April’s Parting Shots

Here’s a few photos from April that I just never got around to posting. Curve-billed Thrasher at Palo Duro Canyon Chihuahuan Ravens at McBride Canyon, Lake Meredith Northern Rough-winged Swallow at Spring Canyon, Lake Meredith Morning Dove, Spring Canyon Savannah Sparrow, Spring Canyon Yellow-headed Blackbirds Spring Canyon   American Avocets coming in for a landing.…

Dark Days

Here’s more photographs from the last week. It’s been wonderfully rainy all week, but getting good shots of birds has been difficult. the lake is up a couple of inches, though, and that’s a nice turnaround from weeks and weeks of dropping levels. Scissor-tailed Flycatcher Eastern Phoebe Spotted Sandpiper Double-crested Cormorant Blue-winged Teal Great Blue…

Birds, Boats, and Beautiful Weather

We’ve had a rather dry summer so far this year, a return to the drought of the last decade or so, only not quite as bad as it was before. We were fortunate to have a really wet summer last year and our local lake went from nearly gone to about 25% capacity.  It’s still…

Hiking at Palo Duro Lake

Here’s a few birds I saw while hiking at Palo Duro Lake Last week. Bullock’s Oriole Scissor-tailed Flycatcher Western Kingbird Western Meadowlark Mississippi Kite American Kestrel I drove north from the lake nearly to Oklahoma trying to find the nest of a pair of Bald Eagles I had seen last week when I visited the lake. I…

Songbirds

The summer residents have slowly been arriving over the last month or so and I’ve really been enjoying their songs. Here’s a some photos of a few of them. Ash-throated Flycatcher Scissor-tailed Flycatcher Bullock’s Oriole juvenile Yellow-headed Blackbird (not as melodious as his cousin Red-wings) Blue-gray gnatcatcher Painted Bunting

Late Summer Songbirds

Earlier this month I drove around some of the farmlands south of Borger and caught a few pictures of some late summer passerines. They aren’t all that vocal this time of year, but I still enjoy seeing them. I think that these are Grasshopper Sparrows, although I really have trouble sometimes identifying sparrows. It’s quite possible…

Catching Up

OK, I admit it, I’m not doing a very good job at keeping this blog up to date.  It’s just that, well, it’s summer, you know. And not just summer, but one of the nicest summers we’ve had in a while.  Summers over the last decade or so have been miserable affairs. They’ve been hot…

Lessons in Humility

Every time I think I’m getting pretty good at this birding stuff, someone comes along and takes me down a few pegs. This week it happened twice.  The first was an email from an ebird rep wanting more information on a sighting I had earlier this month.  I reported an American Tree Sparrow and he…

Spring Arrivals

There’s been an influx of birds arriving for the summer these last two weeks, as well as a few migrants passing through. Scissor-tailed Flycatchers arrived last week, followed by Ash-throated Flyucatchers this week. Northern Mockingbirds are supposed to be year-round residents in the area, but I’ve never seen them in the winter. In the last…