Update

Rich florid song from the top of a utility pole this morning and it wasn't a mockingbird. It was a curvebill thrasher. Hadn't seen them lately, but there it was. 

Two houses away there was some kind of medium size bird with red on it high in a tree. Went to get binoculars and found it gone. Possible robin. Did see a robin last week on Ave. Q.

Monday at 7:30 pm I saw a flock of those smallish black birds over University Ave at Broadway heading low to the Tech campus. They DO go east in the morning and west in the evening. Looked like they might be headed to roost in the TTU trees, as low as they were. This morning at 7 I was in the kitchen doors and windows closed and heard a ruckus outside. It was those birds flying over, headed east.

The female pyrrhuloxia is quite demanding about seed, flying over near me whereever I am and making her presence known.   I am not trying to make her a pet, but she is sometimes within 2 feet of my hand when I put the seed in the feeder.

The dove population is way down from the 25-30 birds that came around late summer and fall. Now there are fewer than 10 and rarely more than 5 at a time. about half white-wing doves.

Mysterious Sunrise Bird Flights

Observed -- or heard -- more of these strange flocks or flights in the days since my last post. Here's what I know:

1. Did not see them until March of this year.

2. The flocks or flights may be low at treetop level but are usually high, so high that the birds will be heard but not readily seen. This morning I was out at sunrise and twice heard but didn't see them.

3. They have been observed above my place flying pretty much due east. Never saw any flying back west at the end of the day or at any other time.   Could this be part of a vast migration?   I've been assuming the birds were resident.

4. The time is right before the sun comes up or very shortly after.

5. While the usual flight is a wave of birds extending north-south, last week I saw a north to south roiling wave heading east and then 10 minutes later, a roiling wave west to east in the eastward direction of flight.

6. The birds are small, dark and loud. Their individual flight is erratic and darting within the wave, and this causes that roiling appearance. They are spaced out some but are a definite flock or wave. Sounds like swallows, huh. Could they be Purple Martins? I didn't know we had Purple Martins at Lubbock.

Saw the wave again this morning before the sun was up.   This time it was a twisting mass spread out along the line of flight -- to the east.   Birds were low, housetop to treetop level.   Only a block away to the south but I couldn't see what they were.

I suppose they are nesting in trees in town and then going east either to the canyon lakes where there is plenty of water, or heading out to feed on grain in a field somewhere.    Grackles seem to do that, fly west in the evening and east in the morning, but do so in smaller numbers and often as single birds.

And this morning on a limb outside the kitchen door window, two curvebill thrashers by a feeder.    I took them more food.   One bird let me come to within two feet to put in seed.    Haven't seen them together like that before.

The male and female pyrrhuloxia have been coming to eat at about the same time, which may indicate that they too are pairing off.

The doves are always paired off and horny.

There was a red bird atop the utility pole in the alley early Tuesday morning.   It was singing.   Did not see it at a feeder, but then I don't watch all the time.

I am so excited!   In dusk at 7:30 pm a male cardinal came to the feeder, joined for a minute by a female cardinal.   My 1st ever sight of a female.   Went for camera but when I got back the female had flown and the male was munching away.  

The female looks bigger than the pyrrhuloxia and with a glowing red-pink beak that is plainly conical, unlike the curved scoop beak of the pyrrhuloxia.

My Great Backyard Bird Count, Feb 12-14, 2016

The Great Backyard Bird Count was forgotten about at my digs until the final day.   

Too much trouble to come up with hard and fast numbers.    So I didn't post guesses on eBird.

The most common bird here are house sparrows, and they form a seething mass of boiling feathers around the feeders. Very hard to count. Plus birds come back to gorge; they don't just eat and run, which means if you have a count over a period of time, say 30 minutes or an hour, you'll count the same bird several times. I think what happens is that the birds fill their crops and lay off eating for a spell and come back for more if there is any more. 

But, objections voiced, here's my guestimate count.

House sparrows. A lot. 25-40.
House finches. 10-15.
Eurasian collared doves. 10 plus. There were more back in the fall than now.
White winged doves. 4-6. More than back in the fall.
Pyrrhuloxia. 3, 1 male & 2 female.   1M & 1F regulars.
Curve-billed thrashers. Saw only one at a time. Mighta been 2.
Cardinal. One, came by Saturday. Not a consistent visitor unless the weather is cold.
Dark-eyed, slate-colored junco. 1. On ground, not at feeder.
Sparrow as yet unidentified, 1-2. Gonna have to ask for help from the bird forum on ID. Heard one "churr" first time yesterday. Not chirp like house sparrows.  And they scratch like chickens.  
Ruby-crowned kinglets, 2 seen yesterday. In evergreen trees, not at feeders. Tiny boids, just over hummingbird size.
Starlings. Rarely come to my yard. See them perched on utility wires in alley. 2-3 this weekend.
Great-tailed grackles. Many pass overhead or perch in the hood, whistling or scraping. Saw one for the first time perched in the backyard close to a feeder. No feeding behavior observed. Don't much go for seeds.
Blue jay. One has been coming by the front yard, Heard but not seen.
Canada geese. Saw two groups fly overhead in v-formation, total 22 birds.
Mockingbird. One. Started singing this weekend from LP&L pole.

Two Short African Bird Videos

National Geographic Story

A little bit scary.

Don't miss the video at the end of the article, featuring one ostrich egg, one mammal, and three other birds.