Well I knew Friday would be a great birding day, with a stiff north wind blowing and keeping the birds around! I started on the east side of Galveston Island, and noticed this silly laughing gull hitching a ride on a feeding brown Pelican. Here the Pelican was swallowing a fish! Along the shores, I noticed this Forsters' Tern.
Lots of interesting birds were hanging out on the shore line, from right to left (hey, I have reprogrammed my mind to read Hebrew....) is a Sandwich Tern, juvie laughing Gull, Western Willet, and Forsters Tern.
Right along the ship channel, I noticed this tiny Least Tern, which is a robin sized tern.
Next I drove west to about the middle of the Island to see what was happening at the Cove... the Rosette Spoonbill looks prehistoric flying around!
Lots going on in the pond, first a Long Billed Dowitcher.
Then I entered the woods... WOWOWOW, it was hopping with warblers. First up was a female Hooded Warbler.
I didn't have to go very far when the Blue Winged Warbler came into view.
Then I stationed myself along a water drip, and for the next hour or so I had warblers coming in pretty much non stop. There were lots of Black Throated Green Warblers...
...and the Painted Bunting always takes my breath away with its incredible beauty.
I had Tennessee Warblers....
...along with Yellow Throated Warblers,
even some Nashville Warblers coming in for a drink and a bath.
Here is the Worm Eating Warbler.
It was mind boggling to see the trees so full of beautiful birds. Here is the Yellow Warbler along with a Black Throated Green (which may have been the most numerous species of the day).
They are just amazingly beautiful.
It was just wonderful to see all these amazing birds. Painted Buntings everywhere,
and the birds didn't seem too shy.
I hated to leave. As I was walking back out to my car, I entered a marshy area again, and spotted this Green Heron.
Looking back to the woods I could see lots of Indigo Buntings resting up in the trees (my kind of trees!!)
Hmm, this is an Eastern Pondhawk, very intricate isn't it!
Whoops, this is out of sequence, but I couldn't leave out the Summer Tanager. He is a cutie!
Then I drove around the island a bit, and noticed some ponds had Semi Palmated Plovers
It had been a fantastic birding day. This Scissortailed Flycatcher was telling me to come back soon! I think I will.

Songbirds on the move

I could not resist going birding with the beautiful weather we have this week... went to my favorite spot and was excited to find a pitch of about 75 orioles coming in for a meal after their long journey! It was about half Baltimore Orioles, and...and half Orchard Orioles.
Boy it is tough to photograph these hungry birds, they don't hold still very long! This is the Warbling Vireo.
You can almost always find a scissortailed flycatcher, but I think they are too cute.
My first yellow billed Cuckoo of the year!
This is a Tri-colored Heron, working his pond and showing off the beautiful plumage.
This Western Willet just snagged a little crab.
This is a little blue Heron.
Back to the woods today, this cutie had me stumped... I think it is a female Northern Parula.
YEA! A female Hooded Warbler.
Happiness is a Hooded Warbler in the binoculars!!!
This Northern Waterthrush was bobbing around in the weeds.

This Black & White Warbler is truly defying gravity.
This is a female Kentucky Warbler, she just had a bath in the pond.
What a wonderful walk!

Winter and spring birds

I have been so busy the past few months I have not had time to share my photos.... but I will try to catch up. First, here are some birds from Oklahoma last Feb... this is the white throated sparrow.
Happiness is a purple finch at the feeder!!!
In spite of the storms, I had such a wonderful variety of birds to photograph out the window! This is a song sparrow.

The fox sparrow is my favorite sparrow! A beauty!
This juvenile bald eagle was scoping out Lake Eucha in northeast Oklahoma.
My first belted kingfisher of the year!
Kind of mirror images of each other, the common grackle and the dreadful brown headed cowbird were both at the feeder!
This is the beautiful harris sparrow.
I made a quick trip to Allegany State Park in western NY.
Spring had not started here yet!! The higher up the hill we went, the deeper the snow was!
But it was beautiful nevertheless.
This lovely bluebird was the first sign of spring, at Knox Farms State Park in E. Aurora, NY.
This was a singing eastern meadowlark, who flew off before I could record him in Galveston.
These northern parulas were my first of the year.

This is the beautiful white eyed vireo.
2 weeks ago Galveston was buzzing with these tiny golden crowned kinglets.
The cedar waxwings are only winter visitors here.
Off to Illinois to view the snipes!!!
This Osprey was bringing a fish to his nest on top of a huge light pole.
We found some mute swans at Wolf Lake, Il.
Wolf Lake also had Horned Grebes, and...
...some were in the process of changing to their breeding plumage (thanks, Graham, for helping me id this one!!)
Back to Galveston yesterday, where a White Ibis was on guard.
Yeah for the Indigo Buntings!
I was suprised to find a Carolina Wren singing away in the cove. It was a beautiful 70 windy degrees with no mosquitoes!!
These are blue wing teals, I just liked the picture!
I love the black necked stilts, who look like they have the wrong pair of legs... here it is with a Greater Yellowlegs.
WOW, the tricolored Heron was a brilliant mix of blues... here he is with another blue winged teal.
These cattle egrets were in their breeding plumage.Not a 2-headed monster, but a pair of black bellied whistling ducks.
Can you id all the birds on the posts? Fortunately, ospreys eat FISH, not other birds.



Click here to watch a video of the Greater Prairie Chickens we saw in southern Illinois 2 weeks ago... this is their spring ritual which was amazing to watch.