Yesterday was not the greatest for birds -with southerly winds and all, and a looming front moving in. But a couple of "mexican" birds that had been in town of late provided me with some more than mild amusement in the High Island RV Park. A couple of Bronzed Cowbirds had been in the area for several days now, scarce birds which, with the cowbird tag, often raise barely an eyebrow. However, this particularly horny male in town is well worth seeing, as he has been pumped up and ready to breed, and therefore hounding the female in town, puffing up its neck feathers giving it a bull-necked look, and then suddenly taking flight when all puffed up to its fattest, and hovering above her making for a truly remarkable performance, and spreading its wings across in front of its blood red eyes to form a veritable Dracula's cape. Simply awesome.
The afternoon was also exciting as a thunderstorm we hot, shortly after we hit a hyperactive warbler flock that held Blackburnian Warbler, female Cape May Warbler, and later ran into a gorgeous male Cerulean Warbler, before the rain crashed down and we retreated to the annual Houston Audubon crawfish boil! As darkness fell we waited for the proposed drop-in of birds to come, that sadly now in hindsight, I can say did NOT come. Hooray for cowbirds and Ceruleans, which saved the day.
More from High Island soon...
1 comment:
Love the first photo of the cowbird. It gives the bird so much character:)
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