[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Birdwatching
with Phyllis Yochem
| News
| Sports | Business
| Opinions | Columns
| Entertainment |
| Science/Technology| Weather
| Archives | E-mail
Us |
Tuesday, July 4, 2000
Texas summers bring heat, magic to the air for birds, humans
Buff-bellieds nesting early, northern cardinals easily finding bird feeders surprise area bird watchers
The songwriter who declared living to be easy in summertime did not live in South Texas. Summers here are long and hot, but they do have their moments. I experienced one of the most magical recently when a loose formation of white pelicans came cruising across the hot blue sky.
The backyard mockingbird has given us a special thrill by starting his spiel with Chuck-Will's widow, then moving on to a full rendition of a northern cardinal's song, elided smoothly into the cry of a long-billed curlew before rounding off with a fair imitation of the new guy in the neighborhood, the Carolina wren.
A friend and I decided to vary our evening Oso visit by cruising around Flour Bluff. The reward was great. Many loafers were enjoying the water in the pond on Caribbean. There were black-bellied whistling ducks (we saw no ducklings), a group of about five roseate spoonbills in dazzling plumage and a black skimmer hard at work skimming. There was also a pair of black-necked stilts (again, no baby.) We heard, but were not able to see, a singing painted bunting.
We saw a female, or, I suspect, an immature male painted bunting, colored a distinctive shade of green, in a clump of trees beyond the Corpus Christi Botanical Gardens. On the same little road we listened to a singing lark sparrow, a yellow-billed cuckoo and heard singing red-winged blackbirds and dickcissels.
A couple of summer surprises I am not sure how to interpret. Quite a few hummers are appearing at my feeder. Some are ubiquitous nondescript females, but there are also adult male ruby-throats, and others I believe are black-chinneds. The buff-bellieds I see are perhaps nesting. The last weeks of June are way early for this kind of customer.
The other untimely sighting consists of small flocks of purple martins gathering in the evenings on wires in the neighborhood. Some friends who have martins in their houses this year say that their tenants have not left. Are these birds coming from farther north where they have failed at nesting?
We made our annual pilgrimage to the little dirt road off State Highway 181 where Cassin's sparrows can be heard, and sometimes seen skylarking. Far in the distance one sang, but I could not pick it out. I somehow missed migrating red knots on the beach this year, and so far have not found a seaside sparrow. There are nesting loggerhead shrikes in a number of places, and scissor-tailed flycatchers which probably are nesting also.
About three weeks ago a turn around Koonce Loop out of Portland was remarkable for many sightings of northern cardinals. This species also seems to be doing well in my southside neighborhood this year. They have an uncanny sixth sense that helps them locate feeders with sunflower seeds.
A visit to Rachel Wilken, bird rehabilitator, is always an adventure. Spring and early summer are her busiest seasons. I went ostensibly to help identify a sea bird that had been found injured or exhausted in a motel parking lot on North Beach. She showed me the nursery. Four half grown golden-fronted woodpecker chicks were the loudest and funniest. They looked like tiny, animated picked chickens with wide open mouths, all clamoring at once to be fed. There was a small common nighthawk, a baby pigeon, a little purple martin, and a dovelet.
She placed in my hand the marble sized ruby-throated hummingbird, warm and just beginning to get feathers. All of these had been rescued from calamities to prevent birds or nests.
No, summer here is not easy for people or birds.
Phyllis Yochem, a Corpus Christi
resident, has studied birds of Texas since 1960.
| Discuss
about birdwatching | | Home |
2000 Caller-Times Publishing
Company, a Scripps Howard newspaper. All
rights reserved.
|
 |
 |
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
|
