This afternoon I went out to Canyon Lake #6 a/k/a Jim Bartram Lake a/k/a Dunbar Lake.    Suffering from sitting disease and metabolic syndrome, having gone from a reasonably active and healthy 62-year old to a a couch potato 66 -year old, I desperately need exercise.     Nice 2.5 mile walk around the lake with binoculars.    Here's what I saw.

Lot of double-crested cormorants, some unidentified gulls, passed near one great blue heron up in a tree -- never got anywhere that near to one without it flapping it's wings and taking off to parts unknown -- and darn it, I did not have a camera.    

Loads of red wing blackbirds but as is often the case I did not see a single female;  presumably the females were down in the reeds.   A small flock of juncos, slate-gray, dark eyed variety, and some kind of dark sparrow near them.  

Canada geese and some smaller geese that may have been cacking geese;  I am not up enough on the differences to say for sure.

Northern shoveler ducks, positive ID, and a first for my life list.   Coots.   Some other ducks I didn't see enough to ID.  

In bushes near MLK there was a shy yellowish bird with a tiny "cheek, cheek" song that might be the same one that has haunted me for two years that I thought might be a yellowbreasted chat or nashville warbler.   Saw it in the bush but only as greenish-yellow and some kind of pattern on the folded wings.

Thinking they were burrowing owls over near a patch of prairie dogs, I glassed then startled several hunkered down birds that turned out to be western meadowlarks.

That's all I can remember for now.

Misc. Bird Stuff

Great Backyard Bird Count begins Feb 16, and I am ramping up for it.   Not that I do more than guesstimate how many house sparrows and white-wing and eurasian collared doves I see from the general boil around feeders.

I exaggerate.   There are the curve-bill thrashers, mockingbird, and blue jays plus the starling or two nearby and passing grackles.   Also known as "the regulars."    

Who knows?   There might be a surprise of two if I look carefully.

This morning was the first I've seen of a starling coming to the platform watering pan.   Messy drinker, splashed itself and the environs while drinking.     But this is a warm day after a mild night, and the nearest standing water is at the stream in the canyon a mile away.    A black bird is likely feeling the heat after 9 a.m.     But then why aren't the grackles coming for water?   Rare when they do. 

Yesterday I dropped by the arboretum at Clapp Park for a look-see.    Pair of kildeer in the pathways east of the G&A center.   Some fast-moving sparrows I couldn't get a look at.    A streaked bird high in the evergreens, and some largish dark colored sparrows that might have been field sparrows or fox sparrows.    The latter I watched from the car while they took a sand bath in leaves near the fence and had plenty of time to make an ID but I didn't have a a bird book with me and with my poor short term memory have trouble remembering salient details.   

Raptor Downtown!

Briefly this morning there was a large raptor perching near the top of the microwave tower in downtown Lubbock. 

It soared off at 11:07 a.m. Broad wings.

I first saw it when adjusting my 10X42 Prostaffs (I often use that tower to adjust the diopter to fit my right [bad] eye), then ran to get the 12X50 Aculons and confirmed it was a bird and not a piece of trash that had lodged on the tower. Took a couple of photos then went for my 16X50 Bushnell binoculars. 

As I got the 16s focused, the bird soared off the tower.  Thought for a minute it was an eagle the wings looked so broad, but I am not sure of the size of the bird.   

Mourning Dove

First sighting of a mourning dove at my feeding places since I started ID'ing what came to eat in late summer 2015. 

Was on the ground,  pecking at seeds in the short grass.  Aggressive, chased away larger white wing doves, bristled but did not chase away a very large eurasian collared dove.

Female Ladderback

Female Ladderback Woodpecker. Males have red on the head, this one is black & white.

Was on my front porch before noon today watching a cardinal approach for a feed, then heard a chirp high up on the side of the house, and searched the trees and saw this little bird.

The only positive ID for a woodpecker on my premises was of a male Ladderback back in 2015, and photos were posted in this blog.

Couple of times in past years I heard tapping. Once I circled the trees (which were in leaf it being summer) and never saw the woodpecker. Another time near this location I saw the bird after hearing the tapping but it flew before I got my camera. Easiest to see woodpeckers in winter.   I did not hear a loud tapping today, likely because this bird was pecking on new soft growth.   

Yesterday as I was soaking my bones in a tub of hot water, minerals added, I thought I heard the cackling of geese.    Have the geese returned to Captistr ... er, Lubbock?   Need to visit the playa lakes to see.

Interspecies ruckus...

Ruckus this a.m. Put out seed in the swinging feeder at 11 p.m. but the sparrows cleaned it out early. Put out more this morning with a salting of sunflower seeds and the curve billed thrasher showed up and commenced to get a drink at the watering pan. Minute later the cardinal lit nearby. Thrasher charged, cardinal flew off, thrasher had a feather in its beak.

Them thrashers are dangerous with that long beak. Which they use to dig holes in the dirt looking for grubs. Thrashers are top bird, and even the white wing doves defer.