§ Migrants and Migration, and a Book on Migration...

The weather continues to improve, the migrants are moving in, and moving out quickly...I finally saw my first hummingbird of the season. I have feeders out for them, but saw my first at a park. I am reading a hardcover book I found at our used book store, a first edition, that was published in 1999 on the subject of migration....the author's research and opinions along with many revelations throughout history since the time birds were noted. From flight patterns, to thermal zones, how one bird may run off course and land in an area considered a rarity...so so much to learn. It may be twenty years since published, but the author and time frame can very well be today, yet some, tho old school, still works for research in the 21st century!! I recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about banding birds, food stations needed, sleep patterns, reasoning and theorizing about bird migrations. The mileage these birds fly twice a year just continues to astound me.  The book:  Living on the Wind by Scott Weidensaul.  You can find used copies through Amazon for as little at a couple of dollars, most under $10!!!


This is a busy time of year for Bud and me. So, I'll stop writing now, and just share some photos taken recently...

RUBY THROATED HUMMINGBIRD
photo taken:  Blucher Park
habitat map:  Hummingbird





GREAT KISKADEE [nest building]
photos taken:  Hazel Bazemore Park
habitat map:  Kiskadee



LITTLE GREEN HERON
photo taken:  Blucher Park
habitat map:  Heron



SCISSORTAILED FLYCATCHER
photo taken:  Packery Channel Park [field]
habitat map:  Flycatcher




top: MATING KILLDEER  bottom: KILLDEER and LESSER YELLOWLEGS
photos taken:  Hazel Bazemore Park
habitat maps:  Killdeer - Yellowlegs





COOPER'S HAWK
photos taken:  Rose Hill Cemetery
habitat map:  Hawk



GRACKLE
photo taken:  Main Library
habitat map:  Grackle




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§ How Do You Go from Starlings to Mozart?

While walking along the Park Road between the river and the Hawkwatch Platform and field, I spotted dozens of Barn Swallows perched on the power lines....this is only between two poles...each section of power line poles had as many...hundreds if not a thousand!!!

BARN SWALLOWS
photo taken:  Bazemore Park
habitat map:  Swallow

Sadly, so many think that Starlings are a nuisance, I don't! They have gorgeous plumage, they have a beautiful song, and they ARE part of our environment, so I enjoy them as much as any other bird!!!

EUROPEAN STARLING * * [see note below]
photo taken:  Bazemore Park
habitat map:  Starling

These Doves are quite scarce in my neck of the woods, so when I see one, I'm thrilled.

WHITE TIPPED DOVE
photo taken:  Bazemore Park
habitat map:  Dove

One of the first Autumn warbler migrants to stop over in the South Texas Coastal Bend. There were a couple of them taking advantage of the drip system just below the hawkwatch platform, in the shade of the mesquite trees. While one was on the edge of the dripping water, the other was in the tree.

BLACK and WHITE WARBLER
photo taken:  Bazemore Park
habitat map:  Warbler

When I saw this heron along the boat jetty at Packery Channel, I immediately thought of Charlie Chaplin's stance while dressed in his striped pants and black jacket doing his hobo comedy routine. If you are too young to know who Charlie Chaplin is...click here Even thinking of Mr. Chaplin and being brave enough to actually admit of remembering him in my youth, it DOES age me!!   Think Silent Movies!!! Don't ask me why, 'cause I don't know why....then, when I was uploading it to this post, I had second thoughts...perhaps General MacArthur or Patton readying to make a speech before their battalion?

GREAT BLUE HERON
photo taken:  Packery Channel
habitat map:  Heron

Tho this cattle egret is in breeding plumage...and late September, I'm guessing the species may have two breeding seasons in a year's time? Do they?


CATTLE EGRET
photo taken:  Caribbean Drive Ponds
habitat map:  Egret

This too...there were two Spoonbills...and in a way, the activity [in September] resembled a courtship ritual?

ROSEATE SPOONBILL
photo taken:  Caribbean Drive Ponds
habitat map:  Spoonbill


As I pulled off the road, onto the shoulder to get a photo of the hawk, it stopped searching the ground cover and watched ME watching it!!

WHITE TAILED HAWK
photo taken:  Mustang Island Highway
habitat map:  Hawk

* * Note: I recently read a non-fiction book entitled Mozart's Starling! It was excellent. For any bird lover, or one interested just a tad bit of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart [his trained starling, Star, and how the bird became a pet of Wolfgang's by mimicking one of his 'secret', yet unpublished, works at the pet store!! To the author training a starling,and studying her bird from taking it from a nest before it fledged --named Carmen]...also, her obsession to learn more about Star and Mozart's connection, she travels to his country and follows through with an incredible adventure of learning, education, and understanding not only his gift of music, but starlings and surmising that perhaps some of his music composition could be a result of the starling's song repertoire!!  I highly recommend it to anyone remotely interested in the subjects of talking birds [starlings are highly adept in human speech or their habits], Mozart, and birds in general....think:  Mozart's Piano Concerto Number 17 in G

...another review




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§ Lakeview Fowl...

Most of my initial conversation today will be on the book I just finished reading: "THE GENIUS OF BIRDS" by Jennifer Ackerman. My opinion of the book is just that...MY opinion. All in all, if you're in the least interested in birds and what they 'think', why they 'act as they do', their 'learning skills', tool making and even bird art; the scientific approach of their brain/genius, then, this is the book for you!! Throughout the pages, there is wit, wisdom, and wonderment! You will read about decades of scientific research on the brain functions/size of brain through trials and tribulations of many species. There are success stories, and things that go 'flat'...literally [page 92 of the soft paperback edition] in reference to a Kea letting air out an automobile tire [intentional maybe? Who knows!] Another few pages that had me laughing out loud was a family parrot...learning the language of humans and imitating sounds that it heard throughout the day...for instance the human couple's voices where their tone was spot on and confused the two - it was the bird! And more antics, the sound of the cellphone ringing...again perfect pitch...and again, the bird! -The bird would even mimic the man, answering the phone  "hello"...Uhuh, uhuh, uhuh"...then the sound of a flat ringtone; hanging up [page 146-47]. Perusing the book if you choose, you'll also learn theories about bird navigation, the use of stars and at times how they can become disorientated. At one point near the end, I found myself in just a tad bit of puzzlement. Throughout many pages Ms. Ackerman covered how birds can smell...the nerve is in their beaks that submit neurons to their brains...experimenting with crows and how to award them with a correct decision from identical shapes [the award was a morsel of food] --- it continued to pick the correct two pairs of matching images...well, perhaps, but she never mentioned that it was all possible the bird could SMELL the food?!! Why wasn't that brought to our attention? A worthy book to read, 4 stars out of 5 being the best kind of book...it is on the New York Times Bestseller List!

----
Oh, I failed to mention...Ms. Ackerman also pointed out that the House Sparrow [see below] can be found on EVERY continent but Antarctica.  Okay, on with my birding:

Tho the thermometer reads in the high 80's low 90s, the heat index has been enough for the weather app on my phone to issue heat advisories of 110-114 degrees!  So, these photos I share today are some from a couple of weeks ago while on an early morning stroll around the lake at a city park that is home to many, many pigeons and gulls, along with several domesticated ducks and geese.  Every once in a while cormorants, egrets, herons, teals, a few sandpipers may be seen.  Oh and two resident roosters!!  It's a popular place for parents to bring their small children to feed the waterfowl and turtles!!

photos taken:  Lakeview Park - Corpus Christi, Texas



MUSCOVY DUCKS and ducklings
habitat map:  Muscovy



CORMORANTS
habitat map:  Cormorants



HOUSE SPARROW [female]
habitat map:  Sparrow



MOTTLED DUCKS
habitat map:  Duck





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§ July Birding in Texas...

...could mean 'doldrums' to some. The migrants up North will soon be heading South again. The county's annual hawk watch begins the first of August. A lot of Mississippi Kites will show themselves first, ahead of all the rest. I have yet to get a good, decent photo of any kite, so maybe this late Summer or early Fall, I'll get a chance to add them to my photographs. Time will tell.

But for the month of July, it's mostly doldrums in the birding world. By that, I mean only the resident fowl are seen. That, of course, doesn't deter me in going out to find what I can find for taking pictures of any kind!! On the contrary, they are still changing. The hatchlings are now mostly fledglings or some even considered juveniles at this point. The adults, some, are going into their 2nd breeding plumage for the year while others are molting from their breeding plumage. So...even tho, typical constant species, there are still a bit of differences to be seen. Around the shore and along the ship channel, you might even see a Frigatebird soaring above in hopes of snatching up a fish that a seagull has caught for their morning meal. Who knows what lurks as the sun rises and begins to create the typical day's inferno experienced in South Texas---

Today, I share just a few photos of more than 100 I took along the Salt Flats of Charlie's Pasture North [near the ship channel where large cargo ships may be heading from the port of Corpus Christi or ships coming in from the Gulf of Mexico...].

Along the 2 mile raised boardwalk in the flats, I noticed a lot of the fresh water is beginning to dry up from the lack of recent rains. Just a month ago, it was pretty muddy and filled with a high water mark. But, the sea breeze kept me cooler than the 94° [34.4 celsius], while I walked a ways, stopped and raised my binoculars, and photographed some, walked some more. From one gazebo to the next. This will be a two part collection of my walk on July 10th. Next week, some more seen in the vicinity...unless something spectacularly different shows itself in the meantime!!

PART I

One of many Fledgling/Juvenile Black Necked Stilts...ALL LEG!!

Double Your Pleasure, Double Your Fun

with

Doubles...Two Tri-Colored Herons and Two Long Billed Curlews

Further walking distance, coming nearer to the dried flats, I spotted a lone Long Billed Curlew on the parched soil. It quickly moved away from me---

...at another area close by is another birding park donated to the county....Paradise Pond

In the pond...all by its lonesome a juvenile Black Crowned Night Heron

...another stop on the way off the island, at Leonabelle Turnbull Refuge where a beautiful Red Winged Black Bird gave us a verbal greeting!! Then, bid us adieu...

...and if you follow my personal blog, Hootin' Anni's, you may have already read about this book I found and purchased. It's an older volume, copyrighted in 2005, but still can be purchased online. To suppress my hunger for the lack of going out, birding in this humid heat-wave we are experiencing this time of year, and hunting a "new" bird, I found and read this in two evenings, "The Grail Bird" by Tim Gallagher.  Mr. Gallagher, born in England, has been working for the birding enthusiasts' world famous,  Cornell Lab of Ornithology, as editor of their publication/magazine since 1990.  [also: website which for me in close the 'bible' of birding online]  I really really enjoyed this book!!  I highly recommend it to anyone...not just birders.  Not only a quest for the probable extinct bird, the Ivory Billed Woodpecker, and marvelous story telling, it also would be very gratifying to those who would like to read about:  destruction, dedication, intrigue, camaraderie, America's South, swamp land, parks, danger,  dealing with mishaps and extreme disappointments, skepticism, ingenuity, people, and so much more!  It's a quest to find the ghost bird within the southern states of Arkansas, Mississippi, and Texas to name a few.  Beautifully written, easy to read and one that is a page turner from the get-go!!  Does anyone actually find the elusive bird?  Are their excursions worth while?  Read it...I dare you to go along on the 'hunt' for one of the largest in the world woodpeckers in the deep woods of the deep South.  You'll laugh, you'll cry, you may even become an avid birder after this!!!  You might even find yourself with a hankering for tuna and crackers, Snickers bars, and Mountain Dew.

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