On the Hunt for Choke Canyon State Park Birds

Birds are in VERY short supply in all the places I've visited in both Louisiana and Texas. Choke Canyon State Park,  near Three Rivers, Texas, was no different, and the kinds and numbers of birds were both way down. Instead of seeing nearly seventy species of birds, I saw way less. And most of the birds were either coming to my oranges in my camp site or were on Seventy-Five Acre lake. Choke Canyon Reservoir had hardly any birds except for coots and a few great blue herons, and the ever present turkey vultures.

The reservoir was also some twenty feet low and, in places where I had taken pictures of birds on the water in other years, I could not see the lake edge. But I still had a great time hunting for them, sometimes with my birding pal Winnie, and sometimes by myself.

The only Vermillion flycatcher I saw - sometimes there are imatures, and females

A very tame blue wing teal pair - got within 20 feet without disturbing them

Very unexpected cinnamon teal

Coot and northern shovelre

A few of about 30 rudy ducks

Least grebes

White face ibis and blue wing teal

The great blue flew as soon as I saw him

These bufflehead were a surprise

Coots and shoveler pair - the only two around

Northern pintail

Harris hawk

Couch's kingbird

Caracara

Green wing teal

Common gallinule

Back at my campsite, I got several other neat species including the following birds and green jays. I also think I got one visit from the olive sparrow, one of the birds endemic to this area.

Bullock's oriole

Audubon's oriole

Verdin

My friend, Winnie, came up with a few other species, including yellow headed blackbirds, which I don't remember seeing there before.  We also had several green jays coming to the oranges and sunflower seed, but I never got good pictures of them.  We only saw two wild turkeys - we usually see twenty or more. There were probably twenty five species that we didn't find, including ducks, sandhill cranes, flycatchers, thrashers, and herons.

But I did enjoy several hours of hunting and photographing birds.

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Tormented by Butterflies

November 4, 2016

Paddling buddy, Dave invited us to go paddle at Champion Lake, another of my favorite swampy places in Trinity River NWR.  He even offered to paddle both me and Ellen in Natalie's tandem canoe, while Natalie paddled his kayak.  I declined because I'd rather hike then sit and I have spent many happy hours on land there.

I immediately started checking out all the distant birds by taking pictures and then blowing them up in the camera.  A pair of white dots in a distant tree turned into wood storks, a most coveted species in the late summer and fall, when Mexican juveniles sneak across the border and wander along the Texas coast.

Natalie and Ellen enjoying the put-in views

A long view of a pair of wood storks

After the paddlers left, I started walking the mowed path on the levy that forms the lake.  It goes all the way to the Trinity River but I got ambushed by thousands of butterflies and only managed about a half mile of it.  Every step caused twenty to forty butterflies to jump out of the grasses and forbs. The sun was bright and the air was warm. so the butterflies quickly flew out of camera range, while others caught my eye.  Most of the butterflies were less than an inch across their wings so I couldn't even see them on my camera screen. I spent a lot of time trying to capture them, getting ever more frustrated until the sun got too bright for pictures. Then I just enjoyed their bright movement while listening to the hum of honeybees and syrphid flies.

Queens were the most abundant and cooperative 

But only occasionally showed me their monarch-like undersides 

Migrating monarchs were resting in grass.....

Or among willow leaves.....

Or feeding on the abundant fleabane

The waterway narrowed along the trail and I was able to ambush
this pair of white ibis feeding on the far side

Metalmark species?

Think a different species of metalmark

I also checked out a side trail that went through wet woods full of little, mostly dry sloughs.  Finally I turned back so I wouldn't make the paddlers have to wait on me,  I had time to compile my bird list and then add a pair of roseate spoonbills before I caught sight of the returning paddlers.

One of the very few signs of fall

This little slough had enough water to make pretty reflections

There were lots of palmettos,  one of my favorite plants

This comma sat quickly on a tree trunk

There were cloudless, and I think, dogface sulfurs but most were too fast to capture -
this cloudless was in the butterfly garden

The last bloom of marsh mallow - it was across the lake from me

Great blue herons are hard to see against the trees

Returning paddlers

A pair of roseate spoonbills were the last birds on my checklist

Their flight starts with free fall

By the time we were ready to leave - around 2:00 PM, we were starving and had to make a stop for hamburgers. Another beautiful day.

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Migration- A Lost Art?

October 13, 2015

After visiting my friends in Corpus Christi, Winnie and I drove to Port Aransas, a marvelous coastal birding town. It has several places that are the Central Texas Coast Birding Trail, Mustang Island Loop,  and which, during winter and especially spring, are fantastic places to find both migrating and local birds.

We expected to find shore birds plus various passerines migrating, but only saw a few possible migrants, mixed in with even fewer local birds.  The only warbler's we saw were common yellowthroat, which also breed in the area. We did see Lincoln's sparrows, Savannah sparrows, and a couple of Lark sparrows. We also found on early shrike. The shorebirds consisted mostly of greater and lesser yellowlegs, black-necked stilts, and a few least sandpipers, as well as a couple of dunlin. We birded at Charlie's Pasture, known on the Great Texas Birding Trails as Port Aransas Wetland Park, at the wastewater plant, now called the Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center. and Paradise Pond - currently looking very damaged, both by the removal of the Brazilian Pepper Bush and by the destruction of the habitat behind it - it has been stripped to turn into housing. But we did see the headline of a newspaper article that said $15,000 was going into replanting Paradise Pond.

So I'm wondering if I'm just too anxious, or if the more or more of our birds are staying north longer or shortening their migration and spending winters further north.  eBird is collecting our data and letting us figure this out from the number, so be sure to turn in your sightings to them. What is missing from your lists is as important as what is on them.

These pictures are from the Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center, which has water, marsh, and a small area that attracts passerines in migration.

Even great-tailed grackles are interesting for the first few birds seen after a six month's hiatus 

Young pied-billed grebes were catching fish

As were the pelicans - who were newly arrived migrants

Black-bellied whistling ducks were flying or loafing in large groups

A young snowy egret looked in vain for a snack to come by

 The next pictures were taken at Charlie's pasture. It is a tidal wetland and, depending on the date, and time of day, will have more or less water in it. It is particularly good for waders, ducks,  and raptors, but does also attract passerines in migration. We saw Lincoln's, savannah and lark sparrows here. We caught a glimpse of a vireo - probably blue-headed - as well.

The clouds were making lovely reflections in the shallow water

Lots of pelicans - many of them juveniles - were flying in groups down the intercoastal canal

The birds of the day were lesser yellowlegs but there were lots of greater yellowlegs present

We mostly saw black-necked stilts in singles or pairs

Least sandpipers and, I think, Dunlin

Dunlin, I think

Immature reddish egret chasing its dinner

Algae mats - the base of the food web here,  washed off the bottoms and then wrinkled by the tide

White pelicans and other birds

View towards the beginning of the boardwalk at Charlie's Pasture

Tricolored heron 

The following pictures were taken at Paradise Pond. This is usually a great place to find passerines in migration. The only birds whose pictures I didn't take were red-winged blackbirds, grackles and three female/immature blue-winged teal.

Juvenile yellow-crowned heron

Feeding tricolored heron

White ibis

Green heron in a willow tree

Paradise Pond is just behind the San Juan, a very good Mexican restaurant.  Winnie and I finished up a great morning with lunch there before I got in line to wait for the ferry to take me across the Intercoastal Canal. I spent the afternoon driving to Galveston.

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