Remember that when you leave this Earth, you can take with you nothing that you have received, only what you have given, a full heart enriched by honest service, love, sacrifice and courage. -St. Francis of Assisi

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Bird "fall out"

Today's cold and rainy weather has created a bird "fall out".

"Yes, Dear" :)


Information about a "fall out" can be found at 10000birds.com



This weather is also the preferred weather for the nesting Kemp's Ridley Turtle.  I will be on the turtle patrol at 8:00 am Thursday.

I started seeing a lot of little birds flying around the campground, so I put out some raisins and sunflower seeds that I found in the cabinet. I don't normally put out bird seed because of the grackles and seagulls. After just a few minutes, I had to bring the seeds in because the seagulls and grackles found them, funny thing is they kept spitting them out. I guess they prefer garbage.





Then I remembered that we put out oranges at the refuge.  I cut 2 oranges in half and stuck them on the bush near the back of my RV site and then waited patiently for the birds to come over from the other shrubs.

These are orioles, but I did see one painted bunting and one black and white warbler. I thought I saw some other red and some yellow birds in the flowering bushes, but was not able to get pictures.




painted bunting














At one point, I counted 18 orioles on the top of this bush, fighting over the 4 orange pieces.
  
Didn't take them long to clean out the oranges,
I cut an apple in quarters and put it out there and a few of them are eating the apple.



10 comments:

  1. There's nothing like a spring 'fall out' on the Texas coast! I sure hope I get to see one next spring while I'm at Anahuac NWR.

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  2. before all the hurricanes a came thru there were great fall outs at "Boy Scout Woods" on High Island in Texas...

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  3. Oh, I have some oranges I was going to put in the compost. I'll cut them up for the birds instead. Thanks for the idea.

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  4. Good thing you live in orange country for all those birds. I thought the lazuli bunting was brilliant but this painted is even more colorful.

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  5. Beautiful! What fun to have the birds sit still at least a little right in your yard.

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  6. Beautiful pictures! Never thought about oranges like that before, great idea. :)

    Erik

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  7. Great photos - you really have a lot of birds. I've never heard of a Painted Bunting - it looks like a rainbow. Good idea on the oranges, they sure loved them. :)

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  8. Great shots. The Painted Bunting is beautiful. Never saw one before.

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  9. Painted buntings are one of my absolutely favorite birds! Thanks for sharing the photos today!

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  10. This was definitely a mind-blowing event, both for the size of the territory - at least all the Texas coast - and the numbers of birds.

    I'm sure the red and yellow birds were male and female tanagers. We had both Scarlet and summer tanagers in the Galveston sites I visited, and the tamest bird was a female scarlet tanager. And yes, those were catbirds you shot.

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Hi, I welcome your thoughts and comments.

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