Barn Swallows often make a home at your home

Barn Swallow

Barn Swallows, which nest around here, used to nest in natural caves, rock crevices, even splintered trees. These things are mostly gone from developed environments now. By the middle of last century they were only seen nesting in human-made structures like bridges, highway overpasses and so on. Around Denton (where I live) I see often under an overpass on Loop 288 - their mud nests lined up fastidiously. They even nest under the eaves of certain houses.The mud (which requires water of course) is a sure sign that there's a body of water nearby.

Barn Swallow

.............................................................................. Certainly Purple Martins (a type of Swallow) have a pleasant song. Adult males will fly into the sky around dawn for "dawnsinging".  Aided by the unique acoustics of that time of day, the Purple Martin's song may cover at least 30 square miles.

Purple Martins

Birds' eggs hide in plain sight

Killdeer eggs

Almost all ground-feeding birds have eggs that are difficult to see. They're camouflaged by nature. In north Texas, that includes the Killdeer (among many other ground-feeding birds). The Killdeer's eggs are speckled with random brown spots (see pic above) to blend with its customary ground "nest".

adult Killdeer

Thus, a predator (which includes humans) could walk right by the nest, and not notice it.

On the other hand, most birds that nest in cavities (like birdhouses) or in trees or shrubs, lay brightly colored eggs which could be easily spotted if they were on the ground. In this case, the brighter the egg, the healthier the chick; since an egg's brightness indicates plenty of nutritious food - hence a healthy mother.


BIRDS DINE ON COLOR. A bird's intensity of coloring (such as the bright red of a male Cardinal) usually comes from nutrients and pigments ingested in its food. That's a reason why birds seek out the freshest food. It's also a sign of the male bird's fitness to propagate, to rear baby chicks and to defend a good territory (thus, a nutritious food supply).

Hummingbirds are on their way to north Texas

Hummingbirds typically arrive in north Texas around Spring Break time - March 19 roughly. Of course, it could be earlier or later, depending on weather, winds and the availability of food.

A good web site for checking their latest location is the Migration Map at
www.hummingbirds.net  As of today, the nearest locations to us are along the Gulf coast.

So now's a good time to get things ready. Clean nectar feeders thoroughly, even if you cleaned them at the end of last season. I make up some clear nectar and freeze it for later (yes, it can be frozen!)

And forget about adding any red food coloring to the nectar. It has recently been proven, in several studies, that it can cause DNA damage in Hummingbirds. So make nectar with one part ordinary sugar and four parts water; and make it just the way nectar comes from plants...clear.


ARE YOU REALLY CLEANING YOUR BINOCULARS?   Please don't wipe your binocular lenses with just whatever's handy - like your shirt-tail or facial tissue. You'd be doing more harm than good.  Most lenses are coated with special materials to prevent stray reflections. Wiping them with any wood-based product creates tiny scratches...even avoid window cleaner or saliva!  Instead, use a special lens-cleaning cloth. It'll make binoculars last longer and do the job a lot better.

"pecking order" is a real thing

Cedar Waxwings

All birds have a pecking order - who eats first and so on.  Even common birds of north Texas do this, like the Carolina Chickadee (the species found here).

The "top" male feeds before anyone else. The younger "squires" draw
the short straw - the perilous sentinal duty of watching for the most dominant birds of all; hawks.

Black Skimmers

BEFORE YOU BUY JUST ANY BIRDSEED!   A recent univerity study examined ten popular brands of birdseed. Half of them contained seeds of at least six species of weeds - things you very likely don't want in your landscape. Not only would you be paying for seeds of noxious weeds, but wild birds rarely eat them - leaving them to sprout and spread.

  Since nobody prints "contains weed seeds" on the birdseed bag, I suggest you buy from a trusted marketer who cares about reputation and not just profit; where the bag hasn't been sitting on a shelf for an unreasonably long time.

Drills finally reach ancient, pristine Lake Vostok

...drilling through over 2 miles of solid ice...

It took scientists a few decades of hard work, but they finally drilled down to Lake Vostok, in the middle of Antarctica.  Lake Vostok is a fresh-water lake, about the size of Lake Ontario, that's been under ice for somewhere between 15-million and 34-million years.

Russian scientists finally reached Lake Vostok, drilling in the coldest spot on earth, through over two miles of solid ice (12,366 feet to be precise). Despite this being the end of the Antarctic summer, temperatures reached minus 45 degrees (f). The site is idle now due to the cold, but scientists will return next summer to reopen the bore hole and test the pristine water.

If simple, basic life exists in these conditions, it holds hope for finding life within ice formations in other parts of the universe.



On a similar subject, Russian scientists have "revived" a growing plant from a frozen seed about 31,800 years old found in Siberia. This holds promiuse for varities of grains and so on, thought to have disappeared forever.

The seed, from the Pliestocene ara, was probably buried by an Arctic Ground Squirrel in permafrost, and the area was never thawed or cultivated. The plant, a Narrow-leafed Campion thought to be extinct, is now happily flowering.

A phenominally miniscule "feeding niche"

Red-breasted Nuthatch

Certain birds can share the same tree as a 'food source' by looking at it from a different perspective. The Downy Woodpecker and Brown Creeper, for instance, will hunt for insects while going UP a tree. Conversely a Nuthatch will hunt for insects on the same tree(s) while going DOWN.

Downy Woodpecker

All birds find food, and the available food supply is spread out fairly and used efficiently.








Check out this Screech Owl video;

What is the magnitude of the oil spill in the Gulf? (Not just the beaches but the whole Gulf)?  For a comparison, the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska in 1989 was 11-million gallons. It's estimated to have killed between 100,000 and 250,000 seabirds.

The recent Deepwater Horizon spill ("leak" actually) let about 210-million gallons of oil pour into the Gulf. Dead birds are still being counted, and more deaths will occur for decades; the bird deaths may total well over a million.

Safely cleaning gunky, wooden suet feeders

"Before"  (Yellow-throated Warbler)

After several years, oil from suet and/or peanut butter will leach into wooden suet feeders. The bacteria that can then grow on the wood can harm birds.

You can use a simple solution of water and bleach (10 to 1) to safely clean it. I'd soak it in the solution for about an hour, scrub it, rinse it with fresh water, then let it air dry.

In case you're thinking that any bleach residue will hurt birds; Household bleach from the bottle is diluted to 5 to 9 percent already. If you then dilute it further, at 10 to 1, any bleach residue (sodium hypochlorite) will be negligible.


Privacy fences can have unintended consequences. Cats instinctively use them to trap young birds (that are unable to fly yet).l


Rather than eliminating the fence or the cat, I suggest planting some sort of dense vegetation at the base of a fence, allowing the fledgling bird to hide, or climb up the vegetation instead of being fatally trapped. In north Texas, vines such as Coral Honeysuckle, Virginia Creeper, grape or even annual Morning Glory will do the job. Excellent dense plants for Texas yards are Lantana and Mistflower.