I Missed it!

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On Thursday there was what some people are saying was the biggest fallout of migrant birds on the Texas coast in 50 years. And I had to work! 

So I took Friday off and headed for the coast, hoping that lots of the previous day's arrivals were still around.

I got to Lafitte's Cove on Galveston at 7:30 a.m. and there were certainly still some birds. 
The most numerous were Gray Catbirds. There were dozens of them on and near the paths.

 

Thrushes were abundant, too. I failed to get photos of several Wood Thrushes but did better with Swainson's Thrushes at the drips.

A couple of people told me they'd seen Indigo and Painted Buntings. However, I saw only a single female Painted.

Summer and Scarlet Tanagers were hanging out in the trees, although usually in places where I couldn't get photos. I came away with only one shot of a male Scarlet.

After 90 minutes at Lafitte's, I had seen just two warblers - a Yellow and an American Redstart. So I decided to drive back to Houston and pop in at Russ Pitman Park to look for warblers there.

When I arrived I immediately came across a couple of  Gray Catbirds (below) and three Wood Thrushes (below). 

A little later a Baltimore Oriole popped up.

Two Rose-breasted Grosbeaks were foraging near the nature center.

Before heading home, I spent 30 minutes watching vireos and warblers flitting through the trees in the yard behind the park. A Red-eyed Vireo was just within camera range.

Male and female American Redstarts were moving too fast for me to get more than a record shot.

I was thrilled to see my first Magnolia Warbler of the year but again I wasn't able to get a decent photo.

So in the end I had missed out on last week's big fallout and had seen only a few of the commoner migrants. Oh, well, that's how birding goes sometimes! Perhaps I'll finally get lucky with migrating warblers at the college next week - or not. 
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