Birds and Nature

I spotted the adult Yellow Warbler (bottom pic) fly into a section of thick vegetation and while I watched I saw her feed a fledgling. I moved my car so I could observe from inside using my car as a blind and photograph with minimal disturbance using the silent mode on my mirrorless camera.   The fledgling stayed mostly inside of the vegetation reducing opportunities for better photos but the top two pics show the plumage on this fledgling with the development of limited yellow feathering. SeEtta

This apparent Eastern Phoebe is clearly sitting on eggs.  Her mate was nearby.  As noted on the pics I took these with a long telephoto then cropped them to further enlarge them.  I also took them from inside my car to reduce disturbance and stayed less than a minute.  I comply with Nestwatch.com   Nest Photography Guidelines. I don't know for sure why there appears to be a white area around the bird's neck, but maybe due to it's pushing itself into the nest to be on right on top of the eggs causing down feathers (underfeathers) to show.  In the top pic the vegetation and some of the mud that holds it together can be clearly seen.  In the bottom pic note the nest is actually built on top of prior years' nest, while noted as repaired nest at least one involves adding nest material on top of what is remaining from previous nestings.  Note:  best viewed further enlarged, just click on each pic. SeEtta

 I spotted this ani at Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge as it was drinking water at the edge of North Lake. I came around a corner and it was only 10 feet in front of me but it quickly flew into the thick vegetation. After vocalizing it flew up into a tree where I got the top 2 pics.  I saw my first Groove-billed Anis in Costa some years ago but an experience that is still clear in my memory.  As I was wandering alone around the town of Monteverde so it was my own discovery not just a bird pointed out to me by a guide. I heard a second ani vocalize in the vegetation near the tree and the first ani flew in there providing me with the above photo.  Unfortunately the thick vegetation made getting a focused photo not possible but it was too neat to get 2 anis together to not include this pic.   The next day I returned to Santa Ana which was having Family Days with a number of activities including the opportunity to kayak on North Lake which...

I am so very thrilled to post about that my photo just above is displayed in the Texas Wild Exhibit which is a permanent exhibit in the Witte Museum in San Antonio, TX. This is the only photo I have ever sold and the only time I have asked to submit some photos for consideration for display in a museum. I visited the Witte Museum for the first time this week and took these cell phone photos of my photo above and in the Rio Grande Valley display below as well as a number of other displays in the Texas Wild Exhibit.  I was delighted to get to meet Helen Holdsworth, the Curator of Texas Wild, who follows this blog. Above is a taxidermied ocelot, an Endangered species found in the Rio Grande Valley in small numbers. Above is a Harris' Hawk, coyote and Northern Bobwhite. The pic above was taken from the second floor of the museum which has a large opening to the floor below. Starting above with the Crested Caracara and pics in section below are fr...

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

 Yesterday I watched a male Black-chinned Hummingbird performing several Display Dives that Birds of North America online (fee site) says, "...during breeding season Dive Display assumed to be a component of courtship."  Right after the dives it flew off into the vegetation. While I only saw the hummer in flight I did see the purple band at the bottom of it's black chin clearly when the light hit it just the right way.  I checked references and though this species is present in the Lower Rio Grande Valley during breeding season there are not a lot of records of that.   So I returned to McAllen Nature Center tonight at the same time as when I saw the Display Dives last night to see if I could refind this bird.  And I did, it was only a short distance from where I observed it doing dives last night.  Unfortunately it perched high in a snag and with lateness of day (7 pm) the photos did not come out as well as I would like.  I did go get Jaxon R...