Learning, Birding and Nature with Charmaine Ganson

03/20/2025

Did you know 1 out of every 3 birds migrating through the U.S. passes through Texas? Most migratory birds fly at night, meaning the bright lights of commercial and residential buildings attract and disorient birds. This distraction can cause collisions and leave birds vulnerable to threats on the ground. Take action to protect migrating birds by turning out all non-essential lights outside and inside from 11 pm - 6 am now through June 15, and especially during Peak Migration from April 22 - May 12. Learn more and sign up for bird migration alerts: bit.ly/Lights_Out_Texas

03/09/2025

Good story on Bighorn Sheep Restoration in Texas.

A daring mission unfolds to restore desert bighorn sheep to West Texas. From helicopter captures to their release in the Franklin Mountains, wildlife experts...

01/18/2025

Collins and I went to the Uvalde Fish Hatchery yesterday for a couple of hours and had a great time! Below is our list of birds.

Blue-winged Teal
Cinnamon Teal
Gadwall
American Wigeon
Green-winged Teal (American)
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Mourning Dove
American Coot
Sandhill Crane
Wilson's Snipe
Great Egret
Great Blue Heron
Osprey
Cooper's Hawk
Northern Harrier
Red-tailed Hawk
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
American Kestrel
Black Phoebe
Eastern Phoebe
Say's Phoebe
Vermilion Flycatcher
Great Kiskadee
Western Kingbird
Loggerhead Shrike
Black-crested Titmouse
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Curve-billed Thrasher
Northern Mockingbird
House Sparrow
House Finch
Lesser Goldfinch
White-crowned Sparrow
Great-tailed Grackle
Common Yellowthroat
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)
Northern Cardinal

12/22/2024

Something you don't see very often in Uvalde County. A Green-tailed Towhee. This is a Western species which can be found here in the Winter on occasion. A truly beautiful bird! Found during our Uvalde Christmas Bird Count.

12/22/2024

Adult Sharp-shinned hawk on our feeder log! Small Accipiter. Note the thin looking foot. When it turns you can see the gray on the head goes down the back of the head and down the nape to the bottom of the neck. A Cooper's hawk doesn't. It's gray is on it's head making it look like it has on a cap.

12/06/2024

This is a good paper written on the site Peerj. 

https://peerj.com/articles/10713/ #

Birdwatching is a rapidly growing pastime, increasingly involving the pursuit of rare birds as birders build lists of species they encounter. We expected reports of rare bird discoveries to quickly draw birders to locations, and that the increased attention at those locations would decay over time.....

11/18/2024

We have a female Anna's here. I got a few decent photos of her on this grey day. I hope it rains tonight as predicted!

Also yard bird 182! Heard a Downy WP in the oak motte and 2 trees away a Ladderback calling. I know a Downy has been seen at the Leakey cemetery for the past few years. Another was reported recently not far from us. Could be one of them.

09/21/2024

Collins and I had a Dickcissel show up here at the Hacienda. Yard bird #179! It was calling and finally came out from behind the oak leaves for me to get a shot.
They are a grassland bird and we have a field out back. Probably why it stopped by. This might be a female. The males have a black bib.

09/02/2024

Lately there has been a large amount of butterflies around. Literally billions. The American Snout is doing it's short migration and really messing up the front end of cars and windshields when they get hit. Takes awhile to clean off your car!

Below you will find a variety of butterflies that we are seeing in The Texas Hill Country River Region.

Here's a link to the Texas Butterfly Ranch's site.
https://texasbutterflyranch.com/2016/09/10/invasion-of-snout-nosed-butterflies-returns-to-central-and-south-texas/

08/30/2024

3 Juvenile Hooded Orioles come to nectar & jelly together.
They hatched in a nest nearby, parents brought them to my porch & taught them how to eat the grape jelly & drink the nectar.

Now they come on their own, parents may have migrated as I haven't seen them lately.
The males have black spot on throat, which will eventually become a black hood on head too.
And males will sliwly turn bright orange.
Hill Country Adventures & Nature Center
Indian Blanket Ranch

08/22/2024

Lights out, Texas!

Learn how you can best prepare for nearly 2 billion birds that will be passing through the Lone Star State from now until November 30!

Details below:
Did you know 1 out of every 3 birds migrating through the U.S. passes through Texas? That's nearly 2 billion birds by Nov. 30th!

Learn how to help them travel safely:
https://tx.audubon.org/urbanconservation/lights-out-texas

05/27/2024

Temperature 105 degrees today!!
I decided to give shade to these 5 Eastern Bluebird eggs.
Didn't want them to cook!!
LeAnn Garrison

10 miles west of Utopia Texas,
5 miles east of Garner State Park.
www.hillcountryadventures.com
www.indianblanketranch.com

05/12/2024

I've posted a number of times about the importance of turning off your lights during bird migration.
LAST NIGHT MORE THAN FIVE MILLION BIRDS MIGRATED OVER THE TEXAS HILL COUNTRY WITH MORE THAN 750,000 IN THE AIR AT ONE TIME.

Keeping lights on all night disrupts all wildlife and migrating birds!!
Please turn off your outside lights, especially between 11:00 PM and 6:00AM. Thank you!!

04/24/2024

🚨LIGHTS OUT TEXAS ALERT! 🚨

Peak Migration has began!
Protect migrating birds by turning off all non-essential indoor and outdoor lights from 11pm – 6am every night.
Learn more at: https://tx.audubon.org/urbanconservation/lights-out-texas

03/19/2024

Here is our pair of Canyon Towhee's. They are a type of sparrow. They live mainly in the arid SW, also in shrubby areas and in Mexico. Fairly common here in the Texas Hill Country. They have an orange brown color on the head and vent areas. Their eyes are reddish colored. They have a tan color on their throat area with streaking there.

They are very tame around us and have bred on our property for years. They come and check on us when we go outside. A fun bird to watch.

They eat mainly seeds so they come to eat under the feeders on the ground.

02/08/2024

Here are photos of the Eastern Screech Owl in our backyard. Don't want to get to close. Notice the lighter color of the bill. Generally Westerns have a darker bill some don't. Hopefully it will call at night. They sound a bit different.

This is a gray morph. They also come in a red morph. Females are larger than the males. No way to tell unless you see both together. Then you can see a size difference. In most raptors the females are larger. That's hawk, owls,and falcons.

They will eat birds and insects but primarily mice, voles, etc..

They are strictly nocturnal in their hunting but can be found looking out their nest box hole sunning themselves.

01/12/2024

Saw a juvenile Bald Eagle while driving down the hwy. to Kerrville. These young ones have a lot of white on them.

12/08/2023

A little left of center you can see the aloe vera is about to bloom. It’s winter in South Texas, that’s how you know! 😁