Last Saturday we arranged to meet friends for a walk and a picnic lunch at Baytown Nature Center, which is an hour's drive southeast of where we live.
One of the reasons for choosing Baytown was to see the Great Horned Owl that is currently nesting there. It was just visible in the trees along the entrance road.
The first section of the bay was empty of birds except for sone distant Cormorants but the pond opposite had a range of shorebirds: Lesser Yellowlegs (below), Killdeer, Wilson's Snipe, Least Sandpipers and Spotted Sandpiper (below).
The same birds turned up at the other ponds we visited, along with the usual Great Blue Herons, Great Egrets and Snowy Egrets (below).
I scanned every patch of water for the Hooded Mergansers and Common Goldeneyes hat had been reported at the site but I came up empty.
Sparrows were surprisingly scarce. The only ones I saw were a single Swamp Sparrow and a small group of Savannah Sparrows (below).
The butterfly garden had a pair of Eastern Bluebirds, as well as a small group of Brown-headed Cowbirds.
I wasn't able to get any clear shots of an Osprey that we saw fishing several times but a female Belted Kingfisher posed for photos as we were leaving.
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Hi
ReplyDeleteNice photos again, the areas around Houston will be targets for our next trip to Texas,hopefully in sept./oct.2015. We had no time to reach these areas last summer.
I've posted a few posts from USA on my blog now, there will be more but it takes a long time to go through 10,000 photos, :-).
http://naturogkunst.blogspot.no/search/label/USA
My friend Runes blog: http://naturibilder.blogspot.no/search/label/USA
Some great photos on your site, Dag.Get in touch next time you're in Houston if you'd like me to show you around our area.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much, it will be very nice to have a local "birdguide" on our next birdtrip, :-).
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