Sunday Morning In Lucy Park

Once fall arrives I try to bird Lucy Park every few weeks. Lucy Park is river bottom deciduous woodland and sometimes draws some excellent migrants. With TEXBIRDS reports of migrants heading through the area, I gave it a try today. It wasn't a fruitful morning, but even a poor morning birding is better than a morning doing most anything else.

I didn't see many different birds, but there were a lot of Mississippi Kites. Since we are having a good crop of dragonflies, the kites should be eating well. I saw several fledglings in the tree tops.

In addition to the Mississippi kites, birds seen/heard this morning included: blue jay, cardinal, mourning dove, white-winged dove, Eurasian collared doves, chickadees, European starling, red-bellied woodpecker, downy woodpecker, mockingbird, great-tailed grackle, rock pigeon, robin, Canadian geese, and mallards.

Since I didn't see a lot of birds in the park, I drove through Riverside Cemetery. Not a lot of species there either, but again several Mississippi kites as well as hundreds of red-winged blackbirds and dozens of white-winged doves.

Good birding!

Mississippi Kite

Saw my first Mississippi Kites of 2010 over Wichita Falls today.

Good birding!

Responses to Mystery Bird

I had six responses to my mystery bird TEXBIRDS post, evenly divided between Mississippi Kite and Swainson's hawk. I guess we will just have to give the little guy more time. I will see him again tomorrow and see if an ID is possible yet.

Good birding!

Migratory Laughing Gull 28 April

I was driving back from Iowa Park on FM 369 on Tuesday, April 28 and saw a migratory laughing gull.

The next day, I was driving back to Iowa Park on 287N after a rain and say several dozen cattle egret at the drainage ditch on the side of the road.

Mississippi kites have returned.

Good birding!

Grasshoppers and Birds

A few days ago I mentioned I received the Fall 2008 copy of Wings from the Xerces Society. I did finally read the article on grasshoppers and noted several references to the importance of early emerging grasshopper species to plains birds, such as longspurs and burrowing owls.

"...more than 70 percent of the diet provided by longspurs to their nestlings was grasshoppers..." pg 10

"Juvenile burrowing owls (Athene cunicularia) are fed small mammals by their parents, but when they leave their burrows they capture large numbers of insects. These include the red-shanked grasshopper..." pg 11

We put grasshoppers and crickets in net cages with insectivores and small raptors (kestrels and Mississippi Kites) at Wild Bird Rescue when we can catch enough and they do indeed love them.

Good birding!

Babies Are Flying the Coop!

I volunteer as a rehabilitator at Wild Bird Rescue. We recently released about 30 baby Mississippi Kites we have been backup feeding for the last week or so. They have been eating like little pigs. But we have also seen them catch and eat dragonflies in flight, which is what they are supposed to do. A couple of days ago, 20+ were coming in for breakfast. Yesterday, it was 4. The kites are moving out.

I came into my office yesterday and looked up--there were 25 - 30 kites circling. There was a good wind yesterday--remnants of Hurricane Gustof. That made it a good day to start migration. I could still hear a few kites calling this morning, so not all of them are gone. But it won't be long now.

Texoma Water Garden Society

Thursday I had the pleasure of speaking to the Texoma Water Garden Society. I have thought about joining this group several times. There are several people I know and like in the club, and I have wanted a pond for years. But at present a pond is not in the cards, and I need another meeting to attend like I need another animal in the house. But they asked me to come talk to them about birds, so of course I said yes.

Initially, Marjorie asked me to talk about hummingbirds. Then she asked if I could also share some information about the Mississippi Kite.

The group meets in the backyards of its members, so everyone can see their ponds. The hosts this month had a beautiful yard. Everyone brought food. The group was gracious and had a lot of questions. Many have hummingbird feeders in their yards and flowering plants to attract these beautiful little birds, so were already interested in the topic--sure makes it easier on a speaker that way.

All in all, a great time for me. I didn't notice anyone dozing, so I assume my presentation was at least short enough to keep them from nodding off.