§ During the New Strain of Covid...

Once again, we are discouraged of being out and about due to a new strain of Covid. When I do venture outdoors, birding, I tend to keep more than six feet distance, and am now wearing TWO face masks in public. The state of Texas discourages being anywhere but home and grocery stores, but is NOT banning anyone from being outdoors, walking. So far. Who knows what tomorrow will bring? So, tho not going out everyday as I used to do, I did go on Monday to the islands. This is part of what I sighted in on....

NORTHERN SHOVELER [male]
Habitat map: Shoveler


BLUE WINGED TEAL [male]
Habitat map: Teal


MYRTLE WARBLER [aka Yellow Rumped]
Habitat map: Warbler


BROWN PELICAN[s]
Habitat map: Pelican


RED SHOULDERED HAWK
Habitat map: Hawk



COMMON YELLOWTHROAT [immature]
Habitat map: Yellowthroat




REDDISH EGRET [white morph]
Habitat map: Egret

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§ A Long Hot Summer!!! July Lasted 60 days!! [lol]

It's still been too hot to spend too much time outdoors...and my understanding is, for the last three or four weeks it's either a boiler room, disastrous forest fires, or devastating floods and violent storms across most of the US of A. I can't help but wonder about the birds...where do they go and are they safe from harm? For that matter, ALL the wildlife of our country. Hopefully there are some areas that'll keep them out of danger. In the meantime, I'm relying on some of my photos from the Spring of 2018 again...

COMMON YELLOWTHROAT
photo taken:  Blucher Park
habitat map: Yellowthroat


CHESTNUT SIDED WARBLER
photo taken:  Leonabelle Wildlife Refuge
habitat map:  Warbler


SUMMER TANAGER
photo taken:  Lions-Shelly Park
habitat map:  Tanager


HOUSE WREN
photo taken:  Pollywog Ponds
habitat map:  Wren



AMERICAN REDSTART
[male orange and black while the female is gray and yellow]
photos taken: Paradise Pond
habitat map: Redstart






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§ And then there were THREE [edited]...

In the past couple of weeks I've been able to add three two 'new' sightings!! New as in never-before-seen birds for me. With these three, that should bring my total to 213 212 different birds on my 'bird record charts'. I was pretty thrilled. One bird that I spotted at the nearby city park, I had no idea what it was other than being a warbler. And it actually cooperated with me and my camera. In other words, I got a couple of decent images to take home with me to help in getting an ID. I searched for birds with the distinguishing marks and colors I saw on the bird, online...nothing other than the Mourning Warbler, and I knew that wasn't it. I searched a couple of my North American - Texas bird guide books to no avail. Then, a couple days later, I was going through my Crossley's ID Guide and accidentally stumbled onto a page that had a small print-out of a bird that looked so similar to the bird I found in the park. Thrilled to bits again, I instantly went online and typed in the name....Lo and behold, this was it!! Reason I couldn't find it in my Texas bird books is 'cause it's an Old Mexico/Central American bird!!! The habitat map shows that this particular bird doesn't even come close to Texas; or shouldn't be in Texas. On one site tho, it stated rare in Southern Coastal Texas. So...rare it is I guess....

addendum: Nate was kind enough to correct me. He pointed out these facts: "For what it's worth, the yellowthroat in the photos is not Gray-crowned Yellowthroat, but a young male Common Yellowthroat. It's not a plumage that is illustrated in field guides often. The lore is not black enough, it doesn't have the eyering you'd want to see in a Gray-crowned Yellowthroat, and there's far too much black on the cheek (Gray-crowned would have none)

Thanks Nate!!

1st year COMMON YELLOWTHROAT

photos taken: Blucher Park - Corpus Christi, Texas

habitat range: Common Yellowthroat

The 2nd 'new' bird, on a different day, but same area, I was sure it was a waterthrush, but not the locally seen Louisiana Waterthrushes during migration. This particular bird had the markings very similar to the Louisiana, but the throat was also striped. That is what alerted me to a possible different species of thrush. When I got home and delving into my ID books, this one was easy to find...a Northern Waterthrush...it has stripes on the chin/throat as opposed to the Louisiana that has an all white throat. And to me, this Northern Waterthrush seemed a bit larger in size. Also, distinguishing it from the Louisiana Thrush, the Northern Waterthrush has a muted yellow eyebrow, while the Louisiana has a white eyebrow. Compare the NORTHERN WATERTHRUSH to the LOUISIANA WATERTHRUSH...



NORTHERN WATERTHRUSH
photos taken: Blucher Park - Corpus Christi, Texas
habitat range: Northern Waterthrush

While on Mustang Island, near the fishing village of Port Aransas, Bud and I perused a couple of our favorite birding areas. Our first stop was Port Aransas Birding Center [aka Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center]. We spotted the usual water fowl. Tri colored Herons, Little Green Herons, Coots, Ducks, White Pelicans, Cormorants, Moorhens, Terns, Seagulls, Ibis. More or less the resident birds. A couple of younger gals stopped me on the boardwalk and told me there was a Least Bittern in the tall reed grasses at the end of the boardwalk. I saw it, but it was so far hidden, I didn't attempt any photos. This time. The previous trip to the same area, I got plenty of great 'action' photos of the Least Bittern that I'll share sometime soon. As we watched the bittern in the reed, I spotted from the corner of my eye, a small sparrow sized bird fly over my right shoulder into the reed on the OTHER side of the pond. Looking through my binoculars, I spotted it almost immediately. I then raised my camera to get a photo before it flew off...and I couldn't find it through the lens!! Again, I traded the camera for my binoculars and found it....the camera was raised again...but this time I got a field marker to guide me...a power pole in the distance. The camera was focused on the power pole and I dropped the camera directly below the pole into the reed and found it. Took only a few photos before it flew away. Before this day, I had only read about them. I've seen,  photographed, and shared pictures of the Yellow Green Vireo and the White Eyed Vireo. But the Red Eyed Vireo is a new one for me...



RED EYED VIREO
photos taken: Port Aransas Birding Center - Port Aransas, Texas
habitat range: Red-Eyed Vireo

After this stop we drove to Paradise Pond a few miles down the road and had a great encounter with an American Bittern. This will be shared at another time also.


Now, share your birding experiences: