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We visited Rollover Pass again on Sunday morning and it was much busier with birds than it had been the previous day. Most of the birds were still pretty far from the beach but we were lucky enough to have a flock of American Avocets feeding close to the water's edge.
Avocets are always striking birds with their upturned bills and black-and-white wings.
However, they look even better in their breeding plumage.
On Sunday we were able to admire the full range of their plumage.
It was great fun to watch the flock stalking through the water ...
... and then dipping down to catch their prey.
After Rollover Pass, we drove west along Bolivar and turned down Yacht Basin Road, where we had heard several Clapper Rails (and briefly seen one) the day before. I was hoping that, if we sat quietly in the car for a few minutes, we might get better views.
Sure enough, within two or three minutes a Clapper Rail popped into sight and stayed in the open for a minute or more.
Once the Rail had disappeared, we headed to the Galveston ferry.
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If Great Egrets were the most numerous birds at the Smith Oaks rookery, they were by no means the only ones there.
Scattered throughout the island opposite the observation decks were Snowy Egrets, distinguished by their smaller size, their black bills and their yellow feet.
Scores of Neotropic Cormorants were also present. Some were perched in the trees while others were bringing in nesting materials.
As always at the rookery, Roseate Spoonbills put on quite a show.
They often seem ungainly as they try to settle or stand on branches.
However, there is certainly nothing ungainly about them once they take to the air!
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After a late picnic lunch in Boy Scout Woods, I took a walk around the trails. The area was disappointingly quiet and the only bird I saw was a Great-crested Flycatcher, although I did hear several White-eyed Vireos.
Given the lack of migrants, we scrapped our plan to join the afternoon bird-walk and instead headed up to the Smith Oaks rookery.
There was plenty of water in Claybottom Pond and the rookery was packed with birds.
One reason I love visiting the rookery is that it gives wonderful opportunities for photographing Great Egrets, one of my favorite birds. Just stand on one of the observation decks for a few minutes and you are sure to see numerous Great Egrets fly overhead, their white plumage positively glowing against the blue sky.
However, no matter how much you like watching Great Egrets flying, your eyes (and lens) will soon be drawn to the birds on the rookery islands. There are few sights in nature more impressive than a Great Egret in full breeding plumage. It is hard to believe that any female could resist a display like the one below.
Of course, keeping those beautiful feathers in tiptop shape requires a lot of preening.
Most of the Great Egrets had already built their nests, and some birds appeared to have started sitting on eggs.
Others were still busy flying off to collect nesting material.
This bird brought back only a very small twig.
The bird below, by contrast, had brought in a long stick and was proudly passing it over to its mate.
The image that will linger with me from Saturday's visit is of a Great Egret launching itself into the air.
If I had to give this picture a title, I think I'd call it "Jumping for Joy".
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On Saturday morning we drove down to High Island, stopping on the way to do a very brief and not very rewarding drive around Shoveler Pond at Anahuac NWR.
We got to High Island just in time to join the guided tour to some sites on the Bolivar Peninsula. The most productive stop on the tour was at the beach immediately south of High Island itself. We drove just a few hundred feet east along the beach and were lucky enough to come across a flock of several hundred terns and gulls standing near the water's edge.
The photo below shows three tern species. From smallest to largest there are: Common Terns (red bill and legs), Sandwich Terns (yellow tip on black bill) and Royal Terns (big, orange bills).
One group of Royal Terns looked quite imposing as they swaggered through the water.
Two other Royal Terns were mating.
Most of the gulls were Laughing Gulls, the most common species in our area. The photo below has two at the top left and one at the top center. However, there were also a handful of Bonaparte's Gulls, a species I'd never before seen on my birding trips in Texas. In the photo below it is the bird at the top right.
After this stop the tour moved on to Rollover Pass and two other sites on Bolivar. Unfortunately, it was extremely windy and most birds kept their distance, making both birding and photography very difficult. So rather than spend the rest of the afternoon at the beach, we decided to visit the rookery in Smith Oaks, where the nesting birds always put on a great show.
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Sunday morning we drove down to visit the Baytown Nature Center on our first birding trip since returning from the Rio Grande Valley. I was sure we would see a reasonable selection of shorebirds and several species of large wading birds, such as herons.
I was wrong about the shorebirds. An hour's visit turned up only two Yellowlegs and three Willets. I was wrong about the wading birds, too. We saw perhaps 80 large waders but, except for a single Tricolored Heron, they were all of just three species.
Great Egrets were everywhere - in trees, on the ground, in the ponds and in the air.
Snowy Egrets were common, too.
In several areas both egret species were hanging out together.
However, the most numerous waders were White Ibis.
Other birds were also surprisingly scarce, although we did get to admire a couple of Ospreys.
As the birding was so (comparatively) poor at Baytown, we didn't picnic there but instead headed up to Sheldon Lake. Unfortunately, perhaps because it was now early afternoon, birds were even more scarce there than they had been at Baytown.
I walked the trail past the ponds, where the only bird on the water was an American Coot.
I had slightly better luck at the final pond. It's a reliable spot for finding Yellow-crowned Night Herons and, sure enough, there were three perched by the water.
Having largely dipped on birds at Baytown and Sheldon Lake, we decided that it wasn't a good day for birding and headed back home.
P.S.
This weekend we're heading over to High Island and Galveston. It's probably too early for there to be many migrants but northerly winds forecast for Saturday may cause some birds to stop at the coast. Failing this, we should at least get to see some nesting activity in the High Island rookery and a good selection of shorebirds and terns on Bolivar.
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