Birds and Nature

Wood Thrush bathing on South Padre Island,TX from SeEtta Moss on Vimeo . This Wood Thrush is vigorously bathing in the video above, much deserved after flying hundreds of miles over the Gulf of Mexico.   It is wonderful that local birders have provided this important migration stop over on South Padre Island in cooperation with the adjacent Convention Center that allows the plantings and the water feature to provide for tired, hungry and thirsty neotropical migrant birds like this.

I photographed this young Painted Bunting on South Padre Island in early May when a lot of neotropical migrants were stopping over so I couldn't keep up with them all.  I believe this is an immature male as in addition to the greenish upperparts there is almost reddish feathering on it's underparts. Like a number of songbirds it waited for other birds, especially big ole grackles, to get out of the water before it entered.  It finally go in but it was in a location that I couldn't get pics.SeEtta

This male Golden-winged Warbler was seen today at the Convention Center Gardens at South Padre Island, TX. It perched in the shade of the trees for more than 5 minutes allowing great views, many still pics and a little video. This little warbler likely just arrived on this barrier island after migrating across the hundreds of miles of the Gulf of Mexico. Sadly it appears to have lost most of one leg.  The warbler is basically sitting on the branch rather than standing on it as many birds do, likely due to having only one whole leg. In the bottom two pics the remaining leg stump is visible and it has some twisted piece at the end maybe indicating a recent injury. It did seem to forage pretty good by hanging from it's one good leg as seen in the pics just above and below. SeEtta Golden-wingedWarbler on South Padre Island, TX from SeEtta Moss on Vimeo .

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

Over the week-end I enjoyed watching a number of migrating birds including this stunning male Bay-breasted Warbler that stopped over on South Padre Island to refuel and rest for the remainder of their trip. I caught the bird in great light to get the pic just above so click on it to see the beautiful plumage up close. There is a wonderful water feature in the gardens adjacent to the Convention Center and I photographed this warbler and others when it came in to drink and bath. These Bay-breasted Warblers have a long way to go as they breed mostly in Canada and even further north. SeEtta

Though not as colorful as some of the migrating birds, Gray-cheeked Thrush is a real treat for most of us since they nest in Alaska and arctic areas of Canada. I have seen this species at least once in far southeastern Lamar, Colorado but not such good looks as here. This one was actually cooperative, out in the open. While some more eastern folks are fortunate to have Red-eyed Vireos breeding in their area many of us see them mostly on migration. We actually get this species in the spring in my town in south central Colorado but I usually see them from underneath as they sing from a tree above me so I enjoyed getting a number of good pics of this one. SeEtta

I am behind on uploading here, I got these beauties at South Padre Island Convention Center gardens last week. The Prairie Warblers was a lifer  for me and I got very good views.  I had seen a Canada Warbler where it was a rare vagrant in Colorado several years ago but got better views this time. The bottom pic would have been so good if wasn't for that little branch in the way, oh well. SeEtta