Foam Lake Birding No. 77

FOAM LAKE BIRDING
No. 77
March has arrived and, hopefully, with it spring. Down here that means summer-like weather, which will be a welcome change from the generally cold wet winter that we have been having. The locals claim that this is/was the worst winter ever, at least weather wise. I have no reason to doubt this. Anyway, weather forecasters are predicting warm and usually sunny days for the foreseeable future. I hope they are right as the trees are starting to leaf out and the flowering plants are starting to bloom. All we need is spring.
This week I want to cover a confiding little bird that, down here, replaces the Black Capped Chickadee back home – the Black Crested Titmouse. Older bird books list three species of titmice in North America, however, two of the species have been split and now we have five. Now that is inflation. The five species are: the Oak Titmouse of California, the Juniper Titmouse of Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah, (these two were formerly combined as Plain Titmouse); the Bridled Titmouse of southern Arizona; the Tufted Titmouse of the eastern half of North America including Southern Ontario, the Black Crested Titmouse of south and central Texas, (these two were formerly combined as Tufted Titmouse). (For a more detailed discussion of titmice see article No. 23). To date I have seen only two of them – the Bridled and the Black Crested.
As previously mentioned, the Black Crested Titmouse is the “chickadee” of southern Texas. It behaves like a chickadee because it belongs to the same family even making a kind of “chick-a-dee” sound. We have put out feeders in our yard and the Black Crested Titmice frequent them daily providing us with a really good look. It kind of reminds us of home.
Behavior-wise, the sparrow sized Black Crested Titmouse is much like a chickadee but, physically, there are marked differences. Rather than being plump, big headed and fluffy looking like a chickadee, the titmouse is long tailed and slender. The body is a light whitish grey overall with darker grey wings and tail which gives the bird a very nondescript appearance that, at first glance, makes it easy to overlook. Upon closer examination several distinct features stand out that do not require the use of binoculars to discern them. The most noticeable physical characteristic is the black crest and forehead. Add to that a sharp black little beak and large beady black eyes and the bird cannot be confused with anything else. Unlike a chickadee, it constantly makes a sharp little squeak when foraging that sounds much like that of a mouse. Maybe that is where it gets its name of titmouse?
Taking pictures of any member of the titmouse family is difficult, to say the least, as they are constantly flitting about in search of food. However, with patience and a little good luck I did get several good shots out of what must be “gazillions”. Thank heavens for digital cameras. This week’s photo shows off the prominent features of the Black Crested Titmouse – the black crest and forehead, sharp black beak and big beady black eye.

Foam Lake Birding No. 76

FOAM LAKE BIRDING
No. 76
Well, the weather has finally warmed up and we are doing more birding as a result. We have taken several people from back home on tours of some of our favourite haunts and they seemed to enjoy it. I know we certainly did.
One of the birds that we pointed out to our guests belongs to a family of birds that has not been covered in these articles before – the goatsuckers. Yes, goatsuckers. These birds have wide gaping mouths with which to catch insects in flight. In ancient times until quite recently, many people believed that these birds used their big mouths to suck the milk from their goats during the night. Thus a myth was born and a group of birds received a funny name. The family includes nighthawks and whippoorwills among others.
Once again, I have chosen a south Texas specialty – the Paraque. The Paraque
(pronounced “pah rah kay” with the accent on the rah) is a good sized bird a little larger than a robin. It is a bird of the night during which time it hunts insects and makes its loud “peer wurr” sound. (Last year one used to land on the pavement behind our trailer and called for what seemed forever). They are quite easy to find at night by following their calls and, then, shining a light at the sound. When the light falls on the bird its eyes light up.
In the daytime, the Paraque finds a secluded spot on the forest floor where it spends the day sleeping. Here, it can be approached quite closely before it flies away like a giant moth. This, in fact, this is just about the only way its roosting spot can be located. Because the Paraque will return to the same roosting spot day after day, unless it has been repeatedly flushed, it can be observed daily at one’s leisure. An interesting note is that a roosting Paraque will go into a kind of rocking motion when danger gets too close. At this time it is wise to back off a bit and not agitate the bird anymore.
The most interesting thing about goatsuckers, Paraques in particular, is that their camouflage is superb. Even when the bird’s location is known, it is still very difficult to find. The first time that we saw one was during a guided bird walk in the Llano Grande Nature Preserve down here in Weslaco. Even though the guide pointed out the bird’s location exactly and had a spotting scope trained right on it, I and several others still had the dickens of a time finding it with our naked eyes. Eventually, we managed to do it. At this time I took several photos followed by more photos later on when my wife and I were birding by ourselves. (The bird was still hard to spot).
Even in the photos, black and white or in colour, the Paraque is hard to make out because it blends in so well with its surroundings. Have fun looking at this one.

Foam Lake Birding No. 75

Down here in Texas the rainy and cool weather continues in sharp contrast to previous years when the sun shone and temperatures were summer-like. On the bright side, this kind of weather makes it easy to stay indoors and spend the time necessary to write these articles. However, there are nice days also, and we take full advantage of them. For example, on February 15, 2010, we got our first really good look at a Tropical Parula Warbler – an uncommon south Texas specialty.
In this article I am going to go back to a family of birds that I have covered before – the flycatchers. (See article #30 for a detailed discussion on flycatchers). I will cover two closely related and extremely similar birds that are also south Texas specialties – the common Couch’s Kingbird and the uncommon Tropical Kingbird. In appearance both birds are very similar to the Western Kingbird that occurs in Saskatchewan. (In fact, a pair of Western Kingbirds nested and raised young in our back lane in Foam Lake in the 1980s). Essentially, all three species have dark brownish grey topsides and yellowish undersides. So, how does one tell the Couch’s and the Tropical apart when the two are so similar that, unless they vocalize, they cannot be safely separated in the field, and there is as much variation between individuals within the same species as there is between species? This is how. The Couch’s makes rather shrill sharp sounds typical of most flycatchers while the Tropical twitters. The calls are very distinctive and are used by birders in identification.
I have included a photo of each species so that readers can appreciate the great similarity between the two. Even in full colour the birds cannot be distinguished from each other; in black and white there is absolutely no difference. Both birds were positively identified in the field by their vocalizations by an expert birding guide from the area. After they were identified, I took the pictures. In other words, they are what I say they are.
This is the 75th article in the series and I would like to remind readers of my website for these very same articles. The big advantage of following these articles on the website is that the pictures are in full colour and there are more of them. Moreover, I often edit the articles (usually in inclement weather) by adding or changing photos and by adding or changing text. It is free, so feel free to log on at any time. Enjoy.
The web address is as follows:
www.johnthebirder.com