It was nice this Titmouse had a sunflower seed in its mouth and was intend on eating. They are always flitting around, never still.
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It takes a contortionist to eat a little seed.
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Located in western Texas, they prefer oak woods and feed on insects and seeds. My first sighting of this bird was back on 11/20/2008, at South Llano River State Park.
Back to South Llano River State Park for some additional photos. There were several goldfinches around the park; most of them enjoying the feeders set around the blinds. They were beginning to show their breeding colors.
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I can’t say why I like this photo, but I do. This little lessor goldfinch seems to be hiding under a leaf. Look close and you can see his eye. Note the dark color of the legs and the short tail.
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Note the pail color of the bill and legs.
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Note the longer tail.
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I need to get busy and publish more bird photos from our trip back in March/April. I am going to run out of time, to publish these early spring photos, before we travel through Texas again. I will then have fall photos to publish. What a fun situation for me to be in! {Grins}
Below are a few photos of a pretty sparrow with a long neck and tail that has distinctive markings on its face. I don’t get to see Lark Sparrows in Colorado, so it is always a pleasure to see them when we are traveling.
I first observed the Lark Sparrow on January 9, 2007 in Catalina State Park, Oro Valley, AZ. In case you might not know where Oro Valley is, it is near Tucson.
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~Photo below is an adult Lark Sparrow with its pretty patterned face.
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I believe this one enjoying a bath is a younger bird, because of the light tan colored markings on its face. As they age the tan color turns white. Note the difference in the coloring on the face between the photo above and these below. Perhaps the difference is, because it is wet!
Lazuli’s must have been migrating north when we were visiting South Llano River State Park. A female was spotted, by park staff, on April 6th. I saw the male on April 17th.
From my observation experience, the shy Lazuli Bunting always wary about being out in the open, lets other birds intimidate them easily. Why so shy, wary and nonassertive?
With the Lazuli being so wary it takes a lot of patience to get a quality photo of one. This male would fly into the blind from surrounding trees, would sit in an area with lots of scrubs and wait. When it felt safe, I guess, it would then fly down and eat some seeds. It seems that, more so than other birds, it is always alert and ready to fly away. I didn’t see one enjoying a bath.
We see them here in Colorado during the spring and summer. This morning, sitting outside enjoying coffee, a male flew to one of the feeders looking for sunflower seeds.
It is always a pleasure to see these colorful birds.
I would see this lone Scissor-tailed sitting on a wire fence along the main entry road into South Llano River State Park. It had claimed this section of fence line and was hunting bugs.
I decided the best way for me to capture a few photos of this gorgeous flycatcher was to try and take the shots from my car.
When taking photos from the car, I roll the window about 2/3 down and place a swimmer’s noodle, that I have cut to size, over the glass. It stays in the car for just this purpose. The lens fits nicely on top of the noodle.
I tried to take a few photos outside the car, but he/she would just fly down the fence line out of camera range. {sigh}
The photo below shows the long tail and pink patch on the shoulder.
After a few days I noticed one other Scissor-tail hunting in the area; hopefully it was the mate.
I can’t even guess how many Scissor-tailed Flycatchers we saw during the few weeks we were traveling in Texas. It was nice to see so many!
My challenge and goal is to capture a good photo of one in flight.
