coot
2 Sandhill Crane
Specie Comments: I am very familiar with Sandhill cranes. We saw a pair several times- possibly same pair in different locations
1 Wilson's Snipe
3 gull sp.
1 Gray Jay
1 Black-billed Magpie
8 Clark's Nutcracker
1 Common Raven
5 Mountain Bluebird
8 American Robin
5 American Pipit
10 Yellow-rumped Warbler
1 Sage Sparrow

Reddish Egret

When I was at the Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge in June, I had the opportunity to photograph a Reddish Egret.  I'd seen them before, but in a white morph.  Reddish egrets hunt differently than all other egrets and herons - instead of quietly waiting for a fish to swim by, they run quickly through the water chasing their prey, often in circles.  It is very distinctive as well as being the best way to identify a white morph reddish egret.  So I was extremely happy to find this egret in his more outstanding plumage close enough to photograph. The white morphs I had seen were always too far away for good photography.

The dark morph reddish egret are a pale gray with reddish neck and head. The bill is pink with a dark tip.  Legs are blue.  The white morph is solid white with bluish legs, a pink bill with a dark tip.  The white morph looks so much like other egrets that I generally identify it by the distinctive hunting behavior before I see the field marks.  White phase are only 10 to 20 percent of the population in Texas.

Diet consists of small fish - minnows, mullet, pinfish and killfish.  In addition to the aggressive running and splashing through the water, they also open their wings to shade the water below luring small fish into the shaded area.  They frequent shallow brackish waters, flats and lagoons for their foraging.

In Texas, reddish egret nests are found on the ground near a bush, or a prickly pear cactus or on an oyster shell beach.  The nest will have three to four blue green eggs.  Genetically two dark phase birds can have white  phase chicks, but two white phase birds can never have dark phase chick.  When a dark phase and white phase bird mate, their chicks are almost always dark phase.  Both parents construct the nest, incubate and feed the chicks.

According to Texas Parks and Wildlife, reddish egrets are listed as a threatened species in Texas.  It is found year round along the Texas coast.  In 1918, it completely disappeared from Florida. Today in addition to the Texas coast it is found in some parts of Louisiana, Alabama and southern Florida.  While they can be found along the Gulf Coast of Mexico, the West Indies and Baja California, they are rare there.  There are only 1500 to 2000 nesting pairs in the United States and most of these are in Texas.  While no longer hunted for their feathers for women's hats, habitat intrusion by water recreation, pesticides, and land development decrease the available habitat.  Predation by raccoons, coyotes, great-tailed grackles also limits their population growth.

Black-Necked Stilts

Black-necked stilts are one of my favorite birds. For one thing they are EASY to identify - nothing else looks like them with their long pink legs and bold black and white markings.

They breed in shallow wetlands from Washington State and Montana, west to California and south through Texas.  They live and breed year round along the Texas Coast down through Mexico and in Southern California and also in a few places in South America. 

Black-necked stilts nest on the ground. They choose surfaces above the water line, such as clumps of vegetation above the water line.  Both the parents choose the site, looking for places with soft ground that can be scraped away to form a two inch depression for the nest.  They may add lining as they build the nest together  grass, shells, mud chips - whatever is nearby.

The chicks hatch after a 21-26 day incubation time.  They are down-covered and precocial, able to move around, leave the nest, and begin foraging with two hours of hatching.  They are well camouflaged, blending in well with their marshy environment.



 I find that the parents are very vocal when you come near their nest. They fly off, calling plaintively, hoping you will follow them away from the nest.  At Brazoria, there was a very vocal stilt nesting near the port-a-pottie.  I felt sorry for it because it seemed so upset when people came by to use the facility.

Wading through shallow marsh areas, stilts hunt for small aquatic invertebrates and fish.  Sometimes they herd fish into shallow waters to trap them for easy hunting.




In the Austin area, they can be seen in the water treatment ponds at Hornsby Bend. 

Black Terns

 Photographing birds in flight is a challenge.  They fly by fast, it is hard to get the camera and lens to focus on your fast moving target, it is tricky to get a fast enough shutterspeed to stop the motion.  But it IS a fun challenge.

During my last two visits to Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge, I was seeing terns and gulls flying near me.  I have not studied terns enough to immediately identify them as they fly swiftly past me.  So, I wanted to photograph them to help me study their markings in order to identify what I was seeing. When you have a photograph, you can connect with other birders to confirm your guess.  But, getting that photograph . . .

My birding lens is a Sigma 300-800mm lens that I purchased before the price got so high. I also bought a strong tripod and a Wimberly Gimbal Tripod Head to be able to support the big lens and to get the most benefit from it.

 

The Wimberly head allows me to track birds as they go up and down in flight as well as to pan as they fly by. Sometimes I feel like Luke Skywalker on the Millenium Falcon as I try to pan with the bird's flight, get the focus on the bird and attempt the shot. I use AI focus which helps keep the focus on the bird in flight. But there are elements of both skill and luck in getting the focus on the bird and the shot taken before the camera focuses on something else. There are a lot of images that are destined for the trash folder, but with practice you can get images certainly good enough to make the identification. Sometimes you even get some good behavioral images as well.

These are black terns in their non breeding plumage.

Note the gray wings and the black smudgy spot right above the breast (under the wing) as well as the dark spot right behind the eye. 

In trying to capture the images, I was just shooting away.  But it was luck that I caught this shot in this pose.

You don't have a lot of time to frame your photo when you are shooting just to capture the bird in flight, so it is fun when you get the reflection as part of the image as well.

When I shoot birds, I generally shoot shutter priority.  In this case I started at 1/400, but decided that wasn't doing a good enough stop motion.  I bumped it up to 1/640 for these shots. I then set my ISO for the lighting conditions to get a good exposure at the optimum shutter speed.  With the muted early morning sun, it was ISO 500 for these shots.

Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge

Back in July, I photographed these black-bellied whistling duck families.  Wednesday afternoon, I saw a family with older ducklings that I suspect is one of the families from July.

Here is the family portrait in August. I didn't have a great angle - fearing that if I got out of the car to get a clearer shot, the ducks would fly.

It was fun to see how much they had grown.

Brazos Bend State Park

I visited Brazos Bend State Park for the first time about a month ago - mid afternoon on a hot summer day.  I went over to the deck at Elm Lake and thoroughly enjoyed watching the purple gallinules, common gallinules, whistling ducks, and all the other birds in the marsh.  I knew I needed to come back and bring my big lens over and sit a spell there.  

I had ordered this  Beach Rolly so that it would be easy to transport my heavy Sigma 300-800 and its sturdy tripod.  This was its first test and it passed handsomely!  It even carried my folding chair!

I got set up just after sunrise.  There were common gallinules in the distance.  But it wasn't long before the bird that I was hoping to photograph came into view - the purple gallinule!  I love this bird with its beautiful irridescent feathers and that beautiful light blue forehead.  I got several chances.  I loved hearing it call. 

There was a juvenile working its way around the lily pads as well.



On one of the snags was a yellow crowned night heron.

There were several little blue herons that posed for me.

I loved seeing this little blue heron with his freshly caught frog.  He worked in around in his mouth and swallowed it whole!

There were several juvenile little blues - notice the green legs and gray beak!

 

A green heron stopped by for a visit as well.

 

 

I don't want to forget the black bellied whistling ducks that kept coming in and perching on the trees around me.  

My bird list at Brazos Bend State Park for August 8, 2012:

Black-bellied whistling duck

Anhinga

Little Blue Heron

Cattle Egret

Green heron

Yellow-crowned night heron

White ibis

White-faced ibis

Turkey vulture

Purple gallinule

Common Gallinule

Red-bellied woodpecker

American crow

Red-winged blackbird

I need to come back in cooler weather and hike the trails. I know there are more birds to see!  

P.S.  Although I have yet to see alligators at Brazos Bend State Park - there are supposed to be 300 of them here. 

Purple Martins at Highland Mall, Austin, Texas 2012

I became fascinated with the purple martin roost at Highland Mall in Austin this summer.  The tremendous number of birds coming in each evening - with the incredible speed and intricate flight patterns.  The sounds as they chattered to one another and as their wings brushed the twigs around them, sounding like water flowing over gravel.  

I shot this with my new Canon 5D MKIII.  The ease to get to the video mode made it easy to film.  This is my first YouTube video.  I can see things I can do better next year when I try once again to capture the amazing flight of 600,000 martins coming in for the night.

San Bernard National Wildlife Refuge

We got to San Bernard after lunch.

San Bernard has a wonderful long auto loop and some very interesting looking trails.  I definitely want to come back in spring or fall when the weather is cooler to explore.


Lighting was harsh and I didn't take a lot of photos. However, I do want to share a couple.  This was only the second time I had seen purple gallinules and there were TWO!  It was interesting to watch them climb up to the top of this vegetation and then disappear into it only to climb back up again.  They were far enough away that no lens would be "big enough."  But I wanted a photo because I think they are SO beautiful with their beautiful shiny blue plumage and that bright red beak and the blue forehead!

Even with it being mid-day in the heat we saw 16 species!  And, of course, the alligators!

Atwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge

I've visited Atwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge three times now at different seasons.  While I've not yet seen the prairie chickens, it is always a good experience.  The best way to see the prairie chickens is to go during the Annual Prairie-Chicken Festival the 2nd weekend in April.

The main entrance is on the south side of the refuge, but we went down Prairie Chicken Lane for fun.  There were so many cottontails and a few jackrabbits that I thought perhaps it should be named Bunny Lane!

It had been a long time since I had seen Northern Bobwhites - so it was quite a treat to see them and to hear their cheery "Bob white!" call.

We have Crested Caracaras living near me in Hutto, but this was the closest I've gotten to photograph them in the wild. I was thrilled to get the chance to photograph one so close.

This black vulture also posed cooperatively for me.

It was truly a pleasure to drive through the restored prairie.  And I was pleased to find more dickcissels!

Summer birding

We have gotten off on a short trip. House sitter in place to care for Gambler. We left Tuesday and spent the night in Columbus to be able to get to the Atwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge early. We drove down Prairie Chicken lane but decided today it would be better named Bunny Rabbit Alley because we saw cottontails and jack rabbits everywhere.

Then we drove south to San Bernard NWR and from there to Brazoria NWR. My favorite birds of the day were the beautiful purple gallinule and the least bittern.

My next blog post will have photos of some of the birds we're seeing.

Here is my bird list for Wednesday:

Atwater Prairie Chicken NWR

Black bellied whistling duck

Turkey vulture
Black vulture
Crested caracara

Mourning doves
Northern bobwhite

Dickcissel

Northern Mockingbird
Northern Cardinal

Great blue heron
Cattle egret
Snowy egret
White ibis

Red Wing blackbird

Killdeer

Non bird species
Cottontail
Jack rabbit

San Bernard NWR

Dickcissel

Black necked stilt

Common gallinule (moorhen)
Purple gallinule (pair)
Coot

White ibis

Great egret
Little blue heron

Red wing  blackbird


Laughing gull

Black bellied whistling duck

Neotropic cormorant

Turkey vulture

Purple Martin

Great tailed Grackle

Brazoria NWR

Scissor tail flycatcher
Mockingbird
Dickcissel

American avocet
Stilt
Willet

White ibis
Roseate spoonbill

Least bittern
Great blue heron
Snowy egret
Great egret
Juvenile little blue heron
Juvenile black crowned night heron
Juvenile yellow crowned night heron


Redwing blackbird
Laughing gull

Mourning dove

Crested caracara

Mottled duck
Black bellied whistling duck
Black bellied whistling duck w/chicks
Fulvous whistling duck
Fulvous whistling duck w/chicks

Coot
Common gallinule with chicks

Meadowlark

Nighthawk

Tern (Foresters???)

Great tail grackle

Non bird species

Alligator

Birding Field Trips

I'm a member of the Williamson Audubon Meetup group.  There is a group of us on a field trip to the Central Texas coast - the Corpus Christi-Rockport-Fulton area.  We went to seven locations today and as a group we saw around 75 bird species.  Did everyone see every species?  No . . . But on my own, I would not have been able to identify everything that I saw.  Plus many eyes are better than one when locating little birds flitting around in the leaves of the trees or that hawk soaring high in the sky.  I truly believe that one of the best ways to become a better birder is to spend time out in the field with people who really know their birds.  Today was one of those days.


These are only the birds I saw.  There were at least 6-10 other species that were also seen by members of my group. 


It was a great day to be outdoors, appreciating the amazing variety of species in God's creation


Blucher park
Franklin's gull 
Baltimore oriole male and female
Orchard oriole male and femaleSummer tanager
Black chinned hummingbird
Black and white warbler
Chestnut sided warbler
Golden fronted woodpecker
Black throated green warbler
Inca dove
Common yellowthroat
Bronzed cowbird
Catbird
Broadwing hawk
Rose breasted grosbeak
Chimney swift
Indigo bunting
House wren
Kiskadee
Blue wing/golden wing back cross warbler (not quite a brewsters')
Northern mockingbird
European starling
House sparrow



Polliwog Pond - Water treatment site
Scarlet tanager male
Female western tanager - we think so because of a wing bar seen
White eyed vireo
Female summer tanager
Swanson hawk
Coots
Crested caracara



Hazel Bazemore County Park
Black bellied whistling duck
Least sandpiper
Blue wing teal
Black-necked Stilt
American Avocet
Northern shoveler
Long billed dowitcher
Semi palmated sandpiper
Snowy egret
Mottled duck
Green heron
Northern harrier

Grass farm 
Upland sandpiper
Buff breasted sandpiper

Tulle Lake
Western sandpiper
Dunlin
Gull bill tern
Neotropic Cormorant
Brown pelican
White pelican
Great blue heron
Great egret
Least tern
Tri color heron
Black-necked Stilt
Stilt sandpipers
Lesser yellowlegs
Roseate spoonbills
Least tern
Ring bill gull
Forester tern
Red wing blackbird

Rose Hill Cementery
Mourning dove
Grackle
Hummingbird. Mostly gray
Turkey vulture
Robin???? In flight
Common tern????

Blucher Park (p.m.)
Orchard oriole male
Orchard oriole female
Baltimore oriole male