Chloe on bird walk

We went on pal Mikael Behrens' bird walk this weekend in the Parmer Village neighborhood (here's Mikael's report on the outing). Gracen Duffield took a nice shot of Chloe on the walk, so I'm linking to her Flickr page.

Caracaras

Pal Mikael, of Birding on Broadmeade, recently went to Port Aransas where he took some striking photos, including this one of a pair of Crested Caracaras. Would you believe you can take a photo like this in Texas? Photo links you to the Flickr set.

Transformer Owl

This video shows an owl whose natural defensive behaviors lead it to take three different 'forms' by changing its posture and how it holds its wings. I found it both hilarious and mesmerizing.

Feed hummingbirds with your face

...with this delightful wearable hummingbird feeder. Now, given the well-known violence of hummingbirds, you might be skeptical about the wisdom here.

Children, with Geese

We found a small flock of geese waiting in a field in Milwaukee during our Christmas vacation. They were willing to hold still for me to get a slightly closer shot. This was right after we enjoyed some Mexican food with Michelle and Ramon at a favorite Milwaukee eatery.

Caracara sighting this weekend

I went birding this weekend, taking Chloe on Mikael's neighborhood bird walk. We saw a big raptor give us a nice show: a crested caracara took a long slow flight across our field of view, favoring us with several different angles.

I got a little frustrated during this walk, trying to keep flying birds in my binoculars, but this bird cooperated beautifully. I say this sort of thing a lot, but I didn't know we had any birds like this here...and right in my neighborhood. They're actually year-round residents. A big falcon relative with some gorgeous colors.

Other notable birds that I got to see were a Savannah Sparrow, whose stripes I enjoyed, and a Pied-Billed Grebe. Chloe and I had enjoyed the grebe's diving behavior on a previous trip to this same spot, the Parmer Village model homes area, but we didn't see any of that this time.

I'm enjoying the binoculars I received for Christmas; they've become essential on these walks. It's amazing the views you can get with a little patience.

NASWC neighborhood bird walk

I took Chloe to pal Mikael's bird walk this morning; we spent two hours on a nice paved trail whose existence I had not previously suspected.

These are the birds I got good looks at. It was a great outing. It's fantastic to see so many different species on a leisurely walk:

• Summer tanager
• House wren
• Unidentified hummingbird
• White winged dove
• American Redstart (I never heard of this one, it was pretty interesting-looking.)
• Wilson's Warbler
• M, F Cardinal
• Blue Jay
• M, F Lesser Goldfinch
• F Hummingbird...black chinned or ruby-throated
• Least Flycatcher
• Eastern Phoebe
• Great Blue Heron
• Killdeer
• Barn Swallow
• Bell's Vireo
• Ladderback Woodpecker

We also got to watch a kit of about 20 Birmingham Roller (I'm assuming) pigeons, who flew in circles around their presumed home, with birds frequently rolling out of the kit and returning. I identified them as rollers by their behavior. I think Mikael said he'd talked to the fellow who owns them in the neighborhood. I held forth a bit for the group on the strength of my dad having kept rollers all during my childhood, and the fact that nothing I said could be contradicted by a far-off view of the birds through binoculars. :)

Chloe managed to find two tiny frogs or toads, smaller than my thumbnail, and a skink no longer than my index finger. I got a picture of the skink on my cell phone. I never got close enough to any birds to photograph them with the phone.

Here's a link to Mikael's blog post on the morning's walk.

Dad's pigeons and my kids

My dad has raised pigeons since before I was born. I grew up in the only suburban back yard I knew of that was full of pigeon coops. Every trip to my parent's house in Arlington includes trips to the back yard to see the pigeons.

These photos are from June 2008. I can't say that I got much, but the shots of Chloe (8 years old at the time) holding the birds are fun.