Happy BirthDay

Today, April 22, is Earth Day. It's a special day where we show our appreciation for the natural world and are more aware of the things that we need to do to preserve it.On Earth Day 2007 I began the Ecobirder Blog. During the past six years there have been good times and bad times, there have been days where I could not wait to share pictures and posts and days where it took almost every thing that I had to write a post for the day. During all this time many of you have visited often and left comments and encouragements for which I would like to thank you. With out you this blog would not be here. It has become kind of a tradition to share pics from the calendars that I make each year on this special day. So keeping with tradion here are the pictures from the 2013 Ecobirder Calendar. 

Great Sand Dunes National Park, CO

Ferruginous pygmy owl San Miguelito Ranch, Tx

 Altamira oriole at Bentsen State Park, Tx

Sandhill crane colt Necedah NWR, Wi

Western grebe Bosque del Apache, NM

Cabbage white butterfly River Bend Nature Center, MN

Red-headed woodpeckers Necedah NWR, Wi.

Gold-fronted woodpecker  Santa Ana NWR, Texas.

 Pied-billed grebe Crex Meadows, Wi

Black Bear Vince Shute Wildlife Sanctuary, MN

 Gulf Fritillary Santa Ana NWR, Texas.

 Sandhill cranes Boque del Apache, MN

Northern Saw-whet owl Dodge Nature Center, MN

Thanks for a great year!

San Miguelito Ranch

One of the new places that we visited when we went to Texas earlier this year was the San Miguelito Ranch near Raymondville, TX. The San Miguelito Ranch consists of 591 acres of land in the Rio Grande Valley. It borders the famous King Ranch, which we visited in 2010, on one side. It is in a natural migratory path for numerous species of birds but what is really special about the San Miguelito Ranch is that it is the number one site in the United States to see the ferruginous pygmy-owl. Ferruginous pygmy-owls can be found from Arizona and south Texas down through Mexico, Central America, and into South America. They are separated into several subspecies. They are cavity nesters usually nesting in cavities in trees or cactus but also nesting in man made boxes. This was one of a pair that nested near the dwelling on the range.

Ferruginous Pygmy Owl

The ferruginous pygmy owl is a small owl that is native to southern Arizona, southern Texas, Mexico, Central and northern parts of South America. The ferruginous pygmy owls that are found in the United States and northern Mexico are a subspecies that is referred to as the cactus ferruginous pygmy owl. They are currently threatened primarily due to habitat loss. In Arizona 85% of the habitat has been lost to livestock use, water redirection and fires. The fires are exasperated by invasive buffel grass which allows fires to spread burning the catus and trees that the owls use for nesting.