Ruby-Throated Hummingbird

Ruby Throated Hummingbird

Unquestionably our smallest bird, hummingbirds can sometimes be confused with large dragonflies by non-bird people.  There are eighteen different species of this amazing little bird, but only the Ruby-Throated exists east of the Mississippi, and our immediate area of the Midwest.  The other species can be found in the West and the Southwest.  If you are close enough to one, you'll hear his rapidly beating little wings "humm," like a bee.  In fact his main source of food is the nectar from flowering plants, and small insects.

The second photo here was taken by my brother Tony just last week, while he and his wife,Carol were vacationing in the Porcupine Mountains of northern Michigan.  I thought they were roughing it in the wilderness, but then his photo indicates that he must have taken it in someone's backyard, maybe enjoying a barbecue.

Great Blue Heron & the Tricolored Heron

Great Blue Heron

We've all seen the Great Blue Heron, either standing in a shallow pond or the backwater of a river, probing for for small fish and other aquatic life.  They are our largest herons, and indeed seem much larger than they really are.  When I was a kid, and a hunter, I accidentally shot one, thinking it was a goose!!  I was only about eleven years old, and yes, I felt just terrible about it.  I went to pick it up, and it could not have weighed more that a couple of pounds...all feathers.  I continued hunting for about twenty more years, but just a little bit of the joy was taken out of hunting, especially when I would reflect back on that awful day

My father, who instilled the love of hunting in me, grew up in La Crosse, Wisconsin, along the banks of the Mississippi. Just upriver was the town of Onalaska.  When he would see one these magnificent flying birds, with his long neck curled back, he would shout out, "There goes the Onalaska Clipper."

Tricolored  Heron

While in the south of Texas, we saw a somewhat smaller and more slender cousin, the Tricolored Heron, a bird with a really long neck and bill.  He is described as a "foraging bird, very active and dashing".  I don't know about the "dashing" part, but I suppose if I were a female Heron, I might indeed be turned on by this handsome devil.

Laughing Gull

Lauging Gull

Continuing on with gulls, here is a neat little guy...smaller and more slender than the Herring or Ring Billed. 

These birds are found around open shorelines, especially in the east and the southeast.  Although not known for hanging around Walmart or Target parking lots, they do like other sorts of parking lots and municipal parks.  We found them on our way from Brownsville over to South Padre Island.

These two guys who I travel with can identify almost any bird at a glance.  They had the laughing Gull pegged right away. 

As the photo shows, he was standing right there laughing at how slow I was in establishing his identity.