Bird Peeps Blogs

Fifteen years ago I moved from Boston to Texas. I was thrilled that as a novice birder (even more novice than I am now :) I had compiled a list of "backyard journal" some thirty birds spotted from my yard--a 6000 square foot postage stamp of a place.

I remember some thrilling times in that entry period: seeing and hearing the deep, resonant song of a Baltimore Oriole, spotting my first brilliantly colored American Goldfinch, learning the difference between a Purple Finch and a House Finch, and in a bittersweet experience, seeing my first Cedar Waxwing but alas, dead.

The squirrels have been starting to catch on more to all of the bird food locations. Today, when we got home, we spotted the squirrel on the tree trunk having a feast with the last crumbles of the suet. Even after running outside and trying to scare the little bugger away by stomping, clapping and yelling, it hardly budged. I finally let my anger get the best of me and started throwing stones and dirt to chase it away!

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I was at " Wild Birds Unlimited" yesterday on Bee Caves Rd and spoke to the guy at the counter about the bird I had seen over the weekend. I had explained all of its characteristics, color, markings, size, social grouping and in a few minutes of looking through his field guide for this area, he narrowed it down to 2 birds. He pointed to a few pictures in his book and asked me if that was what I saw, and sure enough it appears to have been several, female red-winged black birds.

Even though my office isn't on the edge of the building, there is a glass partition between my desk and an office that is on the edge of the building. So, I have a virtually unobstructed view outside through the windows in that office. Through those windows I can see several species of trees that are always filled with birds of one type or another. Mostly I see smallish birds like sparrows, mockingbirds, cedar waxwings, etc. But occasionally I'll see a solitary blue jay or a bunch of grackles.

This weekend in my backyard, I spotted several birds up high in our oak trees. There were 7 or 8 similar birds together. The bird had heavy, brown stripes with a buff color on both its breast and back. The bird appeared to be between 6 to 8 1/2 inches. It also had a longer, pointed beak and very strong buff-colored eye stripe.