New Birds in Backyard Today

Since my winter birds departed here at the end of March to make their way back north to their Summer homes, bird watching has been a little slow around here. I've had birds in the backyard, but, with the exception of a few Harris's Sparrows who, for whatever reason, have not yet begun their trek back to Northern Canada for the Summer, it's been the Cardinals, Titmice, Chickadees, Mourning Doves, House Sparrows, Woodpeckers and Eastern Phoebes that I see year round.








But today, that changed. Earlier this morning, I walked into my kitchen dining area and looked out the back window and immediately spotted a Painted Bunting, one of my favorite Summertime birds, at one of my backyard feeders.



I usually have two or three that come to my feeders each year, but this was my first sighting this season and was happy to know I would have some again this summer, however, it suddenly dawned on me that there was another bird at an adjacent feeder that I had never seen before, but thought I recognized. I ran to get my camera to get some pictures, but as I did, our dog, who was lying on the backporch suddenly decided it was time to chase a couple of squirrels that were feeding on the ground below the feeders and his actions caused not only the squirrels to take off, but all the birds as well. I wasn't too concerned about not getting a photo of the Bunting since I already have several from years past and feel confident I'll see more as the Summer sets in, but I was concerned I might not get another chance to see the other bird who is not normally found anywhere in Texas and may have just been passing through on his migration north. Fortunately for me, several minutes later, the bird returned to feed some more and I was able to postively ID it as a Rose-breasted Grosbeak whose normal range doesn't extend south of Northern Oklahoma.





I hope this one stays around for a while, but doubt it will, and figure this might have been a once in a lifetime sighting since only two of these were sighted in the entire state of Texas back in February during the Great American Backyard Bird Count conducted by the Cornell Lab of Ornitholgy. In any case, it was an exciting event for me.