Rainy days and Sunday...

Please note that I greatly appreciated your understanding and concern with my health issues!!

TRI-COLORED HERON & SCISSORTAILED FLYCATCHER
photos taken: Turnbull Birding Center - Port Aransas, Texas [heron]
and
Bazemore Park - Calallen, Texas [flyctacher]
Habitat Range: Tri-colored Heron - Scissortailed Flycatcher

This tri-colored heron allowed me to walk up to it short of 2 feet from touching it. I think it was concerned of a little one that was hidden in the reed grass. I could hear a faint 'cheeping'. And after I took several pictures of the mama, I got a bit too close and she flew off. Only when I turned around and began walking back away from the area did she return to her 'perch' to keep vigil. The Scissortail Flycatcher was busy flying off the wire and catching insects in air. But, we had to stop the car in the middle of the road at the park 'cause of the current rainstorms we've been having...we didn't want to pull off in the mud...so, naturally, since the car was stopped and I stepped out of it to get a photo of the flycatching action...it remained on the wire. More cars were coming down the road so I had to get back in and drive off.

JUVENILE LONG-BILLED CURLEW & WOOD STORK
photos taken: Indian Point Park - Portland, Texas [curlew]
and
Tule Lake - Corpus Christi, Texas [wood stork]
Habitat Range: Long Billed Curlew - Wood Stork

The young one was so plump and so accommodating when I spotted this cutie! I zoomed in on it, and it remained in the posed profile, showing its ever-growing curved bill. A juvenile long-billed curlew. The most prehistoric looking bird I've seen in this area...and that is the Wood Stork. Their eye sockets are haunting! Ugly, yes. But quickly becoming a favorite target to shoot...by lens that is!

GREATER YELLOWLEGS & MALE RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD
photos taken: Tule Lake - Corpus Christi, Texas [yellowlegs]
and
Back yard - Corpus Christi, Texas [hummingbird]
Habitat Range: Greater Yellowlegs - Ruby Throated Hummingbird

The same day I got a chance to photograph the wood storks at the lake, I spotted two yellowlegs. I thought at first they were the Lesser Yellowlegs, but as my eyes adjusted and focused on the height and size of the bill/legs, I realized these two were GREATER Yellowlegs. Also, I mentioned last week that I remained mostly at home during my 'sick days'...and the backyard hummingbird population has grown to around 20. Both female and male ruby-throats! If I'm lucky enough after I notice their frantic flight and dining at the feeders, sometimes they'll light on a near-by branch to keep a close eye on their possessions...Tho the photo of the male is dark [it was a cloudy, rainy, day] the red iridescence shows through a bit!!

FEMALE RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD & LEAST FLYCATCHER
photos taken: both in back yard - Corpus Christi, Texas
Habitat Range: Ruby Throated Hummingbird - Least Flycatcher

No sooner had the male left the perch and flew up to the feeder to ward off the other invaders, the female ruby-throat landed in the very spot. After that photo was taken I walked around the yard to investigate how much standing water from the rains remained on the grass. While doing that, I spotted a small slender bird on the power line near a tree. Against the darkened, stormy sky, I snapped a picture of it...the white breast and cream colored lower mandible, and prominent white eye ring, made its ID simple...a Least Flycatcher.