Many individuals love novel events happening in their lives, and birders and nature enthusiasts who pay attention to their gardens or seek out areas to stalk birds and watch nature love to talk about unusual visitors. We’ve all had our share this year due to the drought of unusual visitors to our gardens. Some more wanted than others.
I wish I had been swift enough to photograph one very unusual scene in my back garden this year. I would have called it either Professional Courtesy or Predator Courtesy. A black and white cat enjoys sitting and sleeping on our fence in the cover of some fig leaves. Having the bird feeders to watch is like kitty TV. However, this year he was sharing the fence with a medium Hawk, likely an immature Cooper’s Hawk. They stayed about ten feet apart—again professional courtesy. What's missing in the photo above is the Black & white cat at the corner of the fence and about 10 feet to the right the Cooper's Hawk.
While I’ve never seen the cat catch a bird (really never stalk, mostly sleep then lazily watch), I can’t say the same for the Hawk. The Cornell All About Birds website says this behavior is fairly common in Cooper’s Hawks, which are year round birds here. They suggest, “if you put out seed for birds in your backyard, there’s a chance you’ll also attract the attention of a Cooper’s Hawk. While catching smaller birds is just doing what comes naturally for a Cooper’s Hawk, many of us would prefer not to share the responsibility for the deaths. If a Cooper’s Hawk takes up residence in your yard, you can take your feeders down for a few days and the hawk will move on.” Actually I only had to shoo the Hawk, but I did not fill the feeders for a few days as well.
Since my back yard is not in an open space on Oyster Creek as is Birder and photographer Margaret Sloan’s, her variety of birds is much wider than mine. We both have had unusual visitors or just more than normal as well. Margaret has a less shady garden so is able to grow more food sources and has placed fruit trees like loquats along Oyster Creek as well. However, just the drought has brought Black-bellied Whistling Ducks to our garden for seeds and the Red-Bellied Woodpeckers are feeding from the feeders more than in the trees, just to name a couple. Margaret Sloa n's view of Oyster Creek fro m her back garden photo on right.
Sharon and Mark Wright have a paradise for nectar feeders in their back garden, especially in the summer with all their Plumerias as well as a Rangoon Creeper. Last year Sharon said they had a Calliope Hummingbird visit (way off course to Western Mexico for the winter), but this year may even be more usual. A female Anna Hummingbird. She and Margaret have Rufus Hummingbirds for much of the winter—and keep feeders filled for them.
Picture above on left is a Rangoon Creeper. The picture below is with some of Sharon and Mark Wright's beautiful Plumerias. Really an attraction for nectar loving birds and butterflies.
Margaret and I have both noticed more parakeets and escaped caged birds as well as have both had more calls about them. And more inquiries of “what’s this bird I just saw.” So everyone is having their share of novel events. The Harris's Sparrow is one novel event that is our featured bird this month. http://traction.typepad.com/birds
So tell us about your novel events . . [email protected]
And speaking of novel events, the Texans did very well in the playoffs despite their challenges and inexperience in the play-off pressure cooker. They didn’t quit on us and comported themselves as you would hope professional players would. Keep it up during the off-season! Thanks for the fun, Houston Texans.
Illustrated from Musings column in the 1/18/2012 Fort Bend Independent.
Please click on photos to enlarge them.
More . . . . . . . .Hummingbirds and Flamingoes.
Margaret Sloan writes that since we talked, she's had the "hummingbird bander" come out. She actually had 5 different species coming to one feeder including: one she thought was Rufous as an Allen's female. She had a Rufous, an Allen's, a Ruby-throated (also banded), a Black-chinned, and a probably a Broad-tailed. The Allen's and the Broad-tailed were new birds for the yard.
She thought she might have too many feeders, or possibly the hummingbirds aren't as needy. The bander mentioned that when the weather is warm, hummingbirds spend a lot of time feeding on insects and not as much on feeders.
Flamingoes . . .
Tony Estus writes that in late December his wife thought she saw a Flamingo and basically he told her it must have been a Roseate Spoonbill. A few days later, Tony saw a bird take off from the pond on the left side of the Eldorado #4 tee boxes. He got a good look and then had to agree with his wife, that she was right and not crazy like he told her she was. Seeing is believing! Ironically I (Janice Scanlan) saw what I thought was a Flamingo at quite a distance in MacNaughton Park in late December, but I'm having eye surgery in February and my far vision is not very dependable . . . but the height and bill shape were just too like a Flamingo even at a distance. All About Birds does not include the Flamingo (American, Caribbean, or Greater). Where they exist (and there used to be a group on Red Fish Island in the Houston Ship Channel ten or fifteen years ago) they are considered to be escapees of the Greater Flamingoes. They seem to be fairly regular wading birds in the Florida Everglades, but still escapees. Since they need a brackish or salt water diet, they likely escaped from a zoo or a private collector. Moody Gardens has a fairly large collection as does the Houston Zoo.
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