Chasing Birds

 On my last days off, I decided to wander where my spirit moved me and see how many birds I could photograph.  I first went south to San Bernard where there were few birds and none willing to come close enough for pictures. I was only able to get a eastern phoebe along the trails. The ponds only had common gallinules and American coots except for one alligator and two blue-winged teal.  The auto tour felt like Brazoria, with lots of coots, gallinules and blue-winged teal. The most activity was at the viewing platform, which had lots of herons, egrets, ibis, and teal. 

Eastern phoebe

The viewing platform was getting a lot of use

By late morning, I was starving, so set my GPS for On the River Restaurant in Freeport. The meal was delicious.  I checked out the Old Brazos River across the street, but only found a an osprey. Soon I was on my way to Galveston to catch the ferry. 

Osprey

That trip lasted much longer than I expected, as it took three ferries to get all people ahead of me across.  So I ended up crossing at sunset and not getting to bird Bolivar, North Jetty and all the other birding hot spots along the way.  I got excited about eating at Stingaree Restaurant only to find it was closed.  So I checked what other eateries were along the way.  I found a new-to-me Steve's Landing Restaurant.  It didn't have nearly enough wait people for the crowd, but the shrimp tacos were by far the best I've ever eaten. 

Sunset from the ferry

Sleep spot

My goal for the following day was to be at Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge at sunrise.  I slept at the rest stop in Chambers County where I enjoyed the lullaby provided by the eighteen wheelers. The sun and I arrived simultaneously at the entrance to Anahuac. I started off the day by watching huge flocks of geese fly out. I had fun driving around the auto tour, although there were fewer birds than I expected. 

Dawn sky filling with birds

A flock of white-faced ibis

A closer view of a white-faced ibis

One of a few visible alligators

A distant view of black necked stilts

A pair of caracaras

I finished up my Anahuac tour by going to frozen point, stopping to photograph the huge flock of black bellied whistling ducks. 

A fly up of black bellied whistling ducks

A pair of very tame neotropic cormorants

I also wanted to find to find the whooping crane that has been spending winters near Winnie, Texas. I used the coordinates provided by e-bird and found it in the same field where it was originally reported. After enjoying some time with it, I went after supper and another night at a rest stop. 

Whooping Crane

My next mission was to find the limpkin reported at Sheldon Lake Reservoir, so I got up in time to make the hour's drive in time for sunrise.  I was a few minutes late, but still got some pretty cloud pictures. I saw another birding couple and went to see what they knew.  We ended up looking for the limpkin for about an hour, while I shared my favorite birding places with them. After about an hour, we found not one, but two limpkins sitting in trees. We moved around to try to get a view that wasn't directly into the sun.  They sat around patiently for several minutes, before  disappearing into the swamp to feed on invasive apple snails.  We were joined by several other birders, including one that arrived after both birds had disappeared.

Sunrise was blocked by clouds leaving this view

The first limpkin flying off

While the second finished up its toilet

By this time, I was hungry and done with birding, so I continued on to spend a couple of days with Natalie and cook a New Year's Eve dinner before driving back to work New Year's Day, 

Happy New Year. Surely this will be the year COVID will become endemic.  Be safe.

Remembering the Birds, Part II

I had too many wonderful encounters with birds to be able to get even the best ones into one blog.  So this blog commences where the last blog left off.  They include Montana Birds, and then the birds I found back in Texas this past fall.  I have really love getting to see birds in their breeding plumage and giving the calls and songs they use to maintain their territories . 

Long-billed curlews bred in our prairies at Red Rock Lakes and often flew overhead calling

Western Grebe with a red-necked grebe on Widgeon Pond, Red Rock Lakes NWR - The western grebe was the only one but the red-necked grebe had a girlfriend follow him in a few days later.  

Horned Lark in Breeding Dress

Yellow headed black-birds sang their whirring song -  sounding more like
a strange little toy than a bird. 

I only had these birds in my yard for a day - saw the parent feeding a child by my little creek - Evening grosbeaks. 

As soon as I set up my feeding station in my yard, I had a yard full of Cassin's finches.

Male Cassin's finch

Female Cassin's finch




I had lots of pine siskins at my feeders - they loved niger seed and the babies would let me
 get within a few feet of them when I was refilling feeders.



A male Wilson's Phalarope feeding near his nest - males tend the kids while the
women wear the fancy clothes and enjoy life.

Snipe singing from a fence post

Monitoring the mountain bluebirds and the tree swallows were part of my job. I never got tired of watching them in and out of the nest. Their house wars led me to research their interactions and ultimately, build more nest boxes and put some up in pairs.  

Mountain bluebirds at their nest box

Mother tree swallows often stay in the nest before they start sitting on eggs.




A short-eared owl that nested near one of my fence projects



One of the pair of eagles that constantly cursed me while I hunted unsuccessfully for their nest



One of a couple of baby killdeers foraging with their mom in Yellowstone NP



Gray jays were the iconic Yellowstone birds - they always showed
 right up when we set out our lunches.

September was hummer season at my trailer. I spent hours enthralled by the hords of hummers that came through.

Broad-tailed hummingbird

Rufous Hummingbird - the yard bully

While the broad-tailed hummers would share a flower

One of our many Swainson's hawks - here hacking up a pellet

The barn owl with a second chance being released after being caught on barbed wire and rescued

The rest of the pictures are from Texas.

A few of a few hundred marbled godwits feeding in a field at Fort Travis on the Upper Texas Coast

A great blue and a tricolor heron show off their comparative sizes at Galveston State Park

Wood storks and roseate spoonbills on Champion Lake in Trinity River NWR

A comparison of the larger juvenile double-crested cormorant with the three little neotropical
cormorants at Champion's Lake in the Trinity River NWR

Birds have played a huge part in my life this past year and I'm grateful for all of them and hope they will live on. Many of them are at risk.

For more wild bird blogs, click on the picture.

Birding at Galveston Island State Park

Last spring, I met a lady that was photographing birds in South Texas.  She was just starting to enjoy birds and asked me lots of questions. My friend, Winnie, an avid birder and I invited her to join us.  We were birding at Estero Llano Grande State Park, part of the World Birding Center network.

We stayed in touch, and just before I left Galveston,  I got a message from her that she was in town and wanted to go birding.  I suggested we meet at the Texas City Dike, and she suggested 8:30 AM.   I arrive early and take some pictures in good light.  After I was almost ready to stop looking for photographic birds and go to our meeting place, she called and suggested we bird at Galveston State Park.

The following pictures were from the birding loop that starts just before the dike.

White pelicans

Juvenile black crowned night heron

Roseate spoonbill greeting  sunrise

We met at the Nature Center at the park and immediately starting birding.  We began with the little trail behind the center.  Some very shy pied bill grebes dove and then hid as soon as we arrived at the pond, but these mottled ducks were more cooperative.

Next, we slowly drove through the bay side of the park, stopping often to look at birds. It was fun to see our largest heron together with one of our smallest.

Great blue and tricolored herons

Osprey with fish

White ibis fighting over feeding territory

A reddish egret

White ibis

Juvenile yellow-crowned heron

There were so many monarchs flying and feeding, that I was constantly thinking I was seeing a bird flying, but it then saw it was just a monarch.  Goldenrod is coloring up whole fields and is an important source of nectar for the migrating butterflies.

Monarch on goldenrod

Sparrows have barely started arriving. The only sparrow I could see enough to identify was the lark sparrow below.

This was another high tide day, so we missed many species that are usually found on the mud flats on the bay side. And I had to leave before we got to really explore the beach.

Lark sparrow

Birds were still in short supply.   I was hoping for the pair of white-tailed kites that are found here in winter, but apparently, they too have not yet arrived. (I checked eBird, and found one was reported a few days earlier.) We would have found a few more species on the Gulf side, but ran out of time before we could even get started.

If you bird here,  start on the Gulf side first.  There are more birds on the beach before the joggers and beach-goers arrive. Texas was the first state to map out birding hot spots. Galveston State Park is on the Galveston Loop map which will give you a day or two of great birding.

When this blog comes out, I'll be playing with my friend, Laurel in South Carolina.  Then I'll get to meet a blogging friend for a paddle in North Carolina before checking in on my job the following Monday.  Stay tuned for reports of my adventures and my new home at Alligator River NWR.

For more wild bird blogs from around the world, click on the picture  below.