Instinctive Behavior in a Green Heron, Brazos Bend State Park, Texas

Posted by Chris Cunningham

What a book a devil’s chaplain might write on the clumsy, wasteful, blundering, low, and horribly cruel work of nature! –Charles Darwin

Usually when one sees a wader grab a prey item, the prey is subdued, perhaps by a few pecks, then manipulated into position and swallowed. Today at Brazos Bend State Park, however, I observed a Green Heron grab a large American Bullfrog tadpole. The bird picked up and then dropped the tadpole a few times after intermittently pecking it. Finally the bird discarded the tadpole and walked away. I thought this strange given that waders of all species at Brazos Bend eagerly consume amphibians in all stages of development. Perhaps (although it seemed unlikely) the bird considered the tadpole to be too big to swallow?

I continued to watch the Green Heron fully expecting the bird to reconsider and return to the tadpole and eat it. Instead, it caught a juvenile frog and repeated the whole process! After pecking the poor frog a few times, the Green Heron just walked off without eating it. I have only seen this sort of thing once before when a Little Blue Heron captured and then discarded a crawfish. Do these waders hunt and kill (or at least maim) instinctively without being hungry, and without lardering the prey–just like well-fed house cats? If so, stone cold killers, these fellows!

Green Heron with juvenile frog at Brazos Bend State Park, Texas
Bad Day at Elm Lake: this Green Heron captured, subdued, beaked, and then discarded without eating this unfortunate frog. Canon EOS 7D/500mm f/4L IS (+1.4x TC). High-speed synchronized fill-flash.

©2012 Christopher R. Cunningham. All rights reserved. No text or images may be duplicated or distributed without permission.

Sabine Woods, Texas: Close Encounters of the Feline Kind

Posted by Chris Cunningham

Time spent with cats is never wasted. –Sigmund Freud

I took the opportunity to visit the Texas Ornithological Society Sabine Woods Sanctuary this week while Elisa was working in Port Arthur, Texas. I’m sunburned (sweated off my sunscreen in a matter of minutes), covered with various insect bites and stings, and my left hand is swollen due to contact with some poisonous plant. Deer flies will eat you ALIVE this time of year. It was like the CONGO!

 Got some nice shots, though–Yellow Warblers, Yellow-billed Cuckoos, Orchard Orioles, Golden-fronted Woodpeckers (strangely out of place!) and a few others. The best part: I was in an area of thick, chest-deep vegetation that was alive with cotton rats when I heard a rustling noise. That sounds mammalian, I reasoned. I saw the brush parting ahead as if something the size of a Cocker Spaniel was coming toward me. And it didn’t stop! It didn’t know I was there–strange, given that I’d been sweating like Nixon for the past two hours. Is this a cougar!?! went through my mind (I saw one here last spring). Am I about to die?

Suddenly a cat-face poked right out in front of me, about five feet away. I knew it was a cat before I knew it was a . . . bobcat! The bobcat couldn’t figure out what I was. I was big, with five legs and one huge eye! The bobcat couldn’t decide to attack or not for a full two seconds, but let out a growl as if to say: “Thanks for chasing away my rats, you . . .  silly-looking creature!” The bobcat quietly slipped back into the brush and disappeared.

Bobcat at Sabine Woods Sancturary, Texas
Puzzled: This bobcat couldn’t identify an animal with five legs and one huge eye. Texas Ornithological Society Sabine Woods Sanctuary. Canon EOS 7D/500mm f/4L IS (+1.4x TC). Natural light.

©2012 Christopher R. Cunningham. All rights reserved. No text or images may be duplicated or distributed without permission.

Declining Yellow-billed Cuckoos

Posted by Chris Cunningham

The eastern subspecies of the Yellow-billed Cuckoo, like many birds of North America, is in decline due in part to habitat loss. This neotropical migrant was once common to abundant during summer in appropriate environments across much of its historical range (the eastern U.S., essentially from Texas to the Canadian border) but now has stable populations only over about 2% of that range.  A shy bird more often heard than seen, the Yellow-billed Cuckoo prefers forests near water with a mix of openings and thickly vegetated areas. We catch glimpses of Cuckoos from time to time, but getting a clear shot of one at close range is not an everyday occurrence.

Yellow-billed Cuckoo at Pilant Slough, Brazos Bend State Park, Texs
A cooperative Yellow-billed Cuckoo at Pilant Slough, Brazos Bend State Park, Texas

Summer Birding at Brazos Bend State Park, Texas

Posted by Chris Cunningham

Many birders take the summer off in the Gulf Coast region. This is understandable given the low diversity of avian species relative to migration and the blistering sun, sweltering humidity and biting insects. Brazos Bend State Park, however, does offer some interesting possibilities in July through September if you’re willing to put up with a little pain. Family life of several species can easily be observed. At least two cohorts of juvenile Purple Gallinules, Common Moorhens, and Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks can be seen on Elm Lake during summer. In some places, the plants nearshore are literally alive with ducklings and baby rails. The first of the fall migrants also generally begin to show up in late July/early August as well. Even if you can’t get out there this summer, keep it in mind for next year–and don’t forget your hat!

Juvenile Purple Gallinule at Brazos Bend State Park, Texas
Juvenile Purple Gallinule: the huge feet of this young rail allow it walk easily across floating marsh vegetation. Photo taken at Elm Lake.