Here are some of the best of the rest of the photos that I took in Texas in early May…

We’ll start with a couple of photos of a male Summer tanager.  How do I personally remember the difference between a Scarlet tanager and the similar Summer tanager?  I remember that “the Scarlet tanager isn’t”… that is, the Scarlet tanager is not entirely scarlet.  It has black wings.  This seems to me a clear case of the misnaming of a couple of species of birds!

If you have difficulty telling the various kinds of sparrows apart this bird spells relief.  It’s a Lark sparrow and has very distinctive head markings.

This next bird is a Mourning dove… found in large numbers across Texas and in much smaller numbers in Western Washington.  I was amazed to find that these birds can occasionally be found (mostly heard) in some of the deeper forested areas.

This next bird is a titmouse.  There used to be a single species (Tufted titmouse) with two different races, the black-crested and the gray-crested.  They have now apparently been separated into two different races and Central Texas is on the border between the two species where hybridizations can be found.  This individual appears to be black-crested and was raising a family in a nest box with what appeared to be a gray-crested mate.  I watched these birds bring food back to the next box numerous times, often with what appeared to be the same kind of juicy caterpillar.

Here’s another Bewick’s wren.  I’ve previously included photos of this bird, including some taken in Western Washington.  This wren closely resembles the Carolina wren, morning’s early wake-up call in the spring!  When people complain about a bird that wakes them in the early morning in Central Texas you can assume that it’s the Carolina wren.

This is a better photo of a bird whose photo I had previously posted… a female American restart.

Getting on towards the end now, I’m posting another couple of photos of Black-chinned hummingbirds… a male and  female.

And finally, a ‘not great’ photo of one of Texas’ most interesting birds, the Scissor-tailed flycatcher.  This bird is a magnificent, if not rapid flyer.  With its long tail it is extremely maneuverable and catches insects both in the air and on the ground.

That wraps it up for Texas.  Next we’ll be off to either Alaska or Eastern Washington with a possible break for a little yard tale first.

The bird pictured above is a White-eyed vireo, and one of my favorite birds that I see when I visit Texas in the spring.  Its range is generally further east and the Texas Hill Country just barely falls within the bird’s general range.

These birds frequent one of my sister’s bird baths and are somewhat secretive and and mysterious looking.  They bathe “on the fly”, perching on a branch close to the water and then quickly launching themselves towards the water.  They don’t land… just hit the water on the fly and perform the feat over and over again.  I have tried many times to get photos of the bird as it hits the water but thus far have been unsuccessful due to the shadows and the bird’s speed.

This past year there didn’t seem to be as many White-eyed vireos as I saw on my trip in 2013, but since my observations occurred on the extreme western edge of the birds’ range, and since the variety of species in the migration we observed seemed to be fewer, I shouldn’t complain!

Good news, at least for me!  I’ve finished processing all of the photos (numbering well over 1000) I took in Texas.  Here are a few more…

This Bewick’s wren range extends to the Pacific Northwest…

This Carolina wren was raising a family in a nest box and was feeding young.  On several occasions I saw the bird bring back one of these caterpillars.

This is probably everyone’s favorite Texas bird, the amazing male Painted bunting.  The Painted buntings are spring/summer migrants to Central Texas. 

And this is the bird’s mate, the female Painted bunting.  Not as spectacular, but an attractive bird nevertheless. 

Other mainly spring migrants to Central Texas are the hummingbirds.  Here is the more numerous (male) Black-chinned hummingbird.  Notice the color of the bird’s gorget which is not noticeable unless the light reflects off of it at just the right angle. 

And finally, for this post, the rarer (male) Ruby-throated hummingbird.  Even the males of these two species can be confused when the gorgets are not showing and the birds are darting among the trees and bushes chasing each other at lightening speeds.  And the females, for me at least, are next to impossible to tell apart. 

This past April I visited my home state, Texas, timed for the spring migration.  I’ve fully processed about three days of about eight, and still have hundreds of photos to go.  I’m still taking photos of birds in the yard but it’s time to move on with my posts and display some of the photos I took in Texas.

Most, if not all, of these photos were taken outside Austin in my sister’s yard… meticulously landscaped for wildlife.  I had plenty of birds to photograph, but the migration wasn’t what any of us thought it could have been.  Theories were that the weather diverted the birds around Central Texas or that the migration was delayed.  Whatever the cause we didn’t see the variety of species we have seen in the past, so that was somewhat of a disappointment.  However it didn’t mean that there weren’t birds to photograph, so here are some of the birds that did happen by.

Here are a couple of favorites that are year-round residents in Central Texas… Northern cardinals…

Next are a couple of spring migrants, Nashville warblers…

Here is a photo of a male Lesser goldfinch.  The Lesser goldfinches are year-round residents of Central Texas, but their cousins, our American goldfinches are not.  The American goldfinches are migratory residents of Texas but curiously, year-round residents here although much more plentiful in the summer months.  The female Lesser goldfinches are very similar in appearance to the female American goldfinches.

Here’s a photo of the scourge of the bird world, a male Brown-headed cowbird.  This bird is found in breeding months here in Western Washington.  The female cowbird usually lays a single egg in the nest of other species.  The young cowbird matures faster than other birds which usually results in the deaths of the legitimate offspring of the parents.  Just this last week I had a pair of White-crowned sparrows, the first that have nested in the immediate vicinity, feeding a single juvenile cowbird (only!).  The young cowbird was substantially bigger than either of its uncomprehending surrogate parents.

And finally, a male Black-chinned hummingbird which is a spring/summer migrant to Central Texas.  If you look very carefully you can see a few pixels of the color of this bird’s purple gorget.

I’ll soon be making an effort to catch up on some of my photography processing as well as my blog site.  Look for some exciting photos from three trips I’ve made this spring!

In the meantime, the following are a couple of photos I’ve taken of female Rufous hummingbirds on torch plants located in the neighborhood.  While their main clientele seem to be hummingbirds, I’ve also seen House finches and possibly some other birds on the torch plants.

The red elderberry are now producing berries that are ripening, and that means a variety of birds will be hanging around those bushes.  Just two days ago I saw American robins, European starlings and another species of bird in the elderberry bushes.  I expect that you’ll see some photographs of birds in the elderberries posted on this blog soon.

I’m going to close out this post with photos of a female Brown-headed cowbird, a Spotted towhee, a Chestnut-backed chickadee, another Spotted towhee and finally, a Red-breasted nuthatch.  I usually find the nuthatch difficult to photograph because it often won’t come to the water feature, but as of late we seem to have a family of them and they have been frequenting the water feature.