Saturday, September 27, 2014

Baytown Yet Again

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Sunday morning I paid yet another visit to Baytown Nature Center. This time I had a very specific objective: To see the male Brown Booby that had been reported there. It is a rare bird for Texas and a species that I had never seen before.

Sure enough the bird was perched where it had previously been reported. Unfortunately, it was rather too distant for clear photos.


While waiting (in vain) for the Booby to fly closer, I checked birds at the water's edge.

A young Laughing Gull and several Forster's Terns were hanging out on pilings.




A couple of Spotted Sandpipers were wandering along the shoreline.


When it became clear that the Booby was not going to move, I headed for home, but on the way I stopped to admire Killdeer paddling in shallow puddles and a juvenile Yellow-crowned Night-Heron surveying the scene from a convenient snag.






I also stopped to watch a beautiful Tricolored Heron as it completed its morning grooming.






My final sighting was of a pair of Osprey circling high above me, one noticeably smaller than the other.


The smaller bird, presumably a male, kept doing dramatic aerial manouevres, no doubt trying to impress the female. 


As far as I could see, she wasn't very impressed.
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2 comments:

Dag Norman said...

Hi Jeff
Nice, I should like to see the Brown Bobby too, :-) ,me and my wife had a short trip to Galveston/Breaux Bridge earlier this month, I saw on your blog that you had been to Bolivar one day before us, we also saw the Reddish Heron there, very nice bird who seems like dancing when it was hunting fish on the beach, next year we will be in same area at the end of september, probably rent a cabin at Bolivar.
dns

Jeff said...

Reddish Egrets do dance around a lot when fishing. Perhaps it to stir up the fish. Bolivar is a good place to rent a cabin. Another good spot - and usually cheaper - is Surfside.