Birds and Nature

 I found this Common Pauraque at Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge this morning. These are a specialty of the deep South Texas as this is the only location in the U.S. where this species can be found while it ranges through Mexico and down to South America.  Another species that blends in amazingly with the habitat in which it is found.  I think this may be a rufous type Common Pauraque and have done no post processing of these pics other than cropping to enlarge them in hopes that someone can confirm or disconfirm this.  The different shades of these pics I believe are due to the natural lighting which was going from clouded over to sun breaking through.  SeEtta

These Least Bitterns' plumage melds into the habitat so well, and stay so still until they lunge for their prey, I almost missed this bird.  This species is only about a foot tall. This was again from the South Padre Island Convention Center boardwalk and in same area where Javi Gonzales spotted the Least Bittern that I photographed a few days ago.  SeEtta

On Monday while birding at South Padre Island's Convention Center gardens I had the opportunity to spend more than 10 minutes less than 10 feet from this Ovenbird as it foraged.   I stood very very still and enjoyed this unusual opportunity, and got a number of good photos. SeEtta   

I watched the Northern Beardless Tyrannulet nest for an hour this evening with no sign of any tyrannulet.  I did not see the nestling in the nest entance either with my binoculars or via the pic above .  It seems likely that the nestling(s) have fledged.   A few more observations about the tyrannulet's nest. It was made by adding nesting material on a native ball moss .  In these pics taken from other side of the nest from the opening it can be seen how there is a nest attached at the bottom of this ball moss.  It is interesting to see when the bottom pic is enlarge that daylight can be seen through the nest material.  SeEtta

The bird inside this hanging nest is a nestling Northern Beardless Tyrannulet, a bird so small with such a long name.  Note: all the pics of the nestling were taken from behind the tape barrier at Estero Llano Grande State Park that protects the nestl It was hot and windy so this nestling was perched near the entrance to the nest where it likely was less hot than further inside. This species is found in the U.S. in only two small areas--in far south Texas and along the border with Mexico in SE Arizona and a bit of very SW New Mexico. The photo below shows the parent bird when it came in to feed the nestling(s). It has some food in its' bill but the pic isn't good enough to tell what it is. And this is the parent bird with it's head inside the nest as it fed the nestling(s).  SeEtta

While Common Loons winter along the Gulf Coastal area all but a few like this loon have to far north states and Canada. This loon came to around 40 feet from the boardwalk where it extends over the water providing for these close up shots (I did also crop the pics buy best viewed enlarged by clicking on the pic. SeEtta

While birding on the boardwalk at the Convention Center on South Padre Island last evening I ran into Javi Gonzales. I had asked about nesting birds when he spotted this Least Bittern near by. I was delighted to watch this little bittern less than 20 feet away for more than 10 minutes as it hunted successfully several times. There were a lot of reeds between me and this bird so it did not show any attention to me, but it also made it very difficult to get still pics as the wind was blowing so reeds kept blurring my pics but I did get this one. The nice thing about video is that such things are not as much of a problem so this video of the Least Bittern came out nicely. See the video best in full screen mode by clicking on the little arrows on bottom right of the video frame. SeEtta