Blue Gray Gnatcatcher with insect
Give thanks for the friends you’ll be seeing this Thanksgiving! Smaller migratory birds take opportunities of obliging winds and this past week two dependable November friends returned as well as a year round returned to our garden (likely for a warmer clime).
The Blue Gray Gnatcatcher (above) looks like a small mockingbird of gray and charcoal with a long tail that shows up at Suet Feeders as well as in foliage and Oak, Maple and Ash trees. They love insects and with warmer weather this week will likely be seen gleaning foliage . . . my visitors particularly love a Japanese Maple and insect glean in some azaleas in a very protected area where I also have spider webs. They are fast and stay in motion so unless like our photo above shows with the recent catch, they are moving and/or flight very quickly. Read more, see more pictures.
Ruby Crowned Kinglet.
The Ruby Crown is hidden pin feathers.
A closely allied bird the Ruby Crowned Kinglet (above) showed up the same day – a pair as matter-of-fact—one actually flashing its red pinfeathers on its tiny olive green head. Rarely have I seen such a display, but I can almost tell time from the hourly visits of these tiny birds. Read more, see more pictures.
The year round Carolina Wren
returned to a thicket near a fence.
But I was really rewarded in the garden when our cinnamon colored Carolina Wren told one of their many stories—not singing, almost clucking showed up on the fence coming out of some thick evergreens. Read more, see more pictures.
It’s hard to decide which bird to select in the fall because the great fly-overs are bringing the Wood Ducks, White Pelicans, Cranes (Whooping and Sandhill), Snow Geese and other large migratory birds that travel the same routes using large rivers and tributaries much like interstate highways and farm-to-market roads.
Wood Ducks Read more, see more pictures.
White Pelicans Read more, see more pictures.
Fly-over birds Read more, see more pictures.
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology All About Birds has an interesting story that contributed to our information on large versus small bird migration, Flyways for Flyweights: Small Birds Capitalize on Weather Patterns During Epic Migrations by Hugh Powell about migrations from Canada to and across the Gulf of Mexico. In their "Find" search feature type in migratory patterns and scroll down to the article. All About Birds
Photos copyrighted by international birder Margaret Sloan.
See a bird you don't recognize in Fort Bend? Margaret has photographed 150+ bird species just in her suburban Fort Bend,Texas backyard alone. Narrow your initial search by viewing her full photo album of local birds, Birds of Quail Valley by pressing this link. They are organized by types of birds, so if it's a water bird for example, you may find one that helps you narrow your search. Then if you "google in" the name of the bird, you'll get info and all kinds of information and images. Sometimes if a species is remarkably different from adult you may find nothing, contact us and we'll do our best to help.
Researched and Edited by Janice Scanlan.