birds – Nature Along the El Camino Real

Analyzing bird species statistics

June 11, 2026June 12, 2026 Sue Ann (Suna) KendallLeave a comment

by Sue Ann Kendall

Earlier this week, I worked on adding up how many bird species I observed at our Milam County property, the Hermits’ Rest last month. I keep notebooks that record the species I see and/or hear with help from Merlin Bird ID every day I’m at home. I was happy to have seen 126 different species as the migration season drew to a close. I was wondering if there was a seasonal pattern, because I intuited that the spring and autumn migration seasons would bring in more species.

*Speaking of birds, I’m not sure if this sparrow nest addendum was on purpose*.

I don’t remember exactly what I did, but somehow Excel asked me if I wanted an analysis of the data. Well, yes, I did, because data analysis using spreadsheets is not one of my skill sets. I had all kinds of questions that I’d like answered, like what were the most common species, which species have been here every month, etc.

Suddenly, BOOM. a new tab opened on the spreadsheet. It had all the answers. Something had analyzed my spreadsheet. Oh no, I found a use for AI! Damn! I couldn’t not look at the results. I really wanted to know.

Right on top, there was a summary of my ranch bird data:

The sheet is a month-by-species presence matrix: an X means a bird was recorded in that month. Coverage spans Dec-23 through May-26, with 2,804 total monthly presence marks. May-25 is the richest month (129 species); Jul-24 is the quietest (60 species). 18 species appear in every month, suggesting reliable year-round residents. 30 species appear in only one month, highlighting possible migrants, one-off observations, or rare sightings.

That’s all the stuff I wanted to know! To top it all off, there were tables and charts! Look at this.

I was wrong about the seasons. Winter, with all those sparrows, has the second most sightings, after what I expected…that spring gets the most.

This one is probably my favorite. I wonder, though, how we got so many species last June, when the previous June, July, and August were so low (and this June is starting off pretty slow). What I really think is that I need another couple of years of data to see these patterns better. Here’s another graph:

These are the 18 birds we see every month, with two that occur almost every month. I am not at all surprised at the species I see here. I wasn’t sure that Eastern Bluebirds were here every month. I don’t see them every day, but I guess they are here. Okay, one final fascinating thing.

These are supposedly the birds we’ve only seen once. That’s pretty interesting, but look! There are weird spellings on the birds, which I assure you are spelled correctly on the original spreadsheet. I probably shouldn’t have asked for a red border. I wonder what a Swalver is? And I think those last two are both Virginia Rails. But it appears only once on my list. I went too far and AI mauled my data.

What are my conclusions? In summary, AI is helpful upon occasion, but AI also is inclined to do weird stuff to the data. You have to keep your eyes open. Here’s the actual data of birds that were only seen or heard by Merlin Bird ID once. (This does not include a couple of obvious errors where the location got messed up or some other Merlin glitch happened; you’ve got to keep an eye on Merlin, too.)

American Golden-plover
American Tree Sparrow
Barn Owl
Bay-breasted Warbler
Black Capped Chickadee
Black Tern
Black-and-white Warbler
Black-necked Stilt
Boat-tailed Grackle
Canada Warbler
Caspian Tern
Chestnut-collared Longspur
Chuck-Will’s Widow
Common Raven
Crested Lark
Greater White-fronted Goose
Hooded Warbler
Indian Peafowl
Lark Bunting
Olive-sided Flycatcher
Pyrrhuloxia
Rough-winged Swallow
Semi-palmated Plover
Semi-palmated Sandpiper
Spotless Starling
Thick-billed Longspur
Tricolored Heron
Virginia Rail
Western Wood Pewee
Yellow-green Vireo

Dang, I’m ambivalent. But now I have some helpful insights about my bird data. I am pleased about that and look forward to continuing with monthly analysis and getting more information.

I was not quite so pleased when I sleepily ventured onto the screened porch to guzzle some coffee before my 8 am standup (once again it went 30 minutes over). I went to set my coffee down and spotted a snakeskin on the arm of my chair. You know I’ve lived here a while, because all I did was ask Lee if he put it there. Nope. I set the skin on my big turtle shell where it looks quite decorative.

I guess the rat snake left the way it came in when it realized there were no birds or rodents to snack on. Ah, it’s always something!

Wildflowers and Critters at the Muller Place

May 25, 2026May 24, 2026 Sue Ann (Suna) Kendall4 Comments

by Sue Ann Kendall

On Saturday, May 23, our chapter finally enjoyed our long-delayed field trip to the Muller property on the border of Milam and Burleson Counties. It’s probably a good thing there were delays, because ample rain in the last couple of months prompted the May wildflowers to make up for a lackluster March and April.

In preparation for the field trip, Terri Brickey created rustic signs pointing to trails and other landmarks, and she also made beautiful maps of the property and the trails AD Muller has carved out through the woods, meadows, pastures, and scenic vistas. This undertaking was much appreciated by those who explored the trails. The property has many interesting trees, shrubs, forbs and wildflowers, so it’s a dream for iNaturalist fans. I also heard or saw 25 bird species, which is pretty darned good, too.

Some of the chapter members didn’t explore the woods and fields, but that’s okay, because Carolyn’s front porch is a prime nature watching location. We enjoyed watching Rocky the friendly raccoon (no, no one touched him), a mother Phoebe and her nest, a large swamp rabbit, the resident catfish in the pond, and plenty of songbirds. If we’d stayed longer, we could have seen the many armadillos and deer.

Those of us who like insects and reptiles were not disappointed, either. I found many butterflies (including an elusive small sulphur) and various wasps. Terri tried to get photos of native bees, but they were very active!

And of course, there were plants! I uploaded 125 or so observations to iNaturalist, with only a few duplicate entries. There were a few rare plants that I’d seen last year and was hoping to find again, and I did see some of them. There was also a new plant for us, the Fourpoint evening primrose (Oenothera rhombipetala). It apparently will grow up to five feet tall! There have been a few observations in the area, and it appears to not be seen west of I-35. Another fairly uncommon plant is Texas Sandmint (Rhododon ciliatus).

There was lots and lots of Gaillardia sp. and spotted horsemint (a type of beebalm, Monarda). Plus other beauties.

Maroon blanket flower (***Gaillardia amblyodon)***

We enjoyed some teeny tiny flowers, too. Both Terri and I like those.

One of my favorite sites was all the blossoming American beautyberry. That is one fine plant when it’s not drought conditions.

When we finished walking around (and stepping in lots of mud), Terri fed the resident catfish. Of course, we also took lots of photos of the wetland plants, which were many rushes and sedges.

It was extra pleasant to just hang around on the porch for a while, too. We do get excited about all the natural wonders we encounter, and we love to share!

There were many more sights, but you’ll just have to come on our next field trip to see for yourself!

Photos by Sue Ann Kendall and Terri Brickey. Thanks to Carolyn and AD Muller for sharing their property.

A Visit with Purple Martin Friends

May 22, 2026May 19, 2026 Sue Ann (Suna) KendallLeave a comment

by Sue Ann Kendall

On May 16, a group of El Camino Real Texas Master Naturalist chapter members (and their friends and family) visited a hidden gem of Milam County, one of the largest collection of Purple Martin houses in the US. Chapter friend Mike McCormick and his family have been growing the colony of Purple Martins (members of the swallow family) for many, many years.

They now have around 800 breeding pair, who each produce multiple babies each year (ideally).

The group enjoyed a talk by Mike as he updated us on improvements and changes since our last visit and answered questions about martin behavior and habits. The birds come here in mid-February to nest, then take off in the autumn to return to their winter homes in Brazil. While they’re here, they eat many insects, for which we can all be grateful.

After the more formal talk, we dispersed to look more closely at the birds and the clever houses where they live, which have been refined greatly to deter snakes and other bird species from messing with them.

This is like a condo for birds. Each cell holds a breeding pair

You can see in these photos the difference between males and females. The males are solid dark purplish black, while the females have white breasts. One easy way to tell them females apart from Barn and Cliff swallows is the others don’t have any color on their breasts.

Many of us took some time to explore the relatively new nature trail the owners have added for guests to explore. It goes through a wooded area and a beautiful meadow full of wildflowers. We had many things to add to iNaturalist before we were finished.

There was so much to see and do here, and the setting was so lovely that it was hard to leave. But there’s already talk about our next visit!

A First for Me

October 15, 2025 Sue Ann (Suna) Kendall1 Comment

by Carolyn Henderson

I went home for lunch on Monday and was nicely surprised by a first sighting for me. A Northern Flicker was drinking out of my birdbath. I did not know what it was, so I worked on some photos to put on iNaturalist. I had to take them from inside my house through a window, so they aren’t perfect, but they’re clear.

It’s considered a woodpecker, but it has dappled brown feathers with a red spot on neck and black markings. An it’s unique from other woodpeckers because it hunts its prey on the ground. Flickers prefer ants! This explains why it’s in my backyard. Fifty percent of its diet is ants. It also lets the ants crawl on it to rid it of parasites. I have an ant problem. Plenty for it to eat. Another difference from most woodpeckers is that it migrates. It can’t find ants in frozen ground.

I looked to see if anyone else in Milam County had reported one, and I saw the only other one was Michelle Lopez in 2024. She first heard it with her Merlin then she got some photos.

I really enjoy finding new sightings. When I tried to get to a better window to take photos it flew away. I hope it comes back and eats lots of ants.

Geeking Out over Sound Patterns

September 29, 2025 Sue Ann (Suna) Kendall2 Comments

By Sue Ann Kendall

[I wrote this for my personal blog but accidentally created it on this site, so enjoy my fascination.]

Bear in mind that I have been looking at waveforms most of my adult life, so this stuff interests me. I still edit myself talking a lot (yep, it’s my job), so I know when I’m gasping or clicking from saliva before I even listen. It’s interesting, not that fun.

But it’s only in the past couple of years, since I e had Merlin Bird ID that I’ve been able to identify bird calls by how they look on a spectrogram.

Loggerhead Shrike – you can just tell it’s loud and harsh, not melodic.

This kind of knowledge is helpful in winter when there are so many sparrows around. Their spectrograms look different. Here’s one I also like.

Songbird recordings look very different. Some are more horizontal lines going up or down with the pitch. Others have a mix of tones, but you can see the melody. These two I got from Merlin, of birds I’ve heard.

As I’ve been enjoying the sounds birds, there have been other sounds Merlin catches, like loud trucks, airplanes, and wind. And, of course there are insects. I was being deafened by the sounds of late-summer cicadas when I looked down at the waveforms. Wow!

You can practically feel the pulsing by looking at those fascinating shapes. On the other hand, crickets just stick to one note.

So if anyone ever asks me how I know a sound is a cricket versus a cicada, I can turn on Merlin. It may not ID it, but I can now from the shape.

Here’s a sound I’m glad Merlin heard: a Yellow-headed Blackbird. They only show up here a few days a year during migration. Photo by Dorian Anderson.

I used to have some frog images but I can’t find them. I’ll be paying attention and when I hear something interesting, I’ll stop the recording, since Merlin doesn’t save recordings over about 20 minutes long, due to storage constraints. My phone would be FULL.