Kayaking From Galveston State Park

I'm half-way through my month of R&R before starting another volunteer job in Sacramento NWR. Last Thursday, I left Louisiana and came to my best friend's house in Galveston to house sit for here while she paddles for a week on the Rio Grande River.

Then I partied all the rest of the long weekend. On Friday I went to the Volunteer Banquet at Anahuac NWR where I received a plaque and a jacket for my 3000 hours.

I also decided to host a weekend party at Natalie's house. So three friends and I spent the weekend birding, paddling, and eating great food, including a Cajun supper supplied by Dutch. But my favorite activity was paddling in West Bay out of Galveston State Park.  This was just a little out and back paddle where we hung out watching the birds more than we paddled.

Gulls, terns, white ibis, sandpipers, roseate spoonbills and brown pelicans were feeding or loafing.

Forrester's Tern

White Ibis

Hermit Crabs Riding on Geotube carpet

We saw what looked like a piece of floating carpet with lots of hermit crabs hanging on to it. Later we figured out that it was part of a geotube.  This is a huge fabric tube that is filled with sediment, in this case, and used to protect grassy areas from erosion.  The birds love them as they look like sandbars to them. They were resting on all the parts that were above water.

Brown pelican taking off  from a geotube

The end ...of a brown pelican dive

Laughing gulls and neotropical cormorant

Roseate spoonbills and  paddlers

Hey, short stuff

Royal terns

Least Sandpiper

Winter laughing gulls

I was the lunch provider of  wraps - cheese, black bean dip, guacamole, and spinach

Coming in

Fiddler Crabs- there were hundreds of them at the launch site

Birds du Jour

After being in stasis on the bird migration front for a couple of weeks, migration began again in mid-July.   More and more shore birds are being seen.  A few weeks ago, I went out with an intern to catch, band, and put radios on baby black-necked stilts and found spotted, solitary, and stilt sandpipers, as well as greater and  lesser yellow-legs. These birds will be hard to spot in the public places at Anahuac because areas that hold  water are way back from the road or in closed areas,  Shoveler Pond  area is closed to pave the road. (All of the refuge roads are getting paved which will make it much less costly and time-consuming to maintain them.) Other birds are on the move as well.  Wood storks are still being reported all over, including here at Anahuac.  I wrote an early  blog on them.  I was blessed with a flyover of three wood storks yesterday morning. Other birds that are found in growing numbers are eastern willets and several kinds of terns, including black and sandwich terns.  And we are seeing some warblers move through the area.  I've seen several yellow-throated warblers at the main refuge and a black-and-white-warbler behind the new headquarters/visitor center.  And I often see a Swainson's hawk traveling to and from the main refuge or in the fields near my trailer.

A young Swainson's hawk

We still have a few least bitterns

Sandwich Terns were at the bay a few weeks ago

Many other birds are leaving. Our Martins disappeared in mid-June - and are probably in one of the huge roosts that have built up in several places in Texas. I haven't seen or heard an orchid oriole in weeks except for some migrating through.  There are almost no eastern kingbirds around. Most of our least bitterns are no longer evident around Shoveler Pond. I.  The barn swallows and their progeny are no longer around the visitor center but can still be found on the refuge. Our own orchid orioles are long gone and we have seen migratory ones come through. Our yellow-billed cuckoos are gone.  We still have the common nighthawks and should have them until October as well as the scissor-tailed flycatchers, although the later also seem to  be diminishing in numbers.

Our yard nighhawk with its version of wire sitting

I remember two times when I lived in Shreveport, Louisiana when I got to see gatherings of both species. I was walking in a park along the Red River early one October morning and found an entire field covered with scissor-tailed flycatchers. They were on the tips of every tiny shrub, in the branches of larger shrubs and trees and glowing like jewels in the early morning sun.  Another time, I was walking on a bridge between two buildings and saw the sky full of common nighthawks. Both were created pictures I still remember after more than twenty years.

This immature male orchid oriole claimed the butterfly garden as his territory

One of many eastern kingbirds who breed here

So every day is a new experience here at the refuge as we watch migration for most of the year. And I haven't even had time to drive another thirty miles to the Smith Point Hawk Watch where numbers of kites and hawks are starting to build. The time to visit us  is early in the mornings or late in the evenings when the heat index is under one-hundred degrees and the birds are active. Migrating birds are here in the mornings and then often leave in the early evenings.

It's Still the Season - for Christmas Bird Counts

December 14 to Jan 5 mark for me the season of Christmas Bird Counts.  This is a tradition started by Audubon about one hundred years ago and is a way to see what is happening to the birds across the country, in count circle by count circle. It allows regular people to collect data which Audubon manages and then uses to report on each species.

For me, it is a way to give back something to the birds for all the enjoyment they provide, learn more about how to identify birds by going out with experts, and have a social occasion with old and new friends.  My favorite way to bird is by canoe or kayak, and this year I'll be able to do 3 of the 4 counts by canoe.

On Tuesday I did a nineteen-mile paddle on the Trinity River near Cleveland, Texas with a paddling/birdwatching friend, where our personal highlights were seven bald eagles and two greater yellowlegs.   Yesterday we did a 14 mile paddle as part of the Old River Count.  This area is in my favorite paddling area - a lot of wild places with many routes that may or may not be open at any given time. We only found 43 species of birds but several hundred yellow-rumped warblers and several hundred American goldfinches. We also found about one hundred white-winged doves, a species which has moved into the U. S. with a vengeance.  I had to go to the Rio Grand Valley to see my first white-winged dove.  Now they are urban yard birds in places like Houston and Austin, Texas. The day was mostly overcast so my pictures are not the best but here are a few if them.

Our Route from Old River to the Cut-Off to Pickett's Bayou. 

We took out at Champion's Lake in the fairly new Trinity River NWR.

Bruce scans for birds at the put-in under Old River Bridge on Hwy 1409

We got our only house sparrows around the Old River Bridge. 

Looking and listening for birds

Most of the time we were paddling, we could hear myrtle warblers.  Kingfishers, grackles, American goldfinches, crows, and blue jays were also common voices along our route. 

Bruce catching up on species counts

Palmettos growing at edge of Old River

An Osprey with a Big Fish on the Cut-Off

One hundred fifty species of birds were found on this count by about twenty people. The count dinner was at Iguana Joe's, a very good Mexican Restaurant just north of I-10 on Hwy 146. If you are passing through, be sure to check it out. And check out the counts for your area and try one or more next year. Click here to find out more about how to join a count.

I'm off to get ready for my last long day of paddling and counting birds.