Mid-Winter in the Colvin Run Habitat

Two months since the last post - what can I say? A variety of other priorities.

In the last two months, I added a new camera to the Habitat tools. A month after receiving it, I finally got the time to get it out of the box and take the inaugural photos. And here they are. A few of the signature cardinals, titmice, and a white-throated sparrow.
These chickadees clearly were upset when I got close to the bluebird house that the chickadees used last spring.

I took the photos of the chickadee and blue jays in flight by accident - the benefits of an extremely fast camera.

Of course, everyday you'll find a turkey vulture overhead.

On the Road in Texas: Black Vultures Eating

Some photos of black vultures doing what they do best - cleaning up road kill.
I took these photos the last time I was in Texas - heading into the Hill Country out of San Antonio. These black vultures, about 20 feet off of a two-lane road with a 55 MPH speed limit, were enjoying a deer that had been recently hit.
They allowed me to approach to about 30 feet then flew into the trees.
As I approached the trees, they took off - most likely to return to the deer as soon as I drove off.

Turkey Vultures

I have previously written of vultures flying above the Habitat (say at 50-100 feet). As these birds are common and do not typically really come through the Habitat, they receive little blog exposure. Last Sunday, a pair of turkey vultures came through the Habitat at about 10 to 20 feet above the ground.
In fact, they were so close to the ground, I assumed that they had found a dead animal in the brush to feast on. The pair never though landed.From their size, flat wing profile while soaring, and red, featherless head, these are clearly turkey vultures.

More Photos from Amazing Sunday

I remain simply amazed from yesterday’s observation of 19 types of birds in two hours. Previously, I showed the red-tailed hawks and the flock of starlings. Here are four other types from this past Sunday. First, we have the turkey vulture flying just about at tree top – note the bare-skinned red head (click on the photo to see an enlarged view).

Second, we have the mockingbird perched in a holly tree (with the red berries, it's beginning to look a bit like Christmas).

Then for color and in the same holly tree, we have a blue jay.

And last with subtle coloring, we have a house finch in the dogwood tree (you can see that next spring’s dogwood buds are already well formed).

Two Hawks, One Fox, and 19 Types of Birds in Two Hours

Overcast, rainy, winds gusts to 25 knots, daylight high temperature of barely more than 50 degrees. In short, a raw November day. And yet, there was more action in the Colvin Run Habitat today than on any warm, sunny day.

Things started by surprise. I walked out onto the back porch, only to observe not one, but two Red-trailed Hawks hunting. One of the hawks was momentarily on the ground; that quick he was airborne with something in its talons – from the victim’s size and tail hanging down, I am guessing a chipmunk. The second hawk stayed airborne and rose from about 10 feet to about 30 feet off of the ground. As the second hawk got above the trees, I took the first photograph. As you can see, I only captured its silhouette due to the extremely poor photograph weather.

Both hawks were quickly out of sight; I figured that they were gone for the day. But, within the hour they were both back, circling above the Habitat, which is when I got this second photograph. Later, one by one, they returned several times. They were very active just above the tree tops, and also flying through the Habitat below the tree level.

The Habitat sees many different types of birds during the year. However, in the two hour period that begun with the arrival of the red-tailed hawks, 19 different types of birds were observed (listed here from largest to smallest):
1. Red-tailed hawk
2. Turkey vulture
3. Crow
4. Blue jay
5. Red-bellied woodpecker
6. Mockingbird
7. Starling
8. Cardinal
9. Robin
10. Downy woodpecker
11. Nuthatch
12. Titmice
13. Dark-eyed junco
14. House finch
15. Savannah sparrow
16. White-throated sparrow
17. Wren
18. Goldfinch
19. Chickadee
This is an amazing collection. At times I needed to write down what I was seeing before I forgot. I photographed a number of these birds – I’ll share the photos later.

There were clearly some flocks of different types of birds that came through the Habitat during this two-hour period. In the third photo, you can see a flock of starlings. At the same time that the starlings were observed, robins and mockingbirds were also observed – both are unusual in the Habitat at this time of year.

As normal, the ground was full of chipmunks and squirrels. And not to be left out, and as shown in the last photo, the fox showed up late in the afternoon and took his normal observation seat in the brush. He watched the squirrels a bit, looked around a lot, but within 30 minutes he decided to leave; I can only assume he was looking for a place out of the rain.

What a truly amazing day!