Butterfly and Wildlife Gardening And Photography In Houston Texas
Category Archives: EF 300 F2.8 WOW! Having a rare bird in Houston sure attracts a lot of attention. I got more hits on my blog today than ever before. Thanks to everyone who stopped by and sent comments. For those who are interested, I did not see the Black Headed Grosbeak today. I checked before I left for work this…  I tried something new with the Eastern Bluebirds today. I went out and bought some meal worms. It worked, at least for the female. The male would just perch nearby and watch, or check out the inside of the bird house, but he wouldn’t touch the meal worms. The female wasted no time in having…  Update: This may not be a Cooper’s Hawk after all. It might be a Sharp-Shinned Hawk. Confirmed: It’s a Sharp-Shinned Hawk. I’m telling you, something weird is going on. I had a field day today with the variety of birds. I haven’t really changed anything in my backyard recently, yet the variety of birds appearing…  I’m still waiting for the Monarch Butterflies to arrive, but I do have some visiting Eastern Black Swallowtail Butterflies. I wrote the other day about the Eastern Black Swallowtail I saw flying around the Fennel (I checked really close, and I have not seen one egg), and today I saw another (or perhaps it was…  Update: Checking the Texas Rare Bird website (link below) the information says this species was seen in Northwest Houston, and the pictures show a much younger bird than the one I saw. So I guess there may be two of these in the Houston area now. I think I photographed a really rare bird for…  Our first Eastern Black Swallowtail of 2011 appeared today. It was flying around one section of our garden where the Fennel is in full bloom. I’d like to assume this was a female getting ready to lay some eggs, but honestly, I never noticed this Butterfly laying any eggs in the short time that it…  Boy oh boy, the Purple Martins are in full force now. We counted 10 of them today flying in and out of the Martin House. I don’t know what the birding term is for flirting, but the male and female Purple Martins were really interacting with one another. I wish there was some way I…  I’m telling you this weather is making the birds crazy. We’ve never seen so many species in our backyard at one time. I’m sure I’m leaving out a couple of species I saw today, but here’s what I saw. Yellow Rumped Warblers Orange Crowned Warbler Purple Martin Red Bellied Woodpeckers Northern Cardinals Mourning Doves House…  I have a feeling this is going to be a strange year. While I know the Northeastern U.S. has snow on the ground and it’s freezing cold up there, down here in Houston we’re in the upper 70′s to low 80′s. It’s not Spring, but I’m thinking the birds are starting to think it is….  We have another new bird visiting our backyard this year in addition to the Eastern Bluebird. It’s an Orange Crowned Warbler. This cute little bird has taken me days to identify, and I’m still not 100% sure I’m correct. Let me share my decision making, so any bird experts can help me confirm or deny…  Before I share this picture with you, I need to clarify some things. First, I give up on Leecy’s fingernails. She says she was working in the garden (she was, but with gloves on when I saw her). Second, I’ve offered to pay for manicures, and she has enough money to pay for them as…  We have our first Eastern Bluebirds! We have 1 male and 1 female. For the past couple of days they’ve been checking out the house I set up for them. I sure hope they decide to use this house as their nesting space. I was so excited about seeing the Bluebirds that I went out…  I’m not exaggerating when I say we probably have 50 or so American Goldfinches hanging out at the feeders. I like these little birds, even more so because they crowd the feeder so much that it appears to intimidate the Sparrows we have. Not only are the Goldfinches swarming the main feeder, but when I…  Today was an awesome day for the backyard birds! We had the usual American Goldfinches all over the place, a Red Bellied Woodpecker, and our first Eastern Bluebird couple (more on that in a later post). It was a little foggy this morning, but good enough to bring out my one man chair blind to…  While debating on who should get out of bed because it was cold, Leecy yells, “holy crap, there’s a big bird!” As we both dash out of bed to look at the backyard window, I noticed a huge Hawk sitting in my Maple Tree right above my Koi pond. That sucker was looking for a… |
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