Some may have seen my previous posts, for those who haven't, I have a 38 acre wooded property 3 miles from the coast in Matagorda county. Last year, I installed some water drips to attract birds and other animals and have been documenting what shows up (and posting here on the outdoors board).

Winter tends to bring more familiar birds. Most birds migrate but we also get locals that are here year round. And the migrants who winter here (and south into Mexico, Central and South America) are fueling up for their trip north just like the more colorful warblers, tanagers, orioles, etc.





Barred Owl, which has been here year round



This is the Eastern screech owl


The Eastern Phoebe, Hermit Thrush, Tufted Titmouse and Carolina Chickadee are winter regulars:





Thrushes can be difficult to distinguish. Luckily, the Hermit Thrush is the only one that spends winters here and can be quickly identified by it's reddish brown tail.



Titmouse on the wing



The Chickadee (above) and the Titmouse often form small, noisy flocks. When the warblers arrive, they will often been seen hanging with these two species.





This is the Wilson's warbler



The Black and White warbler and the Orange Crowned warbler. The Orange crowned is fairly drab and can be hard to identify as it rarely shows the orange on its head. You can see it bit of orange in the photo above, though.



Common Yellowthroat





The White eyed vireo and Blue headed vireo (above) are Winter regulars



Above is the Brown thrasher, another common winter resident. Below is the much rarer Long billed thrasher which normally doesn't venture this far north. It is typically found only in Mexico and the RGV. While very similar looking, the Long billed has a darker brown back color, a thicker more curved bill and more streaking on its belly vs the Brown thrasher.

Excellent thread. Keep it up!

I've also been interested in when the Spring migrants will begin to show up.

eBird (ebird.org) has a really cool feature where you can select "map" on the upper right, then navigate to a specific migration hotspot (like High Island or Sabine Woods).

Once there you can select "Bar Charts" on the left navigation which creates a comprehensive list of all species seen at that location and shows with the bar chart when they arrive, peak migration and latest migration by species. It can take up to 30 seconds for the chart to be created so be patient.

As for my spot in Matagorda county, the first migrant this year was a Northern Parula below:




The Hooded warbler is a well known early migrator. I've had several so far this Spring:



Below is the Worm-eating warbler:



Both buntings are already on the move. Below is the female/immature Painted Bunting. She will stay this lime green color but the male will have remarkable patchwork of bright primary colors.



This is the male Indigo bunting:

Well, this is embarrassing compared to your post, but this is a dove that is nesting on two eggs in one of my wife's potted plants on our back porch.

SanAntoneAg said:

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I was about to ask if you've had issues with hogs destroying your waterers. Then I saw the spiked stakes. Are they hog deterrent?

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Yes, before I put them in the male hogs were grubbing it up trying to make a mud wallow. I figured the stakes pointed end up would be a decent deterrent, which it has.

The other problem is a family of hogs with piglets 9 strong on the property. They literally will drink the water pan dry and knock the cameras sideways from time to time.

I'm considering whether to just put a hog fence around the drips next year to keep them at bay. But at least the upside down stakes keep them from tearing it up.

Thanks for posting. Its amazing to see the variety of birds that inhabit or pass through Texas.

Gunny456 said:

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We are slowly losing our migratory songbird population numbers due to habitat destruction and the mass arbitrary killing of them in south and Central America when they migrate.

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This is very true. As a kid in 1972 I visited High Island in the spring for the first time and got to see all the migrants flowing up from the south. Ironically, at the same time, an LSU ornithology professor named Sidney Gauthraux (sp?) had recognized that weather radar images were showing masses of migrating birds as well as clouds. He figured out how to distinguish clouds from birds, and because daily radar images had been archived for years he could determine the relative volume of birds past and future, each year.

That process resulted in the most definitive evidence of how much the neotropical migrant populations have declined. The latest info is a loss of 3 billion birds from the 1970s to present, just from those birds that migrate from the tropics to North America. This represents a 30% total decline. Our grassland birds (bobwhite, Meadow Larks, some sparrows, etc.) have also been in decline for years.

Most of that decline is directly related to habitat. And with migrants, they need three habitats - wintering in the tropics, breeding in northern US and Canada and resting/refueling habitat along the 1000+ mile migratory route.

The 600 mile nonstop flight over the Gulf is the most challenging part of the migration. Studies have shown that if birds are undernourished (due to less food resources in Latin America) or hit any inclement weather on the flight north, they need food, water and shelter almost immediately upon arrival on our gulf coast, and that is if they haven't already perished. Generally, that means an old growth hardwood forest within 6 miles of the coast.

That was my main motivation in buying this property as it is an old forest about 3 miles from the coast. Any forest or native grasslands we can preserve will help sustain all forms of plant life and wildlife. Even a couple acre wood lot with mature trees near the coast will help the cause.

Tremendous post and tremendous information.
Lots of our migratory birds, including many species of songbirds are killed in Mexico, Central and South America.

Gunny456 said:

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We are slowly losing our migratory songbird population numbers due to habitat destruction and the mass arbitrary killing of them in south and Central America when they migrate.

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Domesticated and feral cats kill plenty as well.

I somewhat disagree a bit because the problem has manifested itself over the last couple of decades. Cats have always been around…. feral and domestic, and I don't know if we have had an explosion of house cat populations to warrant putting that much cause on them. Modern predator control methods in rural areas for coyotes, bobcats, foxes etc also tend to target feral cats…..keeping those populations somewhat under control.
USFWS biologist have been concerned by the numbers of migratory bird kills by the uncontrolled hunting (and collateral damage to other species involved in that practice) in Mexico, Central and South America for sometime…..but have no way to enforce any regulations in foreign countries.

Yes sir. Very sad. What folks fail to understand is the large importance of the avian species and populations in regards to the balance of our environments and its overall survival. Lose our bird populations and we lose just about everything else in succession. I hope I don't live to see that. As humans we would be losing more than just birds.

Ag83 said:

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Well, this is embarrassing compared to your post, but this is a dove that is nesting on two eggs in one of my wife's potted plants on our back porch.

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"Had" a pair nesting behind the TV on the covered porch. I say "had" because I went to move the TV slightly and didn't know one was in the nest. It takes off, goes straight into the ceiling fan, feathers go everywhere. Bird drops at my feet.

Never did tell the wife, as she loved them. What is said on the outdoors board.....stays on the outdoors board.

Cinnamon Teal drakes at Junction Wastewater Ponds this a.m.

SanAntoneAg said:

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Hogs are why we can't have nice things.

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Indeed. After fending off the hogs with my upside down stakes, the hogs finally won. The water flow at one of the drips was just enough to allow for the water to overflow a bit every day and slowly create a few muddy spots.

That was all the hogs needed to descend like the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse. They set up shop and proceeded to wreck shop. So now I'm going to have to fence in this area if I can't figure out anther way to keep them at bay.




On the birds side of things, below are a few more images of wintering or year round birds:



Above is the Red Bellied woodpecker, which ironically has very little if any red on it's belly.



On the tree is the Pileated woodpecker, cousin to the now-extinct Ivory billed woodpecker. I believe it is the largest woodpecker in North America. They like old forests with dead and fallen trees where they find grubs and other larvae to eat.

I also get Downey woodpeckers and Yellow bellied sapsuckers at the property.



Our State bird, looking good

The migrant flow from Latin America is starting to ramp up. In our area the peak migration is generally the last 2 weeks in April and the first couple weeks of May, so many more to come.



This is a Blue winged warbler



On the right you can see a Prothonotary warbler, which looks a lot like the Blue winged, except it does not have the Blue winged's white wing bars and black eye line.



The first Kentucky warblers (above left) started showing up in early April.



Previously I posted the lime green female Painted bunting. Above is the male which is one of our more colorful birds. Unlike many of the warblers, vireos, orioles, grosbeaks, tanager and thrushes, the Painted Bunting migrates to Texas and the Southwest to breed. You can see them throughout Summer, especially in the Hill country.

Ag83 said:

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Well, this is embarrassing compared to your post, but this is a dove that is nesting on two eggs in one of my wife's potted plants on our back porch.

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Update:

Second one is behind Mommy (or Daddy):

I took this photo a few days ago. This guy has made a few low altitude high speed passes near my dog recently.

Not close enough to really look like an attempt but near enough to get our attention.

There should be an official Texags Outdoor Board bird thread that gets stickied alongside the Snake one. For cool pics, ID questions, neat stories, etc. iamtheglove or Junction could be good posters to start it given their knowledge.