Why, hello, Spring! Between holidays, work, presentations, and a slight obsession with chickens, I’ve woefully neglected my blog. But ever does the wildlife habitat continue. I thought I’d venture back to blogging with our newest family in the making — a pair of Red-Bellied Woodpeckers are working on their nest in a dead tree behind our fence, happily situated so we can manage to watch them from our yard.

Here is the male. He frequents our birdfeeder, which we keep amply supplied with peanuts for him. Well, he does have to share with other visiting woodpeckers, blue jays, and other feathered friends who also love peanuts. That was the deal we made.

The female is rather shy and elusive, but I managed to capture her (along with her partner) in the image above. While males have red across their head from the bill to the nape, females have red on their nape only.

It’s hard to tell whether the birds are actually nesting right now or still excavating their cavity, but if the latter, they’ve been working on it a long time. I do know they are working hard.

In this image (above), you can see the blushing belly that gives Red-bellied Woodpeckers their name. It’s a common mistake for people to call them Red-headed instead of Red-bellied, but Red-headed Woodpeckers are another species entirely and have red feathers over their whole head, not just in faux-hawk fashion.

Along with their vast assistance in controlling insect populations, the fact that Red-bellied Woodpeckers make nesting cavities like this is very important in nature. Abandoned cavities become potential homes for other cavity-nesting animal species, such as Screech Owls, Bluebirds, Wrens, Chickadees, Nuthatches, and small mammals. On the other hand, invasive European Starlings, who also use cavities, are a threat to any native species in a cavity, because the Starlings often don’t hesitate to kill adults or young inside the nests in order to gain occupancy. I’m hopeful that our Red-bellied family will be safe, though.

We’ll stay on the lookout for signs of young in hopes of sharing an update in the near future.

Out on the patio at the home of our friend Kris a couple of weeks ago, fellow Master Naturalists and I enjoyed watching busy Bewick’s Wren parents caring for their young. The experience was too delightful not to share.

Mama and Papa Bewick’s Wrens, cavity nesters, chose to build their nest in a birdhouse by Kris’ patio this spring. Of course, last year they nested in the pocket of khaki shorts that had been hung out on a laundry line to dry. I guess they decided stability from the wind might be a better bet this time.

Mama and Papa took turns bringing food to their babies. Wrens bring caterpillars and other insects to their young, though sometimes small lizards or frogs might be on the menu. As adults, they will also occasionally consume plant foods, such as seeds, but they really are primarily insectivores.

Inside the birdhouse, the little babies vocalized their hunger to their parents. Between parental visits, I did try to take a quick peek inside the nest box, but it was too dark for me to see the babies very well. We believe there were four in there, however.

The attentive wren parents also kept a tidy house. Above, one parent can be seen removing a fecal sac. Many baby birds release their poop in a strong mucous membrane, or fecal sac, allowing parent birds to easily pick the membrane up in their bill and remove it from the nest.

The wren parents always kept a careful eye on the nearby humans, but when they saw we were not a threat, they visited the nest box with regularity.

That is, until one woman lingered too long near the nest box, and the returning parent bird in frustration swallowed the insect it was carrying and proceeded to chee-chee-chee-chee angrily at the woman until she left the nest area.

Here at home, our wrens change their nest location every year. They briefly considered the shed again, but it seems their final choice was elsewhere. But they still collect food from the garden smorgasbord, so they are around somewhere!

This post is for my mom, who was on the phone with me while I looked through photos. Okay, Mom, your turn — let’s see how long it takes you to visit your or Grandmother’s computer!

This beautiful male House Finch stood guard for several minutes watching over his mate while she feasted on seeds in a feeder. He’d cock his head this way and that, looking around constantly. He never took time to preen or anything else, though he did sing a little bit (causing me to coo back at him). I was most impressed with how seriously he held watch, and his mate only felt cause to react when the paranoid White-winged Doves on the front side of the fence suddenly flew up en masse — but seeing no concern from her mate, she went right back to eating.

Here the female House Finch just sits inside the milk jug bird feeder, devouring black oil sunflower seeds. We’ve been having fun with kid projects. This is a simple version of a milk jug feeder, decorated only with stickers (held in place with non-toxic outdoor glue) — we have some fancier ones that are going to go out in the garden tomorrow, once the glue dries. On Friday, we’re having a bunch of kids over to make some for their own backyards. Fun!

I love House Finches. They are gregarious birds, and many will flock at my feeders and have great conversations with each other while they feed. Males and females feed in pairs or as part of the flock, and males will offer food to their mates during courtship. So tweet, as it were!

Here are a couple of fun facts about House Finches. The males’ red coloration comes from pigments in the food they eat, and it can play a part in a female’s preference in choosing a mate. Also, House Finches eat primarily plant foods. Even though a lot of seed-eating birds will eat insects and feed them to their young for protein, House Finches feed almost exclusively on seeds, buds, and fruits — they are considered the most vegetarian of any bird species in North America.

I’ll post details about our kid projects later. I just wanted to give a shout out to my mom, a bird lover, who better read this!

My stepdad and I share a love of birds. He’s in East Texas, and I’m in Central Texas, and we have great fun discussing our latest sightings. Some of our species overlap and some don’t, which means that sometimes we get bird envy of the other’s habitat. Today, while I sat in my car in my driveway, we reported on woodpeckers (among other species), and ended up on the subject of Red-bellied Woodpeckers and how they are so annoyingly named. The Red-bellied Woodpecker is most often recognized by the vibrant red feathers on its head, and yet it is not to be confused with the very aptly-named Red-headed Woodpecker, which boasts far more red feathers on its head and thus deserves the title.

Nope, the Red-bellied Woodpecker is named for its blushing belly of sorts, but because it so often has its belly against the tree it is clinging to, we often don’t notice any hint of red except on the head. This leads to much confusion about the name of this bird, unless you happen to be a birder. But amazingly enough, as soon as I got off the phone with my stepdad, I captured this photo of a Red-bellied Woodpecker at my feeder, baring its red belly to the world (or at least to me). Sometimes the red is more vibrant than seen here, and other times you just see the blush effect. In any case, that’s why it’s called a Red-bellied Woodpecker and not a Red-headed Woodpecker. If asked, I’m sure I could give it a completely less confusing name, but I suspect the birders of the world would squawk about it (maybe even myself included). And yes, that pun was intentional.

Woodpeckers were definitely the birds of the day for me. Prior to my driveway birding, I was birding with the Capital Area Master Naturalists class at Commons Ford Ranch, where woodpeckers were present in mass quantity. Oh sure, we saw many sparrows, Barn Swallows, ducks, doves, Yellow-rumped Warblers, vultures, and others, but I was truly impressed by the number of woodpeckers.

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, a type of woodpecker

Almost immediately on our bird walk, we spotted a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, which barely took notice of us while it pounded and drilled for insects in the wood.

Landing on a telephone pole nearby was this Ladder-backed Woodpecker. Ultimately we saw many more of these, as well as Downy Woodpeckers and Golden-fronted Woodpeckers (who won the noisy prize today).

Not to be ignored, this Northern Cardinal was singing his heart out. He and a few other male cardinals were quite feisty today. Gee, does nesting season approach?

Above is a tree of White-winged Doves, plus one Mourning Dove. Can you spot it (ha, ha)? Yeah, I couldn’t either, not even when I was much closer. But that’s the advantage of birding with other people — everyone has a chance of glimpsing something that few to no one else get to see (binoculars and spotting scopes help, mind you). More often than not, however, people get to witness and confirm and ooh and aah over the sightings. Unless those silly birds just won’t sit still, that is!

Brown Creeper

Back at home, I became trapped in my driveway, first talking with my stepdad and then becoming mesmerized by the many dozens of birds that awaited my homecoming, apparently. Finches, woodpeckers, chickadees, titmice, cardinals, doves — they all sat there at the feeders or in the trees, singing away, feasting, or just watching me from above. I ended up quietly reaching for the camera and binoculars on the backseat, and despite my nearness to my home’s comfortable furniture and food-bearing refrigerator, I lingered for many minutes in the driveway, just watching, listening, and snapping pictures.

Pine Siskin

House Finches

And then I rushed inside to start a long overdue blog post! Since I haven’t posted in a bit — okay, a while — I’d like to report my excitement over all the buds in the garden — spring be a’ coming! I just love this time of year when I get to see what plants have made it through winter and will be gracing our garden with their presence  — happily, it looks like just about all of them will!

Looking forward to gardening and garden blog posting with frequency — M

Before I tell you about the fun we had this weekend, I want to mention that I’m teaching two upcoming classes for Travis Audubon. The first is “Creating a Wildlife-Friendly Native Garden,” on October 13. This 3-hour class will take an in-depth look at wildlife gardening, from great native plants to design considerations to fun projects, and more. The next week, on October 20, I’m teaching a class geared toward kids: “Family Fun with Wildlife Gardening.” Designed for kids ages 4-11, along with their parents or grandparents, we’ll have fun taking a look at the different kinds of wildlife that you can attract to your backyard, understanding how native plants are connected to native wildlife, and making a gift for wildlife that every child can bring home to their own garden. Both classes have size limits, so please register soon and join us!

This weekend the boys and I drove down to Hazel Bazemore Park in Corpus Christi, where hundreds of thousands of hawks and other birds can be seen during peak migration times, especially in the fall. Though fall migration occurs over several weeks, at the end of September local birding groups hold the Corpus Christi Hawkwatch as a focused celebration. (note: above is a Harris’s Hawk)

The biggest numbers are usually of Broad-Winged Hawks, though we saw many other raptor species while we were there, including a Zone-tailed Hawk, White-tailed Hawks, and many Kites, Kestrels, and Peregrine Falcons. Due to the heavy rainstorms the day before, however, the numbers weren’t quite as high as might otherwise have been seen — merely thousands as opposed to hundreds of thousands in the overall count.

The photo above shows a typical kettle of Broad-winged Hawks, but I had to zoom in and crop out a lot of birds to show you something more than just dots in the sky. They swirl and soar as they catch thermals to help them move ahead on their journey.

Those watching with binoculars and scopes worked together to call out the birds they sighted. I was no help. I’m too much a novice at IDing hawks from a distance, but that’s one reason I wanted to go down to be with others who know their stuff. Of course, my boys had both of our binoculars, and all I had to work with was my zoom lens, but that’s okay, too.

Mine is not a massive zoom lens, mind you, so my hawk pictures are few. However, a stroll around the park let me snap some photos of other birds in the area. Above is a gorgeous Green Jay.

One reason Hazel Bazemore is such a top birding spot in the Corpus area is that it offers a variety of habitats to please many different bird species, including shorebirds, as well as birds that prefer denser vegetation.

These Ibises couldn’t make up their mind where they wanted to look for food and kept flying here and there and back again.

A Great Kiskadee is commonly seen in Corpus Christi, but it was a new bird for me and the boys. It has quite the personality.

This Wilson’s Warbler was tough to catch a glimpse of, and even tougher to get a picture of!

Of course, Corpus Christi birding in the fall wouldn’t be complete without lots and lots of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds.

Looking down instead of to the sky, more wildlife was busy at work, including termite trails, which were fascinating. My son was most impressed with this ant’s ability to carry a relatively huge berry across a relatively huge distance.

As part of the Hawkwatch celebration, a falconer brought some birds out for show and tell (this includes the Harris’s Hawk at the top of the post, though Harris’s Hawks are occasionally spotted at Hazelmore each fall). Above is a captive-bred Aplomado Falcon, rare to spot in the wild but can be found in southwest Texas, Mexico, and farther south.

A European Barn Owl bears quite the resemblance to our native variety but is a bit smaller.

Here’s an Eagle Owl, which bears a resemblance to our Great Horned Owl but is actually native to Eurasia. It’s also larger than a Great Horned Owl. Gorgeous, it is.

Sometimes you’ve just got to end with a silhouette. That’s a Couch’s Kingbird above, showing off its classic bird shape.

FYI, it’s not too late to go see hawks down in Corpus Christi — they’ll continuing migrating throughout October. We hope to return to Hawkwatch next year — it’s so nice to be surrounded by lots of birders who can confirm identification, especially when the hawks are so high in the sky. Fun, fun, fun!

P.S. Thanks to my father-in-law for joining us! We were our own little flock of birders this weekend.