austinbirder's blog

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This weekend I visited Houston, Texas for a taekwondo tournament that my daughter was competing in. Of course, like any proud mother, I had my camera with me to capture great pictures of her first black belt tournament while she competed to share with our family.

We were elated a few weeks ago to see a mother cardinal sitting in her nest outside of our patio door. We had hoped to be treated to a nest sighting when the previous homeowner visited and told us that the pair nested annually in a sharp pointed holly bush. When I saw the female swoop in a couple of times to the holly, I thought we might be onto her.

As I sit in my backyard with laptop balanced on my legs, I hear to two doves singing to eachother: who-i who-who! Earlier, we saw a European Starling enjoy our suet feeder (a first time just last night), and before that, a Red Bellied Woodpecker also had its meal. A beautiful male Lesser Goldfinch had lunch on our thistle feeder, and a female American Goldfinch joined in. And just now, I see and hear a pair of Blue Jays perched atop our redbud.