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On the way back from High Island we took our friends for their first visit to Anahuac NWR, our favorite nature site in southeast Texas. We didn't get there until mid-afternoon and so there were fewer birds visible than usual. However, there was still enough to see to make for a very pleasant afternoon.
We started by driving down to Frozen Point. The Burrowing Owl didn't appear but the field where it lives had plenty of Black-necked Stilts and Willets (below).
Killdeer were much in evidence, too, looking for tasty morsels in the cow pats.
We had lunch in the old Visitor Center. Unfortunately, no swallows had yet arrived to nest there and the Vermilion Flycatcher was a no-show again. However, we did run into a very pretty bullfrog. Although I've heard thousands since we moved to Texas, this was the first one I'd actually seen.
A slow drive around Shovelers' Pond turned up nothing except some of the most common birds.
A Great Blue Heron was the only heron we spotted.
Most birds that we saw were Common Gallinules and American Coots (below).
Great-tailed Grackles were also present in large numbers.
Our final bird was this Pied-billed Grebe.
I'm hoping that more birds will be around when we visit the site in April on our way to look for spring migrants in High Island.
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We took the opportunity of having a free weekend to do our favorite birding loop: Anahuac NWR, High Island, Bolivar and Galveston. To give ourselves plenty of birding time, we arranged to spend a night in Winnie after visiting High Island.
Shoveler Pond at Anahuac looked as beautiful as ever.
Surprisingly, though, there were many fewer species of birds around the pond and elsewhere on the refuge than usual. Probably at least 80% of all the birds we saw were American Coots.
Pied-billed Grebes provided a little variety.
Geese were totally absent and the only ducks we spotted were a few Northern Shovelers and a handful of Ring-necked Ducks (below).
This Snowy Egret was a welcome sight.
So, too, was this Double-crested Cormorant, which we spotted when we were unsuccessfully looking for the Groove-billed Anis that had been reported earlier in the week.
On this trip we only saw one alligator on the Shoveler Pond loop.
However, we did also see what looked like a very handsome cottonmouth.
I looked for the male Vermilion Flycatcher that spends each winter near the Visitor Center but he was nowhere to be seen. So we headed down towards Frozen Point. On the drive we saw plenty of Red-winged Blackbirds along with Boat-tailed and Great-tailed Grackles (below)
When we reached the bay, we were disappointed to find no shorebirds and just a solitary Ring-billed Gull.
The main reason for driving down to Frozen Point was to see the Burrowing Owl which has been delighting local birders recently. Unfortunately, although we found the owl's burrow, the bird itself never appeared and so we headed for High Island, to check out the Smith Oaks rookery.
I'll blog about High Island another day but let me finish here by saying how I started the following day.
Sunday Owling
Sunday morning I was at Anahuac well before dawn, in hopes of finding owls along the entrance road. However, three drives along this road in thick fog didn't produce anything at all! So I headed down to Frozen Point in search of the Burrowing Owl.
Several other birders were already waiting for the owl to show. I waited with them and it wasn't long before the bird started to peep out.
Ten minutes later it began to move further out.
And finally it came completely out into the open and wandered around near the entrance to its burrow.
I had seen several Burrowing Owls when we lived in California but this was my first look at one in Texas. It was certainly made getting up at 5:30 a.m. and driving around in thick fog worthwhile!
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We decided to end the year with a 2-day trip to the coast. We started at Anahuac NWR, where birds were comparatively scarce.
A male Vermilion Flycatcher was a welcome sight but the bird refused to come within camera range. We were luckier with an Osprey that posed on a sign at the start of the Shoveler Pond loop.
Out on the water, American Coots and Common Gallinules (below) were the most common species.
There were also quite a few Black-bellied Whistling Ducks and Pied-billed Grebes.
Most of the ducks we saw were Northern Shovelers, like this female.
The others were Blue-winged Teal.
Herons and Egrets were few and kept their distance, except for one Snowy Egret that was near the road.
We saw only a couple of White Ibis.
As we were leaving, I noticed a White-tailed Kite hovering behind the butterfly garden. When I reached the area, the bird was perched but it soon flew off.
The road down to Rollover Pass on Bolivar was lined with American Kestrels and Red-tailed Hawks: We counted over 30 Kestrels and 19 Red-tails.
The water was very high at Rollover and so most of the birds were on sandbanks too distant for photos. There were plenty of birds present, though: Both Pelicans, many Gulls, hundreds of Black Skimmers and American Avocets, several species of Terns and Plovers, a dozen Long-billed Curlews, Marbled Godwits, scores of Willets, Ruddy Turnstones, etc.
I had to content myself with photographing the few birds that were on the beach.
American Avocets are always worth a look and a photo.
Willets are much plainer but I can never resist them.
I ignored the many Laughing Gulls but took a quick shot of a Ring-billed Gull.
A Black-bellied Plover looked rather drab in its non-breeding plumage.
Several smaller Plovers were scuttling around on the beach and I managed to get pictures of a Semipalmated Plover and a Piping Plover.
After that, it was time to head to Galveston for a late lunch at Mario's on the Seawall.
As usual, the ferry ride provided lots of opportunities to photograph Laughing Gulls as they followed the boat.
By the time we finished eating, it was to late for photography and so we headed for our motel. My plan was to get up early the next day to go out and look for Sandhill Cranes. As it turned out, there were plenty of Sandhills around, as well as plenty of other interesting birds.
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Herons were comparatively scarce around Shovelers' Pond. We had a brief glimpse of a Green Heron in flight and a partial view of a Great Blue Heron grooming.
This Tricolored Heron was one of only three we spotted.
If Herons were scarce, Egrets were present in numbers. Cattle Egrets were particularly numerous and we probably saw well over a hundred.
White-faced and White Ibis (below) were common also.
I was half-hoping for my first Wood Storks of 2015 and was rewarded when two flew over in the distance.
Apart from Gallinules and Pied-billed Grebes, there were few birds on the water. A handful of Black-bellied Whistling Ducks were too far away for photos but two Fulvous Whistling Ducks were much nearer.
Orchard Orioles and Eastern Kingbirds popped up in several places around Shovelers' including at the Willows.
We had our picnic lunch in the old Visitor Center. The refuge staff have taken measures to prevent Barn and Cliff Swallows from nesting inside the old VC building. They seem to have largely succeeded as far as Barn Swallows go but a dozen or more pairs of Cliff Swallows had still managed to construct nests.
After lunch we drove a short way down the road towards Frozen Point, as I wanted to look for Common Nighthawks and Dickcissels.
The fence posts had six Common Nighthawks, as well as many Red-winged Blackbirds.
We hadn't gone far before we also turned up a couple of Dickcissels, my first of the year.
Our final sighting was of a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher on a utility wire.
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