Terry Hershey Bike and Hike Trail, Houston, Texas, June 2013

The Terry Hershey Bike and Hike Trail (also known as the Buffalo Bayou Bike Trail) passes beneath Route 8 at its eastern end, opposite Briar Hill Drive, Houston (Google Earth ref; 29 45 46N 95 33 26W). It runs west for about 10 kms, but I only managed about half of that today before stopping to watch some Mississippi Kites hunting for flying insects along the bayou.

The paved trail follows the north bank of Buffalo Bayou, crossing over a couple of bridges that span incoming streams and under some main roads running north/south. On the north side of the trail are meadows and lightly wooded spots. I could hear plenty of Northern Cardinals, but none actually popped up to be counted. Blue Jays were heard more often than seen. Some of the meadows had been mown, but others had been specially allowed to grow with signs deploring the picking of wild flowers.

The first Mississippi Kite was seen as it perched in a dead tree by the trail bridge at Google Earth ref; 29 45 57.60N 95 35 5.39W. A second and third bird were gliding back and forth apparently keeping close to the course of the stream where they were catching flying insects. I took it that they were hunting for dragonflies, but closer inspection of the photos showed that the wings of the prey were much too short and blunt. One photo showed long antennae, so more likely, they were catching Katydids.

Usually, I would save a gallery-type post like this for 10,000 Birds, but they appear to be well catered for with at least two picture-rich posts, so I am keeping this one for Redgannet.

I took a lot of photos, but was generally disappointed considering the opportunities that I was given. 

One of the three was a young bird. It was showing its barred tail and patterned underside, indicating that it had been hatched during the previous year and was looking forward to its first full summer.

The dead tree here proved to be a productive spot, mind you, I stayed there for some time enjoying the kites. A Red-bellied Woodpecker made me look twice, the yellow staining on its face making me hope for something erstwhile unknown to science. A Great Crested Flycatcher dropped in and disputed perches with one of the Blue Jays that were keeping watch on the kites.

Further along the trail (beyond Dairy Ashford Rd.), I found two more kites gliding across the meadow and along the bayou, so I stopped and took even more pictures. I am guessing that these were different birds as the young individual was no longer present and Mississippi Kites are very tolerant of each other. They don’t defend territories and often nest in colonies so it would not be unreasonable to assume that there could be a few in the area. 

A fellow velocipedal Limey stopped to say “Hello” and told me that the kites are frequently seen along the bayou and that they breed south of the city. The kites I had been seeing today had returned recently and he had been seeing them regularly, which agrees with the eBird pattern of sightings for the area. 

I have had to delete a huge number of the shots. Mostly they were blurry and out of focus. Occasionally, the kites would power dive to catch an insect and I was unable to keep up with them. The contrast against a sunny sky was difficult to avoid, but that didn’t stop me enjoying the spectacle of the hunting birds as they caught prey and ate it on the wing. I still prefer to stop and see one bird well than have a long list at the end of the day.

Birds seen;

Great Blue Heron 1, Great Egret 2, Little Blue Heron 1, Cattle Egret 15, White Ibis 8, Turkey Vulture 8, Mississippi Kite 5, Cooper’s Hawk 3, White-winged Dove 8, Mourning Dove 7, Chimney Swift 35, Red-bellied Woodpecker 4, Pileated Woodpecker 1, Olive-sided Flycatcher 1, Great Crested Flycatcher 1, Loggerhead Shrike 2, Blue Jay 5, American Crow 1, Barn Swallow 8, American Robin 5, Northern Mockingbird 7, Great-tailed Grackle 30, House Sparrow 10.

For a previous post from Terry Hershey Bike and Hike Trail, follow the link below;
http://redgannet.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/terry-hershey-houston-jan-2013.html

Visit the dedicated USA Page for other posts from Houston including George Bush Park and Houston Arboretum.

Maidstone Cemetery, Maidstone, Kent, June 2013

Last week I had occasion to visit Maidstone Cemetery and couldn’t help but notice that it might be interesting to take a walk in different circumstances. It is an old graveyard, with headstones dating back to the mid 1800s, set in around 200 acres to the south of Kent’s county town. The main entrance is from the Sutton Road at Google Earth ref; 51 15 20N 0 31 57E.

The cemetery does not actually include bird watching on its menu of services and the gate opening times reflect this, but it does provide a very quiet location to enjoy a walk among mature trees and the grass has been left long with quite a selection of wildflowers growing there. Without visiting regularly, I cannot say that the plots are allowed to grow like this throughout the season, but today there was a real meadow-like feel to it.

And there were birds. Woodpigeons and Blackbirds were very common. Some of the lawns around the entrance had been mown and proved popular with Song Thrushes.

Chaffinches and Greenfinches sang from the tops of trees, Coal Tits foraged in the manicured Yew bushes and a Green Woodpecker showed briefly on a headstone.

Birds seen;

Black-headed Gull 1, Herring Gull 2, Stock Dove 5, Common Woodpigeon 40, Eurasian Collared Dove 2, Green Woodpecker 1, Eurasian Magpie 2, Carrion Crow 5, Coal Tit 3, Great Tit 1, Eurasian Blue Tit 1, Eurasian Wren 1, Eurasian Blackbird 12, Song Thrush 3, European Starling 4, Dunnock 1, Common Chaffinch 4, European Greenfinch 2.

Central Park, New York, June 2013

By chance, Mrs Gannet was in New York this week. Her enthusiasm for shopping is such that the Association of Fifth Ave Retailers club together to fly her over at least once a year and her visit coincided with my working trip to the city. When she is in town, sightseeing, wining, dining and shopping trump bird watching, so my visit to Central Park had to wait. After an edgy stand-off, she reluctantly gave way to the “Celebrate Israel Parade” and popped back to the hotel for a nap.

It was a hot day, way above the predicted highs from the BBC Weather page. I arrived into the park at noon on a Sunday towards the end of a parade, so the park was not at its birding best. It was very full of people, but birds were scarce. A Great Egret stalked the shallows at The Pond in the southeastern corner of the park.

I decided to explore beyond my normal area today and pushed past the reservoir, through North Woods as far as Harlem Mere. A small bridge crosses a shallow stream that is fed from the reservoir and American Robins joined European Starlings for a cooling splash.

Rangers were offering free canoe hire at the mere and I would have been tempted out onto the water to get closer views of the dragonflies along the edge of the reeds, but they were just about to pack up for the afternoon.

North Woods was a very pleasant area to walk in. On a hot, busy afternoon such as this, children and dogs splashed in the stream joining The Pool to Harlem Mere. On a quieter day, the Loch Walking Path might be a very birdy stretch. A Baltimore Oriole was seen flying up to its nest. A Warbling Vireo nest hung from the fork on a slender branch. From this angle it looks as if it is resting above the branch.

Other nesting birds noted today included Starling, American Robin and Red-tailed Hawks.

I was told that the hawks have three chicks in their nest on 75^th Ave & 5^th St. this year. Two were perched up on the rim, looking out across the park, looking as if fledging day was fast approaching. We were able to return on the Wednesday (June 5^th) and watch for a while. An adult bird was sitting on a railing a couple of blocks to the north and was showing very little interest in the chicks’ behaviour. We might have been exceptionally lucky and seen them fledge, but they didn’t seem keen today.

Birds seen; 22

Canada Goose 45, Mallard 25, Ruddy Duck 1, Double-crested Cormorant 18, Great Egret 1, Red-tailed Hawk 3, Ring-billed Gull 6, Herring Gull 85, Greater Black-backed Gull 15, Mourning Dove 5, Chimney Swift 2, Northern Flicker 1, Warbling Vireo 3, Red-eyed Vireo 1, Blue Jay 4, Barn Swallow 3, American Robin 30, European Starling 50, Northern Cardinal 8, Common Grackle 40, Baltimore 2, House Sparrow 200.

See the links below for more posts from Central Park;
http://redgannet.blogspot.com/2009/03/hooded-merganzer-lophodytes-cucullatus.html
http://redgannet.blogspot.com/2010/04/central-park-new-york-new-york.html
http://redgannet.blogspot.com/2009/10/central-park-new-york.html
http://redgannet.blogspot.com/2011/01/out-of-towners-central-park-new-york.html
http://redgannet.blogspot.com/2011/06/central-park-new-york-xena-and.html
http://redgannet.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/central-park-new-york-april-2012.html

Visit the dedicated USA and Canada page for more posts from New York.

Mahabalipuram, Chennai, May 2013

Mahabalipuram, or Mammalipuram if you prefer and have an interest in wrestling, is about 60kms south of Chennai (Madras). This was to have been a cultural jolly with my colleague DN, but there were some birds of note and I managed a couple of pictures. Birdwatching has been difficult this week with temperatures at 40C+ and sites with inconvenient opening times, so a jaunt along the coast seemed like a good way to while away the day.

Mahabalipuram is an ancient historic town famed for its UNESCO World Heritage Site status and is home to rock-cut architecture dating back to the 7^th century. Wonderful temples have been carved into the granite rock faces and Rathas, representations of chariots, hewn from single monoliths. D has a website that is less ornithocentric and more culturally biased than mine. She is planning a post to explore the wonders of the art and architecture here and I will make the link once she publishes her post for the trip.

The journey was made in around 90 minutes with a few birds seen along the way. Notably the Muttukadu Backwaters (Google Earth ref; 12 48 10.19N 18 14 33.08E) that feed the salt extraction beds held Painted Storks, Spot-billed Pelican and Pied Kingfishers. It is very awkward to stop and get a good look from here, but there is a turn off to the west about 2 kilometers further south. There were numbers of Little Egret here today. In its season, I would bet that there would be some good wader-watching in this area. In the absence of a safe place to stop, this photo from taken from a speeding tuk-tuk and shows some Black-winged Stilt and Cattle Egrets which I did not spot at the time.

The phone lines proved to be the most productive habitat along the road with Green Bee-eaters, Indian Rollers, White-throated Kingfishers and Ashy Woodswallows.

Once at Mahabalipuram, we went straight to the biggest tourist spot, site of the Varaha Cave Temple and Krishna’s Butterball. Painted Storks flew in circles to gain some height from a column of warm air rising above the rocks that were already radiating after a morning in the intense heat.

A couple of Shikras made a fly past around the lighthouse and a pair of White-browed Bulbuls made me check the field guide to see if they needed the red –crayon.

A bird that I initially mistook for a Shikra was perched in the shade of a low tree, but once I got a good look at it, it was obviously a Common Hawk Cuckoo. Also known colloquially as the Brain-fever Bird,its call builds climactically as the monsoon rains approach.

Birds seen;

Painted Stork 25, Shikra 2, Common Hawk-cuckoo 1, Asian Palm Swift 8, Green Bee-eater 5, Coppersmith Barbet 1, House Crow 100, Large-billed Crow 6, Red-vented Bulbul 2, White-browed Bulbul 2.

En-route;

Painted Stork 80, Spot-billed Pelican 4, Little Egret 15, Indian Pond Heron 1, Black-headed Ibis 3, Eurasian Kestrel 2, Asian Palm Swift 8, White-throated Kingfisher 2, Pied Kingfisher 4, Green Bee-eater 4, Indian Roller 3, Ashy Woodswallow 1, Rufous Treepie 1, House Crow 100.

We were invited to take a ride down to Mahabalipuram by our tuk-tuk driver. However, the authorised drivers from the hotel gazumped him with a lower bid. IR 1,000 was the winning price, but he supplemented his fare by overcharging for tolls and parking. There are some nice-looking beach resorts along the coastal road and we can recommend Ideal Beach Resort for lunch on the return. 

Lotus Flower

The Theosophical Gardens, Chennai, May 2013

The world headquarters of the Theosophical Society are situated by the river in Chennai (Madras) surrounded by light woodland, palms and huge, ancient Banyan trees. It is a developer’s dream in the heart of the city and one of only a few places that I was able to find where I could get away from the frenetic pace of the city. Members of the Theosophical Society, do not necessarily share the same beliefs, but unite in a common search for the Truth. Theirs is a way of reflection, high ideals and tolerance, so I felt sure that I would receive a warm welcome. Actually, it was shut.

For such a haven in a big Indian city, it is generously open between 08.30 and 10.00 in the morning and 14.00 to 16.00 in the afternoon. Admittedly these are not the perfect times for birdwatching, but in a peaceful place such as this, compiling a big list lost its relevance. The score was not important. This post reflects a couple of visits. The second was in the company of my beautiful colleague, DN, but both were all too brief.

There is no charge for entry, but the opening times are strictly adhered to. Small cameras are permitted, but big lenses are not.

From the entrance on Besant Ave (Google Earth ref; 13 0 28.19N 80 15 58.42E) I wandered with no particular direction, following the most likely roads and bird calls, quickly finding Rose-ringed Parakeets, Coppersmith Barbet, Black-rumped Flameback and Yellow-billed Babbler.

Soon I came to a big Banyan Tree. A large branch had been propped up by a metal support, but was no longer connected to the trunk which had begun to rot away. Instead, it was now supported by the aerial roots which had, over many years, grown to the ground and become trunks of their own. The shock of the day was a small group of Spot-billed Pelicans which flew over from the nearby river.  I only realised that they warranted the red pen when my software blew a fanfare as I entered them onto the list. Similarly the Loten’s or Long-billed Sunbird provoked the brass. This was unexpected as I thought that I had seen one on a previous visit to the area. Checking back, I had entered the very similar Purple Sunbird which was also present in the gardens.

Away from the noise of the road it was easy to follow bird calls and the Coppersmith Barbet could be heard throughout the gardens. An Oriental Magpie Robin called sweetly from a low branch and a Hoopoe flew across the road. 

There was an even bigger Banyan Tree further in that covers about an acre of ground. The trunk and original branches of this tree have completely rotted away, leaving just the aerial roots supporting themselves. A male Asian Koel flew in and sat long enough for a good look. Beyond this point is Leadbeater Ave which is a private residential area and a security guard gently called my attention to this.

Besant Avenue

It is possible to enter the gardens at the gate on Besant Avenue and exit at the gate close to the southern end of Thiru Vi-Ka Bridge (Google Earth ref; 13 0 37.51N 80 15 33.48E) or vice versa if you prefer.

Immediately across from the gate on Besant Ave is another area of pastoral calm in Besant Gardens. I left the gardens at 16.00 as visiting hours require and popped my head through the gate to see if it was possible to walk there. A guard there appeared not to be concerned and I asked in my best Tamil Nadu dialect (which is actually just English, loud, with an accent) if I could use my camera here. He didn’t object which I took as tacit approval.

A path leads round to the left from the gate. I followed this and noted many of the same birds that I had seen in the similar habitat across the road. Soon I came to an open playing field and flushed a couple of European Thick-knees.

The path took me in a circle back into the trees and past a small pond. White-throated Kingfishers appeared to adorn every perch with three of them within 10 feet of each other.

Beyond here was a Mango orchard and a palm grove which made part of a small farm that also kept a few cows. Even the dogs here, which normally bark their heads off when a stranger passes, were subdued and peaceful. They came out to check me over and escorted me a short way along the path, but they were not at all threatening in the way of many street dogs.

I was a bit surprised that the gardens on the south side of Besant Avenue were not subject to the same visiting hours as the main gardens and I wonder if the guard was feeling especially generous this evening.

Bird seen; 21

Spot-billed Pelican 3, Indian Pond Heron1, White-breasted Waterhen 1, Eurasian Thick-knee 2, Rose-ringed Parakeet 35, Asian Koel 4, Greater Coucal 1, White-throated Kingfisher 3, Green Bee-eater 3, Eurasian Hoopoe 1, Coppersmith Barbet 5, Black-rumped Flameback 3, Rufous Treepie 1, House Crow 60, Large-billed Crow 1, Red-vented Bulbul 4, Yellow-billed Babbler 5, Oriental Magpie Robin 1, Common Myna 14, Purple Sunbird 4, Long-billed Sunbird 2.

Wave-rider