Birding at Home

We just got back from travelling over a thousand miles with birding as the main emphasis. But I realized this summer that I had been missing some great birding opportunities much closer to home. There are great birding places around Austin that deserve my attention as well as those that require much travel.

But . . . . an even closer opportunity exists for me. We live out in the country on five acres. I have several different habitats. The top part of my property is a grassy, grazed pasture. During the summer, we routinely see scissor-tailed fly catchers sitting on the fence near the entrance to our property. We have a large pond in the back. And near the pond is a wooded area. And we have a woodpile where we toss the branches that we trim every year.

I've been trying to feed the birds regularly for the last few years. And we are reaping the benefits of long term feeding. I am convinced we have many more birds that frequent our property. And I truly enjoy my morning time on the porch as I watch the birds and hear their beautiful songs.

The bird species have changed from the summer birds I was watching in August and September. The wintering sparrows have arrived. Most people find sparrow identification difficult. Some are easy - the white crowned sparrows are pretty easy to distinguish with their bright white stripes on their head. But sometimes it is easy to look at a group of sparrows and have the mind freeze because they do look so much alike. After my intensive birding time and armed with more (and perhaps better) books, I'm trying again to learn to identify the birds that I see both in my front yard and on the pond.

From my porch I've seen:

White Crowned Sparrow
Chipping Sparrow
Field Sparrow
Harris Sparrow
House Sparrow
House Finch
Carolina Chickadee
Cardinal
Pyrrhuloxia
Crested Caracara
Red-tailed hawk
Northern Harrier
White winged dove
European starlings (juvenile)
Red winged black birds
Eastern Phoebe
Orchard Oriole
Ruby crowned kinglet
Yellow rumped warbler
Orange crowned warbler

Henry has been watching the ducks on the pond from his working spot in the RV.

Over the last few days we've identified:
American Widgeon
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail
Pied-bill grebe
Gadwall
Ring necked duck

Over the years we've also seen on the property
Great egrets
Cattle egrets
Great blue heron
Little Blue Heron
Bittern
Black crowned night heron
Green heron
Killdeer (nesting)
Roadrunner
American Kestral
Eastern bluebird
Blue gray gnatcatcher
Boat tailed grackles
Verdan
Ladderbacked woodpecker
Crows

My treats this week have been the Yellow rumped warbler (I had not seen them in my yard before) and the Harris sparrow I identified this morning. The Harris sparrow has a beautiful white belly and a striking black face and crown.

Now, if I could just get great photos of all these birds!