Bird Sanctuary

How many different kinds of birds do you think visit a small, suburban San Antonio backyard on a Saturday in September?

Would you believe 15! Between the drought and the change in seasons, we had a full bird sanctuary in our backyard this weekend.

His throat is more red than the nectar. Amazing!

Ruby-throated humming birds are migrating through our area now. Usually, there were three, and up to five, within view at one time.





I was so happy to see that a house finch and his wife have decided to frequent our yard. We used to have a pair that came by regularly, but I hadn't seen them in about two years.




Another infrequent visitor that made an appearance Saturday was the titmouse. They are fairly common for a lot of suburban birders, but I only see this guy about three times a year. I was glad that he took an interest in the cat fur that I put in a suet box behind the wind chime.


We have way too many starlings right now (about ten total). Their speckles are attractive but their manners are so bad that it's hard for me to appreciate their beauty. In their defense, however, they seem to be more tolerant of other birds right now than they are in the winter when they act like a street gang.


I rarely see cardinals taking a bath, but on Saturday, this one was splashing like a fool.



Ditto for mocking birds. I don't know if I've ever seen one splash in the water. Doesn't he look ridiculously undignified when he is all puffed up and bathing?



The Carolina wren is Travis' favorite. He keeps hoping to entice a pair to our wren nesting box, but so far, no luck. This one must live nearby because it stops by once in a while. We see it about once every two or three weeks.


At least two of the golden fronted woodpeckers that were born in a nest in our tree survived. Unlike the other juvenile birds we've seen lately, the young woodpeckers are significantly smaller than their parents and easy to distinguish.

One. Two.Three scrub jays dined with us this weekend.




Another wave of Baltimore Orioles made a stop in our area. This time, I counted about seven at once.



And finally, if you look closely, you can see what I believe is a yellow warbler peaking out from behind this tree. If my ID is correct, it's my first ever sighting.

But wait; that's only 13 birds, you say. Well, I didn't photograph the usual suspects: sparrows, grackles, white wing dove and Inca dove.

Believe it or not, there are a few additional birds that I think I could reasonably hope to attract right now, but for some reason, I've never been successful. I'm still waiting for the lesser gold finches and chickadees to come to my sanctuary.



Late breaking news! Look what landed in my tree after I drafted this post! TWO great horned owls!! They were calling with the same notes at the same time and you could hear the difference in the male and female's pitch. In January at about the same time of night (near midnight), the male visited us. Now he's here again with a mate. So cool!

WOW! Make that 16 different species of birds.