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Sunday I was up and out of the house by 5:30 a.m., heading for the Attwater NWR. I'd been meaning to do another visit there for a while but what made me choose this day was that this weekend was the one weekend of the year when you can be sure of seeing Greater Prairie Chickens.
I got to the refuge in time to ride in one of the tour vans out to one of the areas where the male birds display and boom in hopes of attracting females. Unfortunately, as it was a little foggy and the birds were several hundred yards away, it was impossible to get a good look at them. After 20 minutes I decided I'd had enough of watching birds I could hardly see and so I took a van back to the visitor center. Good decision! Halfway back the driver stopped to let us admire a solitary male Greater Prairie Chicken that was displaying and booming on a small mound.
Back at the visitor center, the Purple Martin house seemed to be fully occupied.
I got in my car and drove up to the bridge that gives (on foot) access to the refuge's lake.
It was quiet. The only waterbirds I could see were Common Gallinules and American Coots (below).
A Great Blue Heron momentarily brightened up the scene by perching for a minute on a nearby treetop.
Next I drove the auto loop, hoping for Northern Bobwhites among other birds.
Northern Harriers were busy quartering the area in search of prey.
Eastern Meadowlarks were perching on bushes and fences everywhere and singing their hearts out.
Killdeer were busy patrolling the edges of the road and exploring some of the muddy areas.
One of those muddy areas also had a Wilson's Snipe, a bird I see fairly often but rarely get to photograph.
Another wet area had five Least Sandpipers, distinguishable from other small sandpipers by their yellow legs.
Finally a pair of Northern Bobwhite showed by the roadside but disappeared into the vegetation before I could get a photo or even just admire them. I hate how they do that! As luck would have it, though, it wasn't long before another popped up some distance away from the road.
I left the refuge and headed home, pausing on the way only to grab a quick photo of my first Swainson's Hawk of the year.
As we'll be leaving the States in a couple of months, I don't suppose I'll ever get out to Attwater again. Still, previous visits have given me many happy memories of the refuge and this trip added a few more.
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Our Saturday trip to Attwater NWR wasn't as productive as we'd hoped, probably partly because the weather was windy and overcast. It was only after we left that I realized we hadn't seen a single wading bird during our 2+ hours at the refuge. I think that's the first time this has happened to us in over 10 years of birding NWRs in Texas.
Our first sighting was of an American Bittern, which crossed the entrance road before we had time to react.
Most of the birds we saw on the refuge were sparrows. Most of these were Savannah and White-crowned, but there were also several Vesper (below), Grasshopper and Song Sparrows.
Northern Harriers, Black Vultures and Turkey Vultures (below) were everywhere and they seemed to be enjoying the windy conditions.
Northern Mockingbirds, Eastern Meadowlarks and Loggerhead Shrikes (below) were also common.
It is now possible to access, on foot, a stretch of land across the old bridge.
The wetland area there had an alligator, the first we've ever seen at Attwater.
Nearby we had good looks at a House Wren and an Eastern Phoebe.
Although we never saw a duck, plenty of Greater White-fronted Geese and Snow Geese passed noisily overhead, as did 15 Sandhill Cranes (below).
As usual, the road between Sealy and the refuge had a good number of raptors: Northern Harriers, Red-tailed Hawks, Ospreys and a White-tailed Hawk.
Although Attwater had many fewer birds than we had anticipated, we both felt the trip was worthwhile. The landscape there is beautiful and the fact that we were the only visitors was a bonus.
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My trip yesterday to Attwater NWR to see Greater Prairie Chickens was partially successful. I did get to see Prairie Chickens, a life bird for me. Just after dawn I saw 8-10 of these impressive and highly endangered birds. Most stayed quite a distance away but one male was close enough to allow me (and the 20 other people on the Attwater tour) to watch him inflating the air sac in his throat and generally doing his mating ritual. He was even close enough for me to take some (just) recognizable photos.
Unfortunately, the morning went down hill from then. It was extremely windy and this, together with the fact that the refuge is in a state of drought, meant that other birds were few and far between.
I joined in a 90-minute birding walk but even this produced only a handful of sightings. The birds I did see were either very common species (e.g., Northern Cardinal, American Crow) or were raptors seen far off in the distance (e.g., White-tailed-Hawk, Northern Harrier).
As thw wind had clearly settled in for the day, I decided not to wait to take a van-based birding tour that was scheduled for the later part of the morning but instead headed home.
So my visit to Attwater didn't work out well. Still, I did get to see Prairie Chickens and two other new-for-2011 birds (White-tailed Hawk, Northern Bobwhite), taking my year list to 200. I also enjoyed walking on the prairie and looking at the many wildflower and insect species that live there. I'll report on some of these tomorrow.
P.S.
On my drive home I stopped to grab photos of a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, one of my all-time favorite birds. The photos weren't great but they're the first I've ever managed to take that show the wonderful body and under-wing coloring of this remarkable bird.
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The day started well with 13 species in our front yard.
Dee and I had a very pleasant 90-minute drive around Attwater PR National Wildlife Refuge on what turned out to be a clear but windy morning. Perhaps because of the wind, we saw only 21 species, including only two types of sparrow (Savannah and Lincoln's). However, one of the few patches of water on the refuge was busy with several Killdeer, Wilson's Snipes and American Pipits, plus a Sprague's Pipit.
Killdeer
Wilson's Snipe
Eastern Meadowlarks were everywhere.
There were plenty of Northern Harriers and Loggerhead Shrikes.
We thought we had missed out on Crested Caracaras but then one appeared just as we were leaving.
We next headed over to Eagle Lake, an area we've visited only once before. Unfortunately, as happened on our previous visit, we couldn't actually find the lake! (Next time, I'll print off a detailed map from the Internet.) However, while exploring the area, we saw several birds, including lots of Red-tailed Hawks, Crested Caracaras and Northern Harriers.
This first day of 2011 produced a list of 42 species.
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. When I managed to take a few hours' comp time to do some birding, I decided to drive over to the Attwater Prairie Chicken Refuge, some 60 miles west of Houston. My main aim was to look for Northern Bobwhites, birds I have seen only a few times and which I've never been able to get a good photo of. I though, too, that I might get some photos of Dickcissels, another species that I don't often see but that is common at Attwater.
Sure enough, the entrance road was lined with a dozen Dickcissels. However, they either disappeared as soon as I stopped the car or else were perched too far away for good photos. Scissor-tailed Flycatchers were much more obliging.
The entrance road also had a Crested Caracara, another very common bird at this refuge.
On the auto-loop, there were black butterflies everywhere. 
Birds were rare except for Mourning Doves, Red-winged Blackbirds, more Caracaras and a beautiful White-tailed Hawk.
And except for Dickcissels. There were scores of them.
I enjoyed watching them ...
and listening to their "dick-dick-dickcissel" songs.
But after 25 minutes I was ready for something different - and preferably a Northern Bobwhite.
Right on cue, a pair hopped out of a hedge and started walking down the road ahead of me. As soon as I stopped the car, they took fright and disappeared back into the hedge. But not before I got a photo.
Now that my mission was accomplished, I left the refuge and headed back towards Houston. On the way, I stopped to explore Stephen F Austin Park, a site I'd never visited before. I had a pleasant walk along the Cottonwood Trail, which was busy with common birds and lots of butterflies.
A pair of Red-shouldered Hawks flew off before I could get a good look at them. Then a male Cardinal flew up from the path, followed by another bird that I didn't get a look at. I assumed it was probably a female Cardinal but I thought I'd check it out just in case. I'm glad I did. When I located the bird, it was actually a Yellow-billed Cuckoo.
The Bobwhite and Cuckoo took my year list to 206 species. .
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In winter, Attwater is generally a very good place to see sparrows and this was the case on Sunday. The entrance road had many Savannah Sparrows, while the auto route had Field, Vesper, Lincoln's and White-crowned Sparrows.
White-crowned Sparrows
The track and the verges were busy with Eastern Phoebes, American Pipits, Northern Mockingbirds, Loggerhead Shrikes, Mourning Doves and many Eastern Meadowlarks. We also had good looks at a Marsh Wren and, seemingly very out of place, a Pine Warbler.
Eastern Meadowlark
As there was plenty of water everywhere, we expected to see lots of wading birds. However, the only ones we spotted were a couple of Great Blue Herons and a handful of Great Egrets.
Great Egret
Northern Pintails
We stopped to look at the refuge's herd of bison.
While we sat there admiring the bison, we were treated to the spectacle of hundreds of Snow Geese streaming overhead, their haunting calls filling the air.
Snow Geese
By the time we left the refuge, we had seen 32 species, which was significantly fewer than we had expected. However, we were not at all disappointed. The great views we had of Northern Harriers, White-tailed Hawks and Snow Geese alone made the trip worthwhile - and there was the added bonus of increasing my year list from 111 to 115 species.
