Colorful Tree

At Peveto Woods this morning, this interesting color combination showed in up the same tree. The deep blues of a Blue Grosbeak and the brilliant orange and black of a Baltimore Oriole.

Summer Tanager

As I speculated yesterday, my field trip took me back to Peveto Woods on the Cameron Coast of Louisiana. The birding was about the same. There were birds to be seen, but no great fallout of migrants. The best photos of today's visit were of a male and female Summer Tanager. The male is red. The third photo shows one of the favorite meals of a Summer Tanager: bees. They snatch the bees out of the air and then rub them on trees to remove the stinger.

Brown Thrasher

Peveto Woods is a little sanctuary on the gulf coast. It offers the migratory bird a stand of trees to rest, eat and hide in, where there is otherwise nothing but marsh, grass and sand. To a bird that just flew across the Gulf of Mexico, this tiny stand of trees can be a huge advantage. Ironically, my picture here of a Brown Thrasher is not of a bird who just migrated across the gulf. Brown Thrashers winter in Louisiana. There were migrants to be seen in these woods, but none to be successfully photographed. I think I am coming here tomorrow for my first field trip, so perhaps I will get a picture of one of those migrants.