videos from Galveston

Here are a couple videos from Galveston's east end, along the beach, and along the ship channel

It is always refreshing to walk along the beach, especially during a....

seagull extravaganza!(Best NOT to be standing under this!!!!!)

Lots of skimmers, too.

hard to beat birding in Galveston!!!

I thought this was kind of funny... a great blue heron with his "headlights" on... maybe the sign should have said "dangerous bird."

This is a black-bellied plover, in his winter coat - this one breeds in the upper artic regions of Alaska and Canada, and winters down in Galveston! In the summer it will have black feathers on the undersides to help absorb heat from the sun to help keep their youngsters warm! I am SO glad I decided to head down to Galveston for a morning of birding! This kestrel was watching over the marshy areas around the far east end of the island.

Skimmers everywhere!

Harriers were busy patroling the marshes too, oblivious to the ships!!

I love the black-necked stilts, but also noticed this willet in the center.

Not the loch ness monster, but a double-crested comorant diving for dinner!

Sanderlings are fast but awfully cute running around.

This little guy on the right is a piping plover, an endangered bird. I think his friend to the left is a dunlin; they are both around 8" tall.

It is a little hard to tell from this angle but the lovely blue iridescence and flat head looks like a Great-tailed grackle. They are common birds but have just an amazing sheen.

Who would have thought a ring billed gull could be so beautiful. It really is a work of art.

Wow, a brown pelican zipping by with its 6' wingspan is quite a sight.
Here are a couple brown pelicans in their winter coats. The comorants are drying their wings.

I spotted a savannah sparrow along the marsh.

The loggerhead shrike is scoping out the marsh too.

Is this cool or what!! It is a whte-tailed kite, a hunter of rodents

Another hunter of rodents is the harrier!

A red tailed hawk has a nice perch on the light pole!

Ducks are so hard for me to id, but I think these are mottled ducks.

Awesome looking marbled godwit with his upturned bill.

I drove to the top of the easternmost seawall to get closer to the harriers, and noticed these lovely eastern meadowlarks in the grass just on the other side of the seawall.

Looks like this pair was made for each other!

This is in my front yard, the day after my trip to Galveston - I heard these and wondered if they were what I thought they were... and was pleasantly surprised!!




DRUM ROLL!!!!!!

The first ever Cedar waxwings in my front yard!!! Beautiful. Lovely yellow on the tail.
The Lord has really provide me with a special blessing to see all these different birds!

mid-December in Chicago

Here is an American goldfinch in his winter coat!

This is an immature bald eagle, taken out of the picture window of my sister's house!

Here is a lovely downy woodpecker. I guess he likes frozen food!

This is a pair of house finches enjoying some fast food !!

This is the male house finch.

Wonder what he is thinking!!??

After getting down to 3 degrees, the lake was frozen solid, even though it had warmed up to 20 on the day I was here. This is a ringbill gull.

The ringbill is on the left, and the bigger herring gull on the right.

I noticed 2 ducks have gone wild and are hanging out with the mallards!

I am going to print out this picture to keep me cool in the summer when I remember how cold we were here, along the upper shores of Lake Michigan near the Wisconsin-Illinois border. The rocks around the shore are coated in ice (kind of looks like the salt at the Dead Sea) as it was about 20 degrees.

This is one of my favorite photos, a female Common Goldeneye duck.

This is how you go birding when it is 20 outside!


If you get too cold, just go birding by car! We saw this little savannah sparrow looking for food in the grass, and I took the photo through the windshield!! (with the heater on)

We ended up here, a prairie with harriers and short-eared owls hunting the voles who were scampering around under the snow. I couldn't get a decent picture with my little camera - they were swooping down, catching dinner, and it was amazing to watch.


Here is a very short video of geese walking around on the frozen lake at my sister's house. No more complaining about the Texas heat in the summer!!!!

frigid Chicago

Mallard ducks and canadian geese on a frozen lake!

These lovely birds are American tree sparrows, who come south to "winter" in Chicago!!

My sister has resident mallards hanging out on a frozen lake (and one domestic one who has decided to run with the wild ones!)

The locals hate the Canadian geese, but I think they are neat to watch when they fly in formation.

My Mom has a garden pond, these house sparrows were bathing in the freezing water!

This is a male house finch.