A Good Morning at Anahuac

Dee and I spent a couple of hours at Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge this morning. It was a cloudy, windy day but there were wildflowers galore and the refuge was even more beautiful than usual. Better still, it was almost empty of people - and we didn't see a single mosquito.

Evening Primroses ...

Shared the Verges with Other Wildflowers

The birding excitement started right at the registration office, where Barn Swallows nesting under the eaves kept swooping past our heads.

Barn Swallow on Nest

The first pond had a good range of ducks - including Redhead - as well as all three types of Ibis.

Shoveler Pond was busy, too, with Red-winged Blackbirds singing and displaying everywhere. (We both love Red-winged Blackbirds, partly because they always remind of us birding trips we did in northern California.)

Red-winged Blackbird Displaying

Boat-tailed Grackles were also displaying, while Northern Harriers kept gliding over and disturbing flocks of Blue-winged Teal. American Coots and Common Moorhen were very numerous. The waterside was lined with alligators; we counted 11 and probably missed many more.

The Willows were very quiet but turned up three good birds: our first Palm Warbler in Texas and our first-of-the-year Eastern Kingbird and Yellow-billed Cuckoo. The road nearby had Savannah Sparrows, too.

Savannah Sparrow

The main boardwalk was very worthwhile. We had good views of Black-necked Stilts and Mottled Duck, as well good looks at Seaside Sparrows and a Sora.

Black-necked Stilt

The refuge produced a list of 42 species, which wasn't bad for less than 2 hours. It took my year list to 144.

We returned home via Boy Scouts Woods at High Island, where we had a picnic lunch. We were amazed to see how much damage had been done by the last hurricane to hit the area: Almost all of the huge trees in the "Cathedral" had been destroyed and some other parts of the site were also very badly damaged.

We didn't manage to see the Buff-bellied Hummingbird which has been there for several weeks, but we did get to watch the bathing antics of a Brown Thrasher, another first-of-year bird for us both.

Exotic Visitors

Sitting on our tiny front porch yesterday afternoon, Deanne noticed a tiny brown bird with large beak and scaly-patterned breast among the Chipping Sparrows and House Finches in our mulberry tree. A quick search through the Sibley guide revealed that the bird was an adult Nutmeg Mannikin. A moment later, it was joined by a juvenile and we were able to watch both parent and offspring for several minutes.

The Nutmeg Mannikin (aka Munia or Spice Finch) is an exotic bird that has become established in the wild for many years in California and Florida and more recently in the Houston area. I have seen reports of Mannikins from Kleb Woods, which is 10 miles northwest of us, but I certainly didn't expect to see any in our yard. It will be interesting to see whether the individuals we saw decide to take up residence in our area.

P.S.
The Mannikins were back later this morning and I managed to grab a quick photo of the adult.