March 18 corrections and highlights

Could not figure how to get/edit these photos into yesterday's blog and ran out of steam trying and patience trying so here are the photos that should have gone with that blog entry. If these don't show then I don't know what to say. Dial-up is a wondrous tool.

Just hung around the place all day piddling. In 24 hours managed 36 species of birds. Not bad for this little property. Best was seeing two parulas at the bird bath at once. Having a Blue-headed Vireo singing around the house most of the morning and finally hearing a Common Ground-Dove in the woods. I don't get them much anymore and they used to be so common around here....I am not sure why they left. Maybe the habitat has matured to the point they don't care for it anymore. Or maybe the fire ants have taken their toll on these birds as well.

Anyway the top picture is not "Old Indian Spring" but the septic tank that over flowed after I was gone a few days and the float in the commode was left in the open position. The blackened area is where I burned off the San Augustine again. I do it every time I can and the patch is getting smaller and smaller. Then the Texas native plum I spoke of previously.

But Geeeeez! I really got to go now, I think my neighbor is still mowing and it is almost dark. I don't want to miss hearing a lick of that :-)

That's about it....B

Recent Spring "Joys"

I have lacked either the time, energy or desire to update this blog on a regular basis, indeed on many days there is just nothing to say.. Spent the last couple of days either working or on the road. Went to Round Top yesterday that ate up pretty much of that rainy day. Still rain is good and keep it coming. After last spring's horrendous drought I am glad to see so much greenery and bloom.

If you live in a rural areas make very sure that your water or well is turned off before you leave for a few days. I returned to find my front "yard" looking like this. No it is not an old "Indian Spring", but it is my septic tank boiling over and running down into the woods to the "creek"...Look close and you'll see Mouso the cat standing stream side down the hill. I had no idea what was going on as all the faucets were off but then found the float in the commode was stuck on so the well just ran all the time I was gone. The black area has nothing to do with this event . It is merely where I have continued to burn off the last remaining remnants of disgusting San Augustine grass that I fight so hard to get rid of. Was I ever a dumb ass for putting that stuff in, and even back then it was just two squares I found that had fallen off a truck.! Now after almost an inch of rain yesterday the yard is almost a swamp.

See the little 30.00 birdhouse I put up on the top right. The titmice people have taken it over and are nesting there now.

Next a photo of one of my "Mexican" Plums blooming. Last year it barely made a flower. This is a Texas endemic and grows nowhere else naturally. They smell so good and fill the property with that rich smell of spring. Already it is beginning to fade in bloom. Odd because the ones just 30 miles to the west and 400-500 ft. higher have just barely started to even bud. every thing down here is earlier, even our Redbuds are beginning to play out.

The next two shots are just of the budding/blooming Bradford Pear which is about done blooming and the Post Oaks which are just beginning to bloom. While I was home today with the door open, I could hear all day the White-eyed Vireos and Chipping Sparrows sing and often the Field Sparrows and a Blue-headed Vireo. Occasionally a Black-and-white Warbler, but no Yellow-throated Warblers yet. Just a couple of days to early for those but I have had them before this date.

Went birding a bit this morning but my mood/heart was not really into it despite the beauty of the morning. I went by a plant nursery east of Bastrop to look for a specific plant but they were not open so hit some local birding spots. Heard my first Hooded and Prothonotary Warblers today plus the usual suspects. No Waterthrush or Yellow-throated Vireo though I made no real effort to find them. And by chance as I was driving on Harmon Road, heard then saw a pair of Hairy Woodpeckers.

I actually had the Prothonotary on the Travis/Bastrop Co. line off of Lazy River Rd. Had planned to bird in Big Webberville Park but there were 3 mowers and a pressure washer doing make work on the Tax dollar, cutting grass that needed cutting about as much as my bathroom stall door needs a booger. Senseless mindless activity as it was mowed just last week.....Tried to go to the private turf farm of a friend's here near utley but the roads were just way to muddy after yesterday's rains and I could see the ruts from the tractors were deep and sliding all over.. Went to the little Utley cemetery where the White-throated Sparrows were singing and the spiderwort was blooming only to be scolded by House Wrens. I see saw that another one of the Sutton family had just been planted in the this mostly Black Cemetery. There are are many Suttons and Bells here in this pre-Civil War cemetery, mostly in unmarked graves.


Still in that funky mood I just went home. Was sad to hear that Pansy Espy had passed on at the age of 94. What stories I am sure she could have told about Ft. Davis, in the old days.
I never knew her well, having only met her a few times, but I did see her Mountain Plovers and it was on the Espy Ranch that I got my lifer Band-tailed Pigeon many years ago.

Another old friend passed this past weekend. A friend I will indeed very much miss. Max. Max was Steve and Susie's big gentle German Shepard that lived next door in Port O'Connor. So gentle even the Hockey's cats had not the slightest concern about him. Max and I did the birding "walkabout" in POC hundreds of times. He always lagging behind to visit the other dogs or read the "newspapers". Never ever did he get in the way of my birding and when we came to the corner of 7th and Jefferson, 9 blocks in from the beach, he would always stop and look at me . I knew it was his boundary and his eyes told me so., but I never understood why, so as I continued on to 8th street and beyond I would look back and see him heading back home via unpaved alleys, I will never be able to go to this intersection again in my life without thinking of Max....Why is it good animals like Max only get 11-12 years? He died peacefully under the Bell's porch sometime after Ladd and Petra took the boat out that morning. He too had a good life but I will really miss him.

I just Winston's "Black Dog" would go the same route. I guess some of us will always be cursed with his hound in our shadow.

I noted the Toadflax, beginning to bloom as are the Bluebonnets. That means the White Bass and Stripers are running. I can very well remember the endless hours we spent in the 70's and 80's fishing those Bluebonnet days off the gravelly Paradise Point on the west side of Lk. Buchanan, wading far out into the shallows, often tripping over stumps in the early morning darkness only to get soaked and almost freeze, but one after another we would would haul those fish in on silver spoons. Sometimes we even got into runs of 3-4 lb. Channel Cats. We were young and cold meant nothing nor did getting up at midnight or staying awake 36-48 hours at a whack. Fishing at night working by day.

I hope tomorrow is sunny as I need it. I am to tired and lazy to proof this so here it is in raw form.

Great Horned Owl with Striped Skunk

One thing I forgot to mention from the 11th was seeing a large bird in on the limb of a large pecan tree as I was driving down near Ganado/ Lk. Texana. This was broad daylight. I turned around to see a Great-horned Owl with most of the remains of a dead Striped Skunk in it's grasp. It was a big item even for the owl. I have no way of knowing if the owl actually caught the skunk or scavenged it off a road.....Still it was an impressive thing to see..

B

Bird changes March 10-13...Bye-bye Winter

There is an old saying in Texas that winter is not over until you see the Mesquite budding. Well if that is thecase we have seen the last of old man frost as I actually had two budding Mesquite AND the buckeye is budding to bloom (the Redbud is already in full bloom).

Lot of driving and a few surveys past few days. Picked-up about 200 cowbirds. Not a great deal to report. The survey stuff , not the driving, is the fun part now there are many hours of data going back into Feb. to input. Not fun but that is work.
Galveston Co. highlight.....A male Ladder-backed Woodpecker on March 11 as well as Swallow-tailed Kite not far north of Lake Jackson on 35 that evening. My first of the year. My last visit to the same area on Feb 28 produced 21 EAPHs, on the 10th there was only one on the same route. They have moved on. Gosh that is ugly country down there on the coast after Ike killed all the trees....I have no interest in seeing the High Island area for quite a while.......
Lots of Swallows coming in. In fact today I was was in Webberville and a BARS was already investigating a nest site that has a couple of nests every year. Heard a Black-and-white in the yard this morning.

Made what I thought would be a 10 min. visit to Big Webberville around 9:45 only to find the gate locked ?? That never happens and there were 2 big passenger vans and a car full of UT Bio/Birding students at the gate waiting to get in. Maybe about 30. I ask them if they knew why the gates were locked and they had no clue. Asked them if they were there to see the eagles and that was a jolt for them . They had no clue about the eagles so all got very excited and of course had to see that.... I decided to chance, it so we all just parked off the road outside the gate and walked in across the soccer fields, showing them the GHOW pair along the way. Finally showed them the eagle nest with an eagle on it and of course it was a major hit for them, it just floored a couple of young ladies. I did not want to take over the instructor's trip so sort of hung back after that to let them do their thing as I mainly wanted to see if maybe the Hairy Woodpeckers were still around. I did not find them and was about to leave when I ran into Ed Fair who was there to look for the HAWOs too, but while I was with him we had no luck. However I did show him the eagle nest which provided him with a new Travis Co. bird.

Came back home to find a Black-chinned Hummingbird in the yard. A rare bird this far east in the spring. Sandhill Cranes have been coming over in numbers. A Field Sparrow is singing and the Titmice are busy nest building in the box I put up for bluebirds. A big Southwest music thing in Austin this w/e seems to have the roads extra crowded and the park, once it finally did open, soon had far more than the normal numbers of people. All of the E. Phoebes are gone from here too. Expecting a Prothon or YTWA any day/moment but have no plans to go searching until maybe some weekday morning.

In the butterfly department , had two Tiger (?) Swallow-tails and 1 Falcated Orange-tip this morn. Maybe I will have a short nap before I start that data after all.

New Utley/Webberville Spring birds

After yesterday's excitement at the park with the guys and the eagle nest, today was much sunnier and a bit more up beat. I took laundry to Webberville to wash (dried at home) and no sooner had I turned on the machine that several Mexican/Latino ladies came in with literally tons of clothes to wash, I mean sheets rolled up with clothes so heavy they had to drag them in. 5 minutes later and I would have been out of luck on getting a couple of whashing machines for the day there. Instead of waiting there with the c12-13 screaming/playing kids, I went to Little Webberville park while the clothes washed. There I had my FOS Travis County PUMA and BARS also a singing parula. Little else though the trees area all budding or blooming nicely.
After picking up my washed clothes, I stopped by Big Webberville Park finding nothing of note except new nesting birds including a Downy Woodpecker nest site. It is that dead time of year when a lot of stuff has left to go further north or south back into Mexico. Indeed the fence row on the west side of the park was without White-crowned Sparrows for the first time I have noticed since Nov. The Harris's Sparrows of course are long gone now, nor could I stir up a Song Sparrow or Winter Wren.
Back home as I was hanging out the wash to dry, 3 Sandhills flew over, and the White-eyed Vireo that has been here for over a week now has some competition that appeared just today so the the place just rocks with WEVI vocal battlings. I like WEVIs just fine.
At dusk two Barred Owls took it up for a while nearby as did a Pileated just before heading to roost.
Will be heading out of town to make make my cowbird pick-ups round ups ...BTW if your trapping and have dead cowbirds/house sparrows or starlings in say numbers of 10+, please please freeze and let me know as I will gladly take them off your hands or will have someone at hand that can. We need them badly and have all the permits etc. We will not resale or redistribute, that is a promise. These are used as controls in in the detection of avian strikes at Radio Towers, wind farms, transmission lines , highly illuminated industrial sites etc. We can use can as many as can be provided/obtained. While the cowbird trapping season is usually done only in the spring, we actually need them just as badly for fall migration as well as the rest of the year.. Just drop me a line.
The next day (Thurs.) I will be on a property on the UTC "birding" but hope to be back here on Friday (maybe Sat.)....My cell, 361-655-7641

B

Finally one of the Longspur feeders

Some how when I wrote the Bell/Williamson Co. note the other day I could not get this picture to upload. This is where all the sparrows and the 5 Chestnut-collared Longspurs were. On the corner of CR 360 and 363. It does not appear in this photo that there are any birds but believe me there were well over 100 birds in the general areal of this corn feeder, just not many blackbirds, except meadowlarks. Savannah Sparrows ruled the place. The CCLOs males were perhaps the most gorgeous I have ever seen in the state and were still there 2 days ago..... I did not photo the feeders on 352 as there were so many blackbirds and cows.

Yep all of that yellow stuff seen under the right side of the feeder here is crushed corn! Boy, I bet this was place was hopping with birds during the cold spell in January especially when that ice/snow came.! Anyway just wanted to share the feeder shot with you finally. I figured out what I was doing wrong.

Webberville Park Eagles etc.

A rainy sort of day, but I forced myself out of the house to at least go to Webberville Park to get shed of some small amounts of trash and check the laundromat in Webberville to see if it was still useable. I drove thru the park slowly. There were just hundreds of robins and blackbirds on the ground. But I was just in no mood for birding for some reason and had even almost left the camera at home. When I got down to the boat ramp loop, I checked the eagle nest out with the bins and saw both adults nearby. One was on the nest so I thought I would get some photos for proof and took the scope the short distance over to the fence to digiscope a few shots. You know how it is at the fence. You kinda have to wade thru the weeds and vines to get right up next to it for the closest shots. I did that even though my pants got soaked. I took several photos (one on the right here) but could not get a picture with both adults due to the distance between them.
The nest is extremely easy to see right now and there are chicks in it. You don't even need a scope but for good details you do. The trees are still bare enough that the new nest is quite obvious..You do not not even need bins to see the nest.

Now here is the strange part. I should not even mention it it in the blog perhaps, but it was just so strange and troublesome....I think the word I am looking for is bewildering. As I was trying to get the camera lined up with the scope, someone yelled at me from a truck from the paved loop behind me . I turned around and there was a pick-up with at least three people in it. Maybe more as the back windows were too dark to see in. A guy yelled at me, "What are you taking pictures of?" and without wading back out of the weeds I yelled back. "A Bald Eagle nest and there are Bald Eagles on it. You can come over and see if you like through this scope". The guy in the truck then turned to speak to the others inside but I could not hear them , then he yelled at me again..."What are taking pictures of?!" and I yelled again...."There is a Eagle nest here with eagles on it and I am trying to take photos of them." He looked at me for a moment and then turned to talk to the people in the truck again and then suddenly pushed his head out of the window as if mad as hell and yelled, "Fuck you old man!! then screeched off in the truck yelling something in Spanish I didn't understand......I was completely dumbfounded! Shocked!. They pulled up to the bathroom and parked and I was starting to worry. One guy got out of the back and went inside, I guess for a piss and came right back out and got in. We were the only people in the park but then fortunately they left the park!

Needless to say, I was floored and completely puzzled. Obviously I said something that they misinterpreted in Spanish but I have no idea as to what that could be. Does anyone fluent in Spanish have a clue??

I was sure in no mood for any more birding after that episode so just went back home. The male and female Pine Warbler that sang so vigorously right up until late afternoon on the 4th vanished completely the next morning not to be seen again. Just instantly almost. They had been here all winter but some internal clock went off and they were gone just like that!! I have more goldfinches now than I have had all winter.

The crab apple, pear, Mexican plum and Bradford pear trees here are in full bloom as are most of the peaches. A decade or more ago a neighbor from up north told me he was going to plant a cherry orchard. I told him flatly he had a better chance of raising Musk Ox than cherries in south Texas and that they just were an impossible to fruit here. Still he planted them. He has never made a single cherry but boy, are those trees beautiful when they bloom.

Some of you have asked/told me that they have made comments and replies to my posts but they do not appear (nor do I see them) to some of what I write...I have no idea at all why that is but if anyone does know what the fix is I will attempt it.. Oh well so much for the highlights of the day so far....Now for another lousy cup of tea.

Brush