Beautiful Day

Yesterday morning was definitely fall, with dark clouds and a nip in the air. Today was spring--bright sunshine and that mellow, slightly damp feeling the air has at that time of year.

I have been gone for a couple of weeks, so was looking forward to getting back to Lake Wichita, one of my favorite local birding spots. I took the chat trail to the barrow pit. Not a long walk, but far enough to be certain our winter birds are back.

The birding wasn't the best this morning, but since there were a few first of season birds, that is OK in my book. Here's a list of the birds seen today: cardinal, spotted towhee, American goldfinch, blue jay, great blue heron, double-crested cormorant, American wigeon, blue-winged teal, green-winged teal, bufflehead, northern shoveler, American coot, pied-billed grebe, ruddy duck, redhead duck, mallard, great blue heron, ring-billed gull, yellow-shafted flicker, song sparrow, white-crowned sparrow, slate-colored junco, European starling, red-winged blackbird, great-tailed grackle, northern harrier, Cooper's hawk.

Surprisingly, no doves--but I think all of those are at my backyard feeders. :)

Good birding!

Beautiful Fall Morning in Lucy Park

I had a light frost on the windshield when I got up this morning--38 degrees according to the thermometer. Bright sunshine and no wind made for an excellent morning for a walk. I decided to go to Lucy Park.

Although I didn't get to see any brown creepers or nuthatches today, I did see my first American goldfinches of the season, mixed with a bunch of yell0w-rumped warblers (better known as "butter butts" when I lived in VA.)

In addition to these birds, the red-bellied woodpeckers were very active and the woods seemed full of Carolina chickadees. I heard several tufted titmice in the woods, but didn't see any of them. Also seen: pigeon, white-winged dove, cardinal, blue jay, starlings, dark-eyed junco, mallard, Canada geese, common grackle, great-tailed grackle, and robin.

Good birding!

Snowy Day in North Texas

It started snowing about 6:45 AM and by 9:00 AM, this was the view out my back door. If you look very closely, you can see the American Goldfinch on the branch just above the post, getting ready to indulge in the black oil sunflower seeds in the tube feeder in the picture.

There were between 50 and 70 small birds on and under my feeders to the side of the house (juncos, sparrows, doves and finches, primarily).

I went out a bit ago to refill one of my suet feeders, but I can see that by lunch time all of my seed feeders will need to be restocked. I had planned a trip to Dallas today for a meeting and instead will be working at home and watching birds. Darn the luck!

Good birding!