While in TX last month I spent considerable time at my sister’s place near Driftwood, TX, outside the Austin area.  My sister maintains excellent habitat and as a result attracts a multitude of migrating birds.

On April 15, 2013 I had a day in which I took 410 photographs, almost all of which were of birds.  Of those photographs I retained 268 (or 65%) after processing.  I’ve got multiple photos of the same species, and even multiple photos of the same bird.  But most of these birds were migrants, they don’t get to the Pacific Northwest and I only rarely get the opportunity to photograph them.  And it’s extremely difficult for me to toss (delete) a good photo of a bird just because I’ve photographed it previously.

So the birds pictured below were all photographed on the single day noted above… and more will follow until I’ve chronicled some of the more noteworthy birds I saw and photographed that day.  I still have hundreds of photos to process from the trip, yet I’m back at home and daily having the opportunity to photograph some of our spring migrants and visitors.  Enjoy!

Male Painted Bunting

Carolina Chickadee

Chipping Sparrow

Male Summer Tanager

A little note for the more serious birders.  The names and appearances of the  Summer tanager and the Scarlet tanager can sometimes be confusing.  I’ll tell you an easy way to tell them apart…

I remember that the names aren’t especially descriptive of the birds.  One might think that the Scarlet tanager would be the one that is ALL scarlet… but it ISN’T!  The Summer tanager is the one that is all-scarlet… the Scarlet tanager is the one that ISN’T… it has a very similar appearance but it has very prominent black wings.  And that’s how I separate the birds, but as was pointed out by my brother-in-law, I made a mistake when labeling them!  (Photos of the Scarlett tanager will be forthcoming, but photographs of it weren’t taken until the next day.

Male Black and White Warbler