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Friday, October 2, 2015

Wintering birds starting to arrive

Saw the first Green-tailed Towhee for the season. I love them and they spend the whole winter. Here's a year-round species, Greater Roadrunner, that is making herself right at home in the walkway.


Alas, I had my camera settings wrong for most of today, so when it clouded up none of my pictures were sharp. I normally leave them on one setting but had recently been experimenting and forgot I had done that. I think this next photo is an Allen's Hummingbird, but without a sharp spread-tail shot, can't be sure. You know that didn't happen.


The Chinese Pistachio tree has a lot of berries on it that are ripening.


And one Chinkapin Oak had all the ripening acorns missing. No damage to any limbs so I'm sure it was a bird,  probably Western Scrub Jay. Maybe I'll see it tomorrow. Got here rather late in the day today to see much.

Still a fair number of odonates hanging out. Probably the only water for miles around. I finally got the coveted side shot of a Pale-faced Clubskimmer. I'm kicking myself that I still had the camera ISO wrong when I photographed it. Such an opportunity lost. I'm thinking this is a juvenile male, but not sure.


I still remember around 20 years ago when my sister-in-law, Dale Ohl, and I drove to Balmorhea to get our lifer Eurasian Collared-Dove. They were just expanding into the area. Now they are "junk" birds everywhere, including CMO. Perched near the feeders, waiting for me to fill them.


I'm real weak on lizard identifications. Only photographed this one because it was posing nicely and that would give me a chance to use my new Texas lizard guide. I think it's a Southwestern Fence Lizard, maybe a subspecies of Eastern Fence Lizard. Very common here.



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