Mystery Birds

Loggerhead Shrike (Wikimedia Commons)

A few Sundays ago, my husband and I got to see a Loggerhead Shrike (top) in our yard several times. It is amazing that he is a full-time Texas resident and I have never seen one before or since. Populations are declining in part of the state due to insecticide use killing off most of the grasshoppers. We had a bumper crop of grasshoppers this year where I live so I don't understand why I didn't see more of them. They also eat other insects, lizards, small mammals, and frogs. We have all of those readily available here in the country north of Stanton, Texas. These birds have to impale their prey on a barbed wire fence or other sharp object because their feet are too weak to hold their catch.

Above is a picture of a European Starling in winter plumage. These birds have been a mystery to me for a few weeks now. I thought they were closer to Starlings than any other bird but I have never seen their winter plumage--only solid black ones. They have a lot of purple and green iridescence in their winter coats. Beautiful! One of the sexes has a lighter-colored head. There are many more pictures here that show this winter oddity.

Another Viewing Day with Cousin Carol

Cousin Carol came over Friday, May 7, and we sat in our perfect viewing spot and watched the kaleidoscope of birds for about 5-1/2 hours or so.We saw: male and female Lark Buntings, White-Crowned Sparrows, Eurasian Collared Doves, Say's Phoebe, White-Winged Doves, female Brown-headed Cowbird, male and female House Finch, European Starlings, male and female Golden-Fronted Woodpeckers, Scissor-tailed Flycatchers, Western Kingbirds, Cactus Wren, and a hawk of some kind.

Carol identified two additional birds: A yellow male House Finch (diet causes the variant) and a female Black-headed Grosbeak (top). They are evidently migrating through here on the way to Mexico/South America.The male was here for about five days but didn't show up on Friday. The males show up here in the spring before the females.

Tom and I had a visit from a female and three young Yellow-Headed Blackbirds yesterday (right). They were in the Mesquite tree early this morning but did not come into the yard to feed with the other birds. They stay in Texas for the summer, but maybe they are migrating to a different locale in Texas because we only saw the males for one day and have not seen them again.