Birding with Laurel: Galveston Island

January 5, 2020 - morning

Laurel and I left most of our upper coast birding for last, as I was going to be Natalie's house sitter while she went to be with her daughter for her grandson's birth. I figured we could easily bird as long as we got back in time to let the dogs out.  I was pretty sure we could get the early parts of our tour in before that happened. We started our last four tour days with a visit to Galveston and Bolivar Peninsula birding hotspots.

As usual for this tour, I promised many more birds than I could deliver. We stopped at Lafitte's Park on the way to Galveston Park and found only a handful of birds. Often the ponds outside the boardwalk part of the park can keep me entranced for a half hour.  This day they only had a pair of ring billed ducks.

A ring-billed male  duck 

And his female

On  the other side of the pond, around the block, we did find a healthy number of sleeping black crowned night herons. I took a picture of one right by the road.

Black crowned night heron

There were NO birds visible at the start of the boardwalk. We have seen up to five species together there.  We walked on to the large pond and only found a great blue, a pair of buffleheads, and a trio of white ibis.

Great blue heron and bufflehead pair

The back pond only held another bufflehead pair and we found no birds along the walks. This place is best in migration, but we usually find hawks, doves, and small wintering birds here. 

In only a few minutes, we proceeded on to Galveston State Park where I got to visit with my friend who was on duty there. We couldn't access the beach - it is closed for two years as the park gets rebuilt with a permanent visitor center.  But we looked high and low elsewhere until we were too depressed to continue. 

I practiced chasing flying birds on this Forester's tern

Just before we left, I spotted a bird in a bush and walked out far enough to find it was a white tailed kite, one of my favorite wintering Texas birds.  It was kind enough to come closer and stoop, giving me several pictures.

White tailed kite

Stooping

Another picture in the stooping series

That's all folks.  We saw a couple of grebes and a few white ibis through grass but nothing else that was close.  We did see a few little birds but didn't chase them.  And this in a place where a morning walk usually brings in twenty or more species. 

However, I checked back on my blogs on Galveston Island State Park and found I was already complaining of missing expected birds. Check that visit from 2015 here. 

Our day continued with a ferry ride to Bolivar Island and finally to the Bolivar Jetty where we had enough birds to entertain us for a few hours. Stay tuned. 

One of my favorite spring visits to this park gave us forty-seven species and includes one of my favorite bird group picture. Click here for that blog.