Owls Waxwings and the old battle.

I can't yet get a good picture of the great horned owl living in the hood. This ghostly image was the best I could do so far, taken March 7. But I hear him every night. Hoot hoota hoo. The across the street neighbors Mike and Barbara haven't seen their screech owls yet this spring. I hear them though. Last night I hear one north of my house, maybe two houses up. Don't know where they'll nest this year. The hollowed out branch in Mike and Barbara's yard has disintegrated, so last year's nesting hole is a know go. To see these owls check out my June 2006 posts.


The Waxwings were here in large numbers up to Monday. I got this new photo over the weekend. They've eaten all the berries in the tree they were pictured in a few posts ago. Bird book says they move on when the berries are gone. Raining heavily today so I haven't seen them.







The pair of Reb Bellied Woodpeckers that has been in my Pecan tree for 3 or 4 years now made a new hole and occupied it, but house sparrows, pictured here, and later and more ominously, Starlings have been vulturing the hole since last Friday. By Sunday, the starlings had turned the poor woodpeckers out of their own home. I actually saw a starling go in and start cleaning out the woodpecker nesting material. Brought over from Europe as a pretty cage bird in the 1890s, they have now spread to the whole of North America and evict popular native song birds, especially the eastern bluebird, and harrass Purple Martins. House Sparrows, also a introduced pest, do this too. It is legal to destroy these birds as invasive species, and they are among the most hated birds among birders.

Seen lots of Starlings, White Wing doves, House Sparrows, Great tailked grackles, and Inca doves in the last week. Saw two Carolina Wren this morning and hear them marking territory every day. Saw three Cardinal pair yesterday. Saw a Turkey vulture in flight over the weekend. Lots of Monk Parakeets. And about 5 female redwinged blackbirds. haven't seen the males yet. haven't seen a tufted titmouse or Carolina Chickadee in a while. Hear them though. No hummers yet.