A Sad Sight

I am currently camping at Bastrop State Park under some of the few remaining pine trees that survived the devastating fires that occurred a few years back. This was not the only disaster to befall this beautiful park.  Over Labor Day Weekend in 2015 the area experienced a major flood washing out roads and sweeping away understory which was holding the soil in place and exposing the root structure of many trees causing them to fall.  I can recall camping in years past under the beautiful canopy of the Lost Pines.  I am surprised today to be able to see and hear the traffic on State Highway 71 from my campsite.  I never realized how close the parks southern boundary was to this busy thoroughfare.  I have made some panoramic views of what the current landscape looks like and one that shows to some degree what it use to look like.

However, there is good news to report as well.  In the devastated areas you can see new pines emerging, either planted by volunteers or provided by nature.  This forest will recover, but it will just take years to do so.  And this is in keeping with the nature of destruction and regeneration that naturally occurred before we, humans, began to interfere with this process. 

Now for the good news!  I had a nice morning of birding here under clear, blue skies with no wind.  I had not even left the parking lot before I was treated to a large group of one of my all time favorites, Cedar Waxwings.  These magnificent birds are winter visitors and are known to eat the cedar, and other, berries that offer themselves at this time of year.  I look forward to seeing their cousins in Duluth, Minnesota next month--an equally beautiful bird you will have to wait to see.

A short time later I found our largest woodpecker--Pileated Woodpecker-- doing his thing in search of insects in hidden in the bark of a dead pine tree. This large black woodpecker is about 18 inches long and features a white line running up each side of its neck to just below the eye and loops around the bill.  The unmistakeable call and drumming are easy to detect even with my hearing loss.  The chin is white and the breast black and in flight the big, white wing patches are clearly apparent.  I for once had the opportunity to get some good shots of this bird, my only regret is that he stayed on the shaded side of the tree and avoided the beautiful early morning sunlight.  In tge second one he is hanging upside down.

The other birds of the day included a smaller, Downy Woodpecker working the trees for insects.

And a beautiful Eastern Bluebird that was very close and washed with the soft light of the early morning.  

The final shot I want to share in this blog is a cooperative Red-tailed Hawk setting on the branches of a large pine tree.  He was very cooperative until I opened my door to get out and take his picture but my movement forced him to launch and me to hurry and snap a shot before he could escape.

So tomorrow is another day and I hope to find some other interesting birds to share with the next blog.

I had the good fortune to travel to Thailand for an 18 day photography outing in December.  I would rate Thailand 5 stars for birding and 1 star for eating.  I admit I am a very picky eater, but the food there was not to my liking. Fortunately, I took my peanut butter and jelly along as I usually do on foreign trips.  Enough of that!  This is a birding column so let’s get started on that subject.

The trip began in Bangkok, a very modern city of 15,000,000 people.  I was amazed at how clean and modern it was. There are many skyscrapers and ornate temples devoted to the worship of Buda, the religion of 99% of the population.  There are ever present pictures of their King, whom they call Dad.  I arrived on Dad’s birthday so it was a national holiday. The area in the south of Thailand surrounding Bangkok is a flat plain with adjacent coastal area. The Chao Pharya River flows through its center and empties into the Gulf of Thailand (Siam).  The first couple of days were devoted to some light outings, allowing time to recover from the 25 hour trip and day change travelers experience.  

 Our guide, Pan, took us to the coast near the city of Bangkok.  There I was able to secure a nice, close up picture of the most common gull in Thailand-- Brown-headed Gull.  This is a very handsome gull even in basic (non-breeding) plumage as you can see from the photograph.  The outstanding feature of this species is the bright yellow eye with black smudges in front and behind and a bright orange bill with a black tip.  In breeding plumage these gulls will have a brown hood.

Most of our day was spent driving around the many fish farms in the area .  There we encountered most of the species included in this article.  Thailand has some very colorful kingfishers as you can see from the photo included in this article.  The White-throated Kingfisher gets its name for the striking white throat that is set off by the brown head, blue wings and tail and its blood red bill.  Just as our American kingfishers they are usually perched above water waiting to plunge in and grab an unsuspecting fish.  They are such good fishermen many of the ponds have netting stretched across them to preclude their hunting over them.

The Asian Brown Weaver pictured here is one of the old world weavers, closely related to finches.  They are seedeaters and are best known for the highly complex nest they weave (see attached picture).  Our House (English) Sparrow is in this group of birds.  This is a female and the male would have a black cheek patch and throat offset by a yellow head.  They are found in the proximity of wetlands.

One of my favorite species, Bee-eaters, are also found in Australia.  These beautifully colored birds are gregarious and form colonies. Bee-eaters build their nest by burrowing into sides of river banks. The feed primarily on bees and wasp, but eat other insects as well.  They sally forth from their perch, grab a bee or wasp, and remove the stinger and venom by repeatedly striking and rubbing them on a hard object.  This Blue-tailed Bee-eater was the most common one we encountered.

This large stork is an Asian Openbill.  They are birds found primarily in Southeast Asia and India.  They get there name from the gap formed in there bill by the recurved lower and arched upper mandible.  They are not born this way but this occurs in their growth to maturity.  The reason for this structure is believed an adaption to eat their principal food, snails.  They are not found along rivers, instead they prefer inland wetlands.  They are often seen circling in large groups much like our American White Pelicans.

The Grey-headed Lapwing is a wintering species in Thailand.  They breed in China and Japan.  This species is found in rice fields and other wetlands.  They feed on worms and mollusk.

  And our final species in the Little Grebe.   This is a pretty grebe with a dark head and reddish neck and bright yellow eye.  They are found in small ponds and lakes and breed on the edges of these areas.  As with other grebes their legs are set far back and they do not ambulate well on land.