Tag Archives: Backyard Birding

A Lost Boat

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A new-to-me bird has visited the back garden this past week. I thought it kinda looked like a grackle, but it’s larger than either the Common Grackle or Great-tailed Grackle that are the usual grackle suspects here in Central Texas. Also, it has a mottled coloring, which I assume means either a juvenile or a female bird. It likes water. A lot. From the waterfall and bog of the pond, to the shallow bird baths nearby, this bird likes to bathe, spending most of its time splashing and dipping its impressive beak.

And look at those big feet!

I checked my go-to resource for all about birds and Cornell Lab of Ornithology identifies this fella as a Boat-tailed Grackle, Quiscalus major; the Merlin app categorized this bird as rare for Central Texas.

This is the Cornell map of Boat-tails’ range and it’s clear that this Boat is out of its normal stomping and bathing grounds. Along the east coast of Texas, some hundreds of miles east of my garden, one blob of blue indicates a non-breeding area for these birds, and nearby, a smidge of lavender, which is part of the Boats’ breeding range. Neither of these are anywhere near my pond!

I wonder how and why this juvenile male Boat-tailed Grackle wandered so far away from home?

He’s a bit aggressive with other birds, particularly the White-winged Doves (who are a bit aggressive themselves), though that might just be the teenager in him. I like how he looking at the dove, who who managed to plop itself in the cooling spillway of the pond’s waterfall ahead of Mr. Boat.

If looks could kill…

A nice rear view shows the tail feathers, which are beginning their turn to rich, luscious black that he will carry as an adult. Adult Boat-tailed Grackles are handsome birds, particularly the males with their long, dramatic tails, glossy in sunshine. Females are smaller and copper colored, though sweet-looking in their own way.

While perhaps not the prettiest bird in the back garden at the moment, this juvenile male does exhibit a kind of presence that foreshadows his adult self. Bright-eyed, strong of beak and profile, these birds are good-sized songbirds.

Along with bathing, he has eaten safflower and sunflower seeds on the ground. Grackles are also known for their preference for garbage, though currently, I’m not offering that delicacy for him.

It was interesting to see him hanging out, but I hope he finds his way back home to a mate and community. Fly to the coast Mr. Boat–where your birds are!

What’s Black and White and Cute All Over?

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Migration season is mostly done and in my garden, it was a meh event this spring. I observed very few of the usual suspects either around my pond or in the garden proper. Those who showed up, Summer Tanagers, Lincoln Sparrows, Common Yellowthroats, and Clay-colored Sparrows, were brief in their visits. Absent were the Painted Buntings, Nashville Warblers, White-crowned Sparrows, and Orioles. I didn’t see any of those and I miss them. I enjoyed a quick look at a Canada Warbler, which I haven’t seen in a few years.

My pond has always been the draw for weary migratory birds, but the front garden is in full bloom and seed production with quite a bit of bird activity, and that’s the place to be if you’re a bird or a birder. The front garden is also a much more challenging area in which to watch birds; there’s no window for me to hide behind and no good place to plant myself where I won’t disturb my feathery friends. I also suspect that the wet spring in Texas has allowed for plenty of water and food sources for the migrants, so fewer dipped into urban gardens.

During an outing at Travis County Audubon’s Baker Sanctuary, I was privileged for the first time to observe some endangered Golden-cheeked Warblers. Males, females, and fledglings put on a nice show for excited birders, the birds swooping around native trees, cameras and binoculars pointed upward to catch the winged things. I knew I wouldn’t be quick enough with my camera, so chose to observe and appreciate this rare sight. Central Texas is the only place where Golden-cheek warblers breed and their breeding areas are in very specific habitats. These are not common birds in backyard settings.

In recent weeks, my backyard birding has been focused on watching hungry, often noisy, fledglings who are out of the nest, but still learning from their parents. Most are in trees, squeaking, squawking, and flapping their wings, foliage obscuring baby birdie meal time. Occasionally, parent and chick visit the feeders together, like this mama and fledgling Downie Woodpecker, Dryobates pubescens, pair.

Baby is at the left of the photo, hanging on to the pole that holds the feeder. It looks like she’s already had some food, as she forgot to wipe her beak. As an aside, I’ve seen her land at the pole, then slide down, fluttering up to hold on to the pole, unable to maintain her grip. Learning where the food is and practicing methods for proficiently obtaining that food is all part of her learning process.

The young one flit to the feeder, where mama was ready with a peanut.

I watched these two for several days, then noticed the fledgling visiting the feeder on her own. She was reticent initially to land on the feeder, but eventually gained confidence–and peanuts–as she became successful in feeding herself. I’ve seen young Blue Jays, Northern Cardinals, Black-crested Titmice, and Carolina Chickadees in similar situations. It’s much harder to observe the fledglings while they’re in trees, but as they learn to feed at the feeders, it’s enjoyable to watch and cheer their learning progress.

I’ve heard and seen our fledgling Eastern Screech Owls, but only rarely. I think they’re still around, but their territory will widen as their hunting skills improve. Summer backyard birding will be watching the neighborhood birds, seeing the fledglings molt to their adult plumage, and anticipating the fall migratory birds.

From Eggs to Owls

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We’ve hosted nesting Eastern Screech Owls, Megascops asio, in the back garden for about 14 years. For most of those years, the parents raised the chicks successfully and I’d observe them even after they fledged. In other years, and for a variety of reasons, the owls’ breeding season failed. For about 8 or 9 of the Screech Owl years we’ve also employed a working camera in the nestbox. Or rather, the camera would be working at the beginning of the process (mama spending time in the box) but would then go dark for some undiagnosed issue which proved fatal to a viewing a clear video, or, like last year, when a prolonged deep freeze snapped the cable.

This owl breeding season finally delivered a thriving owl family (the most important thing!) and a camera that caught it all–from eggs to owls.

Mama owl, named ‘Uptown Girl’ (by yours truly), sits on the the first egg, which she laid on March 15th.

The second egg appeared 3 days later on March 18th, the third entered the world on March 20th. I observed and kept track of the eggs, then chicks, with photos from the owl cam, the best viewing always at sundown, as mama took a break from the nestbox for a few minutes each evening.

All three chicks hatched about a month later; the two oldest hatched on the same day, the third arrived the following day.

This photo was taken on April 16. Uptown Girl is at the nestbox window, no doubt ready for a break from the fuzzballs. Her tail feathers are visible at the top of the photo.

If you’re squeamish about the owls’ diet, you might scroll past this next photo, though it does require imagination to recognize what their meal was. This photo is from April 24th.

The older they are, the cuter they are! As they grew, they continued to excel in the fluff department and were so fun to watch. They’d nip and nuzzled one another, preen, and look around their limited real estate. This photo is from May 2nd.

Bright eyed and bushy tailed on May 4th! (Well, two of them, anyhow.)

Finally! On May 5th all three are looking up with an owly cheese! for the camera. You’ll notice that they’re each slightly larger than in the previous photo.

On May 6th, they’re facing south, toward the nestbox hole that will soon be the portal to their lives as fledgling owlets.

Once the owlets filled the nestbox space with their size and regular wing flaps, mama spent little time in the box; watching the owlets was so much easier with mama out of the way! The owlets were active in the early mornings, sleeping during the afternoons, and then hungry, noisy, and wanting to feed in the evenings. The parents obliged by bringing food after sundown, each parent taking turns with an owl version of of door dash: pop in feed a baby, take off again. Next parent: pop in, feed a baby, take off again. And so on. Sometimes the door dash was a quick morsel of gecko or insect, sometimes there was a whole carcass of bird or rat delivered.

I never watched the nest box during the overnight hours. I imagine the parents delivered meals all night, given how fast these chicks grew. I could see that each day, especially in the last week or so, the owlets were bigger than the day before. They’d stretch themselves tall, their fuzzy heads almost reaching the camera, and wings were in regular flap mode, as they built strength and agility toward their flight training.

Notice how large they are on May 7th.

I had several opportunities to capture good photos as the owlets begin peeking out of nestbox hole to the outside world. This poor photo of a darling owlet is the only one I managed, mostly due to my own laziness. I should have been more vigilant; the time the owlets spend at the window just prior to their exiting the nestbox for good, is fleeting.

The two, presumably oldest, owlets fledged on the evening of May 10th; the third one was out of the box the following night. I heard two separate owlet begging calls that night in my neighbor’s tree, but also saw one of the parents in my tree, which indicated to me that while the third owlet was out of the box, it was still in our tree. By the next evening there was no sign of any owls. Typically, I’ve observed the owl families for a few weeks after they leave the nestbox, but this family is gone from the immediate vicinity–at least in the early part of the evening which is when I’m looking.

The parents will encourage their offspring to widen their territory and the next couple of months will be all about survival. By late summer, the young owls will be on their own. About 75% of Eastern Screech Owls don’t survive their first year, so these owlets have a treacherous few months ahead of them and it’s unlikely that all three will make to breeding age. I’ll never know which, if any, have survived, but I feel privileged and grateful for what I observed with this family and impressed with the dedication of their remarkable parents.

All the best to you, little owls–come say ‘hi’ sometime, okay?