Debbie and I went for an early morning run around the neighborhood last Sunday and were surprised to see these guys at the pond area. According to my extensive (one or two clicks) research, these are Western Greylag (or Graylag, if you prefer the Americanized spelling convention) geese, with the pleasingly repetitive scientific name anser… Continue reading Take a Gander at This
Category: Wildlife – Birds
Paging Ferlin Husky
I glanced through the window on our front door and saw this fellow crouching on the porch. At first, I thought it was a pigeon, but after observing him for a while, I’m pretty sure it’s a dove. I’ve seen white wild doves before, but they are not common. He seemed a bit wilted by… Continue reading Paging Ferlin Husky
Oriole
A rare sighting of an oriole in our neighborhood
Dove Update (or…”That didn’t take long”)
I just checked the dove’s nest in the palm tree and found it bereft of dove and eggs. I don’t know where the bird went, but the eggs are lying at the base of the tree, victims of poor architectural planning and some stiff West Texas wind. We can but hope that the local dove… Continue reading Dove Update (or…”That didn’t take long”)
New Neighbors
I recently wrote about the mockingbird nest in one of the trees in our front yard. The fact is, while we don’t have that many trees, and they’re not that big, those we do have are apparently quite attractive to the local birds. Besides the aforementioned mockingbirds, we have a western king bird nest in… Continue reading New Neighbors
Mockingbird Recording
As I sat on the front porch yesterday afternoon reading a book and enjoying the nice weather, I was aurally accosted by a loud-mouthed intruder who was so enamored with his own voice, I suspect he’d make an excellent Senator. Your browser does not support the audio element. Just kidding. Mockingbirds are too smart to… Continue reading Mockingbird Recording
Buzzards+Fort Stockton = Swallows+Capistrano?
One of the presumed harbingers of spring in West Texas is the return of roosting buzzards. If that’s true, then Fort Stockton has seen its last cold snap for the season, as evidenced by this iPhone video I shot last evening from my parents’ backyard: This is just a fraction of the flock of scavengers… Continue reading Buzzards+Fort Stockton = Swallows+Capistrano?
Back Home
We spent an extended and very pleasant weekend in San Diego/Coronado, California. I hope to post a report with a few photos as soon as I can work through the backlog of work and errands that accumulated while we were away. In the meantime, here’s a teaser photo of four pelicans gliding along the coastline… Continue reading Back Home
More Big White Bird Photos
Remember this guy? He’s still hanging around. Well, I suppose “hanging” isn’t the operative term. Viewed from a certain angle, you can see that there’s not much to this bird, despite his impressive size while he’s wading.
A New Year “Crane” for Good Luck
According to Asian tradition, the crane is a bird of good luck and long life, and further, if you fold one thousand origami cranes you’ll be granted a wish. If a picture is worth a thousand words, is a photo of a great egret* equivalent to folding a thousand pieces of paper? I obviously can’t… Continue reading A New Year “Crane” for Good Luck