Back to Texas Birding

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After our trip to Utah it was certainly a change to come back to birding in Texas. 

Our first Texas birding trip of the summer was a brief visit to Sheldon Lake State Park,  which you now have to drive into via the entrance on Garrett Road.

There is a huge field on the west side of the entrance road and on this occasion it was covered in birds. There were scores of White Ibis. Some were young birds.

Others were full adults.

A few Cattle and Snowy Egrets were grazing with the Ibis. So too were several Black-bellied Whistling Ducks. (You certainly know you're back in Texas when you see BBWDs!)

It was more surprising to see that a dozen or so Little Blue Herons were mixed in among the other grazing birds.

Down at the Environmental Center ponds there was much less activity. The ponds did look beautiful, though, because many of them were covered in water lilies.

The most common birds around the ponds were Yellow-crowned Night Herons.

Although I searched in vain for Green Herons, we came across a couple of Great Blue Herons and Tricolored Herons.

We also spotted a young alligator skulking in one of the ponds.

After visiting Sheldon, we drove over to Aweigh Drive in Crosby to look for the Swallow-tailed Kites that summer there. Unfortunately, we didn't arrive until late morning, by which time the Kites had dispersed from their roosting sites. So in the end we had to settle for just a quick view of a single (distant) Kite.
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