A Mid-April Colorado Birding Trip

On April 13 I flew to Denver to join up with a group of nine other Virginia birders for a one-week birding extravaganza covering the whole state of Colorado. Our leader carefully planned our daily itineraries which centered around seeing as many bird species as possible, with a big emphasis on seeing rare birds and western “specialties” that we do not see on the Atlantic coast. Most of us had targeted several “life birds,” which are species that one has never seen before. Life birds are the Holy Grail of birdwatching, and obviously the longer you have birded and the more species you have seen, the more difficult it is to find and see a new life bird. That’s the advantage of joining up with a group led by an experienced leader who does all the work, figuring out where and when to go to have the best chance of seeing the rare or hard-to-find species.

We certainly experienced ups and downs during the week; the “ups” included all the great birds and scenery that we did see, the fellowship with the other birders and making new friends, and for me, just being back “out west” where I was raised and where my heart is. The “down” was a big one, though; the weather had a huge impact on the trip and made it impossible to go to many of the places we had planned to bird.

We started in the far southeastern corner of Colorado in prairie and grassland habitat, where temperatures were cool but at least there was no snow, and roads were passable. Our first early morning stop at a Lesser Prairie Chicken lek produced one lone bird that was quite far away from our blind and did not remain long, but it was the first life bird of the trip for most of us. Other birds typical of this habitat included the bird pictured above, the Long-billed Curlew, and below, the Greater Roadrunner.

We drove then to the western part of the state where we started to see the first signs of snow in the higher elevations; it was just beautiful and all the roads were still passable. We visited Gunnison National Park and Colorado National Monument, which are both near Grand Junction, close to the Utah border. Both places were stunning; here is a photo of  the Black Canyon at Gunnison N.P.:

We hoped to see a Dusky Grouse at Gunnison, and we drove slowly along the roads in the morning hoping to find one along the shoulder of the road. All grouse species are notoriously difficult to find away from their leks, like trying to find a needle in a haystack, but our leader was successful in finding a Dusky for us – here it is:

Colorado National Monument is a gem of a place that few people know about; it’s like a mini Grand Canyon with gorgeous red rock formations and canyons. The weather had turned darker and drizzly by the time we got there, but we walked around and found some of the common bird species like Spotted Towhee, Juniper Titmouse and Say’s Phoebe. Here are a couple of snapshots of the views there:

Our next destinations were in northern Colorado, where we ran into some major weather. Everything was blanketed in snow, so our best chance of finding any birds for the next few days was to visit bird feeders  where we had great success. Here are some of my favorites:

I've only seen Common Redpolls (above and below) once in all my years of birding, so seeing them in good numbers at the feeders was a real treat. Redpolls are northern finches that move south into the lower 48 in the winter, but they are usually restricted to the northern tier of states and are somewhat unpredictable in their occurrence. They usually wander around in groups eating from the seed heads of thistles and other seed-bearing plants, but since all of those plants were covered by the snow, they took advantage of the niger seed that people put in their feeders. Just look at this group!--

Another of my favorites is a bird of high elevations and northern states, the Pine Grosbeak. We do not see them in Virginia; they occur far to the north of us. Pine Grosbeaks are actually a large species of finch; here is a beautiful male:

Below is a Mountain Chickadee, a bird of the western mountains. It is a "cousin" to southeast Virginia's Carolina Chickadee. My roommate liked this photo and thought we should caption it "Take that, Bluebird!"

In the eastern states we get Red-winged Blackbirds, but not Yellow-headed Blackbirds. Here is a photo of one of each (males), looking annoyed with with weather -- (or maybe they're annoyed with me?)

And one last feeder bird that I must share with you, because it was a life bird for me. The Brown-capped Rosy Finch occurs almost exclusively in Colorado, and loves high altitudes, snow and freezing temperatures. We certainly had all of the above that week, and we saw hundreds of these little guys at various feeders.

This has been just a thumbnail sketch of our trip, but I hope it gives you a little taste of Colorado birding and nature. I would love to go there again in less extreme weather -- as I indicated, there were many places we could not go, and birds we could not see. We were there during the worst snowstorm Colorado has had in three years, and no one could have predicted that. We actually did drive up to Loveland Pass hoping we could search for Ptarmigan, but it was minus 12 degrees there plus 60 mph winds with stronger gusts. It was almost a complete whiteout; in fact, five snowboarders tragically died there in an avalanche the next day. 

But focusing on the positive side, we saw a lot of gorgeous places and beautiful birds, and I will end with a photo of one of the most beautiful, a male Mountain Bluebird. What more is there to say?

Winter Birds At My Chesapeake Yard

  
No question, I see a lot more birds at my Chesapeake bird feeders in the winter than I do in the other seasons. In the warm seasons, many of the birds we see are insect-eaters and do not use bird feeders that offer seeds. And the seed-eaters can find all the food they want naturally, and are less dependent on our feeders. In the winter, food is harder to find; the insect-eaters have migrated south to warmer climates that still have insects, and the seed-eaters rely more on the easy pickin's at the local bird feeder. Winter can be the most interesting time to "feeder watch."

I had an interesting winter in my own yard this year, and I hosted some species that don't come to my yard every year. Winter birds are far less predictable than breeding birds which remain pretty much the same year-to-year. Weather patterns and food sources to the north of us affect bird movements greatly in the fall and winter, and many of the birds we see during those seasons are migrants that do not necessarily return to the same locations each year like the summer breeding birds do. Each day can bring something new and unexpected.

My first real surprise of the winter was the female Painted Bunting that visited my yard for a week or so (below). The male Painted Bunting is well known for its bright and showy colors; bright blue, red, green and yellow; the female's colors are subtle shades of green. Painted Buntings are very uncommon in Virginia, but a few seem to stray here from the southern states each year. I have seen three or four in my yard over the years, including one gorgeous male.

 

       (Here is the male bird for comparison, courtesy of  floridabirdingtrail.com)

This winter was an "irruption" year for many northern species of songbird. When cone crops and other food sources are poor in the northern states, birds that usually winter in those regions move south in search of food. An "irruption" year is one in which large numbers of these birds occur in more southern states; a few of these birds might be seen most years, but in irruption years they are conspicuous and can be quite common. The three birds below were much more common this year than in non-irruption years:

Pine Siskins are little finches about the same size as American Goldfinches, a species that they often associate with in "feeding flocks." Pine Siskins are a streaky little brown bird with variable amounts of yellow coloring in the wings. I've had anywhere from two to two dozen at my feeders all winter.

Red-breasted Nuthatches move through eastern Virginia each fall in varying numbers; the Eastern Shore is a reliable place to find a few. They do not usually stay here or visit our bird feeders, but during irruption years like this one they have been common. They are daily visitors to my feeders.

If you keep a feeder, or even if you are just a casual bird watcher, you are familiar with our resident House Finches; the males have red markings, and the females and juveniles are plain birds with blurry brown streaking. The bird in the photos above is similar to the female House Finch, but is its "cousin," a female Purple Finch, which is a separate species (note the distinct whitish stripes above and below the bird's eye; this is a reliable field mark for distinguishing the two female finches). Purple Finches do not breed in southeast Virginia, but a few do pass through during the southbound fall migration (mostly to the west of us), and some visit bird feeders. This is only the second Purple Finch I've ever seen at my feeder.

Remember this guy? Last year I wrote in this blog about the six Baltimore Orioles that spent the winter in my yard. I had kept a hummingbird feeder filled with sugar water outside during the late fall, hoping to attract a rare winter hummingbird, but instead I noticed one day that a Baltimore Oriole was drinking from the feeder. I knew that Baltimore Orioles love to eat grape jelly, so I immediately went out and bought some jelly and a feeder to put it in. Within a few weeks, I had a total of six orioles, and they spent the entire winter with me, which is very uncommon here. They must have remembered my yard and my grape jelly, because this winter  they returned; in fact they added a member to their group. All seven Orioles are still with me as of today.

All sparrows look alike to most people -- "little brown jobs," as they're called. But this one, a Fox Sparrow (above),  is special to me. Although this species does winter in our region, it is usually not seen in suburban yards; they prefer woods and unpopulated places. But this one spent two months in my yard this winter.

The bird above is also a species of sparrow, although it does not look like most sparrows at all. It is a member of the Towhee family, and this species is an Eastern Towhee. Eastern Towhees are quite common in our area, but for some reason they do not often frequent my yard even when there is free food. This year was the exception, as at least two visit me daily.

 Pine Warblers (above) are a relatively plain member of the Warbler family of birds, but in the winter they bring a much appreciated splash of color to a dreary day. They frequently come to my yard for the suet and nuts that I put out. Pine Warblers are year-round residents in southeast Virginia, and one of only two warblers that commonly winter here; the winter-plumage Yellow-rumped Warbler, below, is the other.

If you have busy bird feeders as I do, you will eventually attract one or several of the Accipiters, known commonly as "bird hawks." Accipiters do prey on small birds, and they are often much maligned for this, but they need to eat too and it's all part of the natural cycle and survival of the fittest. There are two species of Accipiter that you are likely to see in this area, the Sharp-shinned Hawk and the Cooper's Hawk. They are extremely similar in appearance, and even though there is an "average" size difference between them, there is much overlap; the average Cooper's Hawk is larger than the average Sharp-shinned Hawk, but since female hawks are larger than males, a male Cooper's Hawk might in fact be smaller than a female Sharp-shinned. Confused? Even the most experienced birder can have an extremely difficult time identifying those birds in the overlap range. It takes a lot of experience and familiarity with the more subtle field marks to be able to distinguish these two species.

This bird is a first-year, or juvenile, Sharp-shinned Hawk. It is just starting to acquire some of its adult feathers on its breast. Compared to the Cooper's Hawk, it has a smaller-looking head, a shorter and squared-off tail, and it has a "puffed chest" appearance, seeming to carry the bulk of its weight in the chest.

This is a Cooper's Hawk that is almost in its adult plumage. The Sharp-shinned Hawk will have the same plumage in its adult stage, so don't try to ID these two birds based on their color; one is juvenile and one is adult. But if you look at the overall "feel" of this Cooper's Hawk, you can see that its tail is longer than the Sharp-shinned's and is rounded at the bottom rather than squared. The white tipping on the tail is also more in evidence than it is with the Sharp-shinned. The Cooper's head is larger in proportion to its body, and the entire posture of the body is just longer. Rather than looking "puffy-chested" like the Sharp-shinned, the Cooper's seems to carry more of its weight lower in the belly.

There are other things to look for when identifying these two hawks; a good website with concise, helpful  information is http://www.birds.cornell.edu/pfw/AboutBirdsandFeeding/accipiterIDtable.htm.

Next month we will have another Nature Photo Night at the Chesapeake Central Library, so pencil in the date if you'd like to join us: Monday, April 29 starting at 6:00 p.m.  Bring about 20 of your nature or wildlife photos on a USB device or a CD, and we will project them onto the library's movie screen for everyone to view and discuss. All levels of expertise are welcome to come, and if you'd rather just look at the photos than show your own, that is fine too. Give me a call at 757-410-7141 if you have any questions or would like more information -- ask for Karen.

January Photo Night at the Library

To everyone who participated in our January Photo Night, please accept my apologies for being so late in posting your photos here. All I can say is it's been busy at the library!

Our January meeting was, in my opinion, the best one yet! More photographers shared their photos than ever before, and we had some special guests from Hampton Roads' photography club "Picture This." Jennifer Williamson and Ralph Kuhnley spoke to us about the club and its website, meetings and activities, and showed some of their own work. I personally have joined the club and plan to attend their next meeting, which will include a beginner's look at Lightroom software. I've never used a photo editor other than the basic software that came with my Canon camera, so I look forward to expanding my knowledge and maybe experimenting a bit more with my photos.

So, let's get down to the business at hand -- the photos! I asked each person who showed photos at our meeting to send me one of their favorites to share on the blog. The outstanding Bald Eagle photo at the beginning of this entry is the work of Jim Deal. This was the first time Jim has joined our group, and everyone was very excited about the Eagle photos that he took in Alaska (in fact, I think some of the group starting planning a trip to Alaska with him in the future, so they can photograph these beautiful birds!).

Lillian Casper is also new to our group, and we were very impressed! It didn't take long to recognize her unique talent of incorporating natural textures into her nature photography. She has the eye of a true artist. Look at the layers in her photograph of the stone cliffs, below, and use your imagination; you might see faces in the stone, or a Sphynx, or something else --

Donald Hague, who is also a member of "Picture This" and shared information about the club, brought some beautiful photos, including several that he took in a butterfly vivarium (I'm sorry, Don, I can't remember where that place is). Most of those butterflies are not native to North America, but occur in Mexico, Central America, and other places to the south of us. They are tropical species, and many (but not all!) are more colorful and exotic than what we see here in Virginia. This one (below) is called a "Sara Longwing" and it occurs from Mexico to the Amazon Basin and southern Brazil.

Stephen also joined our group for the first time, and shared many excellent nature photos with an emphasis on flowers. I've seen Stephen many times in the library, but had no idea that he was a fellow nature photographer, and has been for years. It was a pleasure to have him in the group, and the photo below is the one that I asked him to send to me -- I just really like it!

Bill Niven is one of those people who gets himself out of bed for sunrises, a trait I admire greatly. I used to get up very early to go birding, but not so much anymore -- it's just too hard in my older age to get out of bed if I have the chance to sleep in! But it's obviously worthwhile to do so; a look at Bill's sunrise photos are clear proof of that:

Chris Williams is also one of those "morning people" who is at the gate at Back Bay N.W.R. or the Girl Scout Woods here in Chesapeake by 7:00 a.m. He often sees birds that are far less conspicuous later in the morning, as they are most active in the early hours. I know this for a fact; I met up with him at the Girl Scout Woods a week or two ago. He arrived at 7:00, and I arrived about an hour later. He was rewarded with seeing early morning birds that were already in hiding by the time I got there. Below is a photo of a very hard-to-find-and-photograph bird, the American Bittern. Chris found this bird in the open at Back Bay, and you can tell by the light that it was in the early morning -- you would not be likely to see it like this later in the day:

Often the most common birds are overlooked by birders and photographers because they are not "special." Nora Leonard's photo below of a male House Finch is proof that we need to wake up to the beautiful things that surround us every day, both rare and common. Great job, Nora!

Like Jim Deal, Ralph Kuhnley shared some terrific photos of Bald Eagles, as well as other wildlife and nature. Ralph is one of the leaders of the "Picture This" photo club. If you would like to join the club, go to www.meetup.com, then select your location (I selected "within 10 miles" of Chesapeake), then enter your interest ("digital photography"). You can then join the club after answering a few questions, then explore their webpage for all their activities and meetings. Here is one of Ralph's eagle photos (and trust me, it's not easy to capture a bird in flight!):

Tim Fearington consistently shows top-quality photos at our meetings that usually make my teeth ache with envy. Tim wasn't able to make it to our meeting but I asked him to send me some of his work anyway so I could show it. Here's my favorite, a Northern Flicker (a species of woodpecker):

And last, I'll share one of my own photos. This is a male Hooded Merganser, a duck species that does not breed here in Virginia, but does winter here. A good, reliable place to see and try to photograph them is at the fishing pond at Huntington Park in Newport News.

Our next quarterly Photo Night at Chesapeake Central Library will be on Monday, April 29 beginning at 6:00 p.m. Most of us bring photos that we have taken during the previous three months and that highlight that season of the year, but participants can bring whatever they choose. I'll publish more details in April, but feel free to call me if you have any questions or would like to join us(call Karen at 757-410-7147). Until next time, enjoy the season, try your hand at some nature photography, and come share with us in April!

Bring Your Nature Photos to the Library!

On Monday, January 28 at 6:00 p.m. we will have our next “Photo Night” at the Chesapeake Central Library. Everyone is invited to bring some of their favorite digital nature or wildlife photos to show and share with others. Photos must be saved to a CD or a USB device; we then project them from a laptop onto the library’s large movie screen. It’s very cool to see your photos filling a 12-foot screen! (Photo above "Sunrise Over the Albemarle Canal" by Bill Niven)

This will be our fifth Photo Night. We meet quarterly and usually show photos that we have taken during the previous three months, but you can bring any photos that you like. All levels of expertise, beginners and experienced photographers alike, are welcome to join us. Since we never know how many people will show up, or how much time we will need, we ask that everyone bring a collection of 20 or fewer photos, but, optionally, to also bring a second folder with more photos in the event that we have time to show them. (Photo above "Bullfrog" by Tim Fearington)

We will have some special guests at this meeting! Jennifer Williamson and Ralph Kuhnley are members of the Hampton Roads photography club “Picture This” (http://www.meetup.com/PICTURE-THIS), and they will join us to talk about the club and its various activities and field trips; we might also discuss the possibility of some joint ventures with them. Jennifer and Ralph will also bring some of their photography work to share with us. (Photo above "Brown Pelican" by Chris Williams)

All the photos in this blog entry were taken by “Photo Night” regulars and shown at our meetings (Photo above "Black Swallowtail Caterpillar" by Nora Leonard). We have a good time, sharing our mutual interests and learning more about our local nature and wildlife. Please join us, whether you have photos to share or just want to watch what others are showing. Chesapeake Central Library is located at 298 Cedar Road, in the City Municipal Complex. Please call Karen at 410-7147 if you have any questions or would like more information.

 Blue Dasher by Bill Niven

 Red-Headed Woodpecker feeding its young by Tim Fearington

Red-bellied Woodpecker by Chris Williams

 Flower by Nora Leonard

 Tiger Swallowtail by Karen Kearney

 Bald Eagle by Tim Fearington

 Brown-headed Nuthatches at the Nest Hole by Chris Williams

Giraffe by Nora Leonard

Lower Rio Grande Birding Festival 2012

My Mom and I returned last week from an amazing trip to the Lower Rio Grande Valley in extreme southern Texas. This all started when my furnace had to be replaced a year or two ago and my mother, bless her heart, loaned me some money to help out with that. I decided that it would be a lot more fun to pay her back with a birding trip instead of with a check, and she agreed, and thus our adventure was born...

Where to go? The 19th annual Lower Rio Grande Birding Festival was scheduled for the second week of November, and I looked into it. I've been to the Valley twice, but both trips were years ago. The Valley is one of the top three places ( if not the #1 place) to go in the U.S. to look for birds and butterflies, especially those that don't occur anywhere else in North America, and I wanted to go there again, badly. Plus, I wanted to show my Mom lots of birds and other things that she has never seen before. The Rio Grande Valley was perfect!

The Birding Festival offered various field trips geared to all levels of expertise in birding and butterflying. Mom and I spent some of our time on these field trips, learning where to go and what to look for from the fantastic, knowledgable leaders, and we spent the rest of the time out on our own. Between the two strategies, we saw almost everything we could possibly hope to see in a handful of days.

I took over 2000 photos, mostly of birds and butterflies, and have spent the last week discarding most of them, organizing them, researching and labeling them, and posting some to my flickr.com page (www.flickr.com/birdingva --  check them out if you like!) The only reason I could spend the week doing this is that I came home with bronchitis, presumably caught on the airplane, and I've been completely housebound. So, glad I had this project to keep me occupied!

It's really hard to whittle down the photos, but for this blog entry I will post my favorite ten bird photos from the trip; next time I'll post some of the beautiful butterflies. (Addendum: Okay, I posted 20 bird photos; it was impossible to cut them back any further. I could easily post another 20).

The most common hawk in the Valley is also, in my opinion, the most beautiful hawk in North America, the Harris's Hawk. Just look at its beautiful colors -- rich chocolate brown and deep chestnut, bright white under the tail and on its tip, and bright yellow on the legs and the base of the bill. These hawks like to stick together in family groups, so when you see one, you will usually see several nearby. The individual above was with a group of six hawks: here are four of them sitting on the same power line:

You will probably recognize this next bird: it is a member of the Quail family and does occur here in SE Virginia (although its numbers are markedly declining here). Even if you haven't seen one, you've probably heard their "Bob-White" call. This is a male Northern Bobwhite. As we were walking along the Rio Grande River, we flushed a covey of maybe two dozen birds; this one landed in a tree, and seemed to think he was invisible as long as he stayed put.

You might not be much impressed with this next photo, but I have to include it among my favorites because this was my target "life bird" of this trip, and she was so hard to find! As I said, I've been to the Rio Grande Valley twice before, and both times I tried to find this tiny little species with the big name, the White-collared Seedeater, with no luck. This is a Mexican species that just barely crosses the border into the U.S. in a very few places along the Rio Grande River where cane grows. Well, one of the field trips offered by the Birding Festival was specifically geared to finding this bird, so I signed up. We left Harlingen at 5:00 a.m. and traveled west into the dry Texas desert 3 hours by bus, until we arrived at a private ranch where these birds had recently been seen. To make a long story short, my group waited about three hours before this one little lone female Seedeater came to our patch of cane. She fed continuously, but she never did come out into the open. She remained under the heavy cover of the cane stalks, and was extremely difficult to see, much less photograph. So I hope you understand why I have to include this poor photo in my list of favorites!

This next bird is called a Great Kiskadee; it is the largest member of the Flycatcher family of birds in the U.S. This gorgeous, bright bird truly looks tropical, doesn't it? And it is as loud and raucous as it is colorful and showy. You will find groups of Kiskadees at almost any pond or body of water in the Rio Grande Valley, calling and chasing each other around.

Look closely at this next photo; you will find a master of camouflage in there. This is a Common Pauraque, one of the members of the "Nightjar" family of birds, related to our Whip-poor-will. These nocturnal birds feed actively during the night, and roost low to the ground during the day, where they blend in perfectly with the ground litter. This particular Pauraque, for reasons we can't comprehend, chose a spot about two feet off a well-used nature trail for its roost. Word spread among birders, and probably hundreds of people went to look at the bird every day -- but it never moved, and returned to exactly the same patch of earth every day. You just have to wonder what its little brain thought of all the fuss.

Here in Virginia, as in most of the U.S., we see one Kingfisher species, the Belted Kingfisher -- you know, that slaty blue kingfisher with the huge crest and the huge bill that hangs around ponds and lakes and dives for fish. In extreme southern Texas, there are three species of Kingfisher, and my Mom and I signed up for a pontoon boat cruise on the Rio Grande to look for these guys (as well as other birds, of course). The one below, a Green Kingfisher, is the smallest of the three. This one is a female; the male has a wide, beautiful, bright orange-chestnut colored band across its breast. But I was very happy to get a nice photo of the "plain" female. (My photos of the third species, the Ringed Kingfisher, are so bad I cannot possibly share them with anyone, ever).

When you think of a tropical bird, you think of outrageous, showy colors and plumage patterns. The Green Jay is probably the signature tropical bird of southern Texas; its appearance and bright colors are so unlikely and stunning that you can't quite believe what you're seeing. It might be the "most-wanted" bird by birders and naturalists who are going to southern Texas for the first time. This jay's demeanor is just like that of our Blue Jays -- noisy and raucous, and they usually travel in small groups.

Here's another of the Rio Grande Valley "specialties," the gorgeous Altamira Oriole. Its counterpart here in Virginia would be the Baltimore Oriole, which is much smaller. If you've seen a Baltimore Oriole's nest, you know it is a work of art; the female bird weaves it from grasses and other fibers, and it hangs like a pendulum  from a branch high up in a shade tree. The Altamira's hanging nest is sometimes twice the size of the Baltimore Oriole's, over two feet in length.

This plain, medium-sized bird looks just like a dusty Robin, doesn't it? Well, it is a separate, subtropical  species that used to be named the Clay-Colored Robin. Last year its name was officially changed (by the scientist-types who know about these things and have their reasons), to the Clay-Colored Thrush.

It's another bird that barely crosses the Mexican border into the U.S.

There are two species of "Whistling-Ducks" that occur in North America. These ducks have longer legs and necks than other ducks, and they will roost in trees -- and yes, their call has a "whistling" quality to it. They are not actually true ducks, but are taxonomically grouped as a subfamily of a subfamily of Geese! The Black-bellied Whistling-Duck, below, is the more common species in the Rio Grande Valley, but we also managed to see one Fulvous Whistling-Duck (second photo). Both are just beautiful.

Black-bellied Whistling-Duck

Fulvous Whistling-Duck

Here's another Southern Texas specialty; it's a species that everyone wants to see, and everyone likes to say -- it is called a Chachalaca! These ground birds travel in groups, and usually stay well under thick cover, until it's time to visit local birdfeeders! Most of the parks in the Rio Grande Valley do maintain bird feeding stations, to attract birders as well as the birds. The folks there have come to realize that birders bring a lot of much-needed money into the Valley -- millions each year-- so they work hard to keep their parks attractive to the critters.

The parks also put out an abundance of hummingbird feeders, which attract not only migrant hummingbirds like Rufous and Black-chinned Hummingbirds, but the year-round resident Buff-bellied Hummingbird. This is another bird on everyone's "want" list because its U.S. range only extends into extreme southern Texas. This beautiful hummer is larger than the hummingbird we see here in Virginia, the Ruby-throated, and even though my photos are a bit blurry, you can see how colorful it is.

We saw only two woodpecker species during our trip, and neither of them occurs very far north of Texas. The Ladder-backed Woodpecker, below, sort of replaces our common Downy Woodpecker in southern Texas; it is similar in size and, superficially, appearance. As with all woodpeckers, the males have more red on the heads than the females; this one is a male.

The second woodpecker species is one of my favorites, the Golden-fronted Woodpecker. I tried real hard to get a photo that shows all three color patches on the male's head and nape, and finally got this one.

And last, the parrots! I did not realize it, but two species of parrots that reside in the Lower Rio Grande Valley have been accepted as "countable," wild birds by the American Birding Association, and are included on the official checklist of North American birds. In many cities including Miami and Los Angeles, there are many populations of "escapees," birds that have escaped captivity, and they do not count as wild North American birds. But in southern Texas, the Red-Crowned Parrot and the Green Parakeet have both established and sustained wild populations. We found out where the night roosts were for both species, and added two more unexpected birds to our life lists.

Red-crowned Parrot: Their night roost included maybe 200 birds and was so noisy! You could hear them several blocks away; it was an awesome sight!

Green Parakeets: This roost included only a dozen birds. Our directions to this roost was to go to the Golden Corral restaurant in Harlingen -- and that's where we found them!

I hope I didn't lose your interest somewhere along the way here in this lengthy posting. There was just so much to see in Texas, and it's hard to exclude anything. If you are at all interested in looking for new birds and butterflies, southern Texas is a place you absolutely must go to, and I'd be happy to talk with anyone who would like more information.