Shanna and I took a plane to Texas on Saturday the 13th. We stayed for a week and while most of the trip was spent with family. Melinda and I were able to steal some time to go birding, Shanna too for one trip.
My parent’s dome house sits in front of pond with a dock and a resident great blue heron they named Gru. Unfortunately, every time I went out with my camera to take a photo of Gru she’d fly away. I was able to get pictures of one of the domestic ducks and the barn swallow which nests under the back porch eaves.
Domestic duck on the dock 
Barn swallow on nest
Barn swallow in flight 
I am really happy with my camera’s shutter speed. I can’t believe I can capture some of the speedy birds such as this Mockingbird.
This juvenile grackle hung out in the very tree where green herons landed most evenings. Sadly, they too were too shy to let me get a photo. I’d see them from the living room window and jump up, grab my camera and try to take pictures. Through the windows didn’t work, and of course, opening doors to get outside didn’t work. Next visit, I’m just going to spend an evening sitting outside, waiting.
I love scissor tailed flycatchers and they were everywhere.
Another favorite of mine is the greater roadrunner. I got to see two of them over the course of the week.
NEW to me!!!
1. Prothonotary warbler
2. Scarlet tanager
3. Orchard oriole
4. Black crested titmouse
5. Tufted titmouse
6. Eastern wood pewee
7. Ruby throated hummingbird
8. Mississippi kite
Overall I got to see a total of 54 species including:
1 American crows
2 American kestrel
3 Baltimore oriole
4 Barn swallows
5 Barn swallows
6 Black crested titmouse
7 Black vulture
8 Black vultures
9 Blue grosbeak
10 Bluejays
11 Cardinals
12 Carolina chickadee
13 Carolina wrens
14 Cattle egrets
15 Cliff swallows
16 Common grackles
17 Dicksissals
18 Domestic duck
19 Eastern bluebirds
20 Eastern flycatcher
21 Eastern kingbirds
22 Eastern meadowlark
23 Eastern phoebes
24 Eastern wood peewee
25 Eurasian collared doves
26 Grasshopper sparrow
27 Great blue heron ‘Gru’
28 Great tailed grackles
29 Greater roadrunner
30 Green herons
31 House finches
32 House sparrows
33 Killdeer
34 Lark sparrows
35 Loggerhead shrike
36 Mississippi kite
37 Mocking birds
38 Mourning doves
39 Orchard oriole
40 Painted buntings
41 Prothonotary warbler
42 Red tailed hawks
43 Red winged blackbird juvenile
44 Rock doves
45 Ruby throated hummingbirds
46 Scarlet tannagers
47 Scissor tailed flycatcher
48 Snowy egrets
49 Starlings
50 Tufted titmouse
51 Turkey vultures
52 Western kingbird
53 White winged dove
54 Yellow rumped warbler
Really had a great time birding the backroads of Ellis County Texas – Jenny
P.S. Thanks Melinda
BlueRavenBirders 