Another Coastal Trip

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We finally got enough free time to fit in a weekend birding trip. Although the weather was wild and windy, we decided to visit Anahuac NWR on Saturday and then High Island on Sunday.


We started our visit by driving down the road to Frozen Point. Most birds were keeping hunkered down out of the wind but lots of Red-winged Blackbirds were congregating in the fields or displaying on fence posts. I just love the male Blackbirds' call and the way they fluff up their red epaulets.

The first parking area on the bay gave us good looks at a Whimbrel, one of my favorite shorebirds.

In our first ten years in Texas we rarely saw Whimbrels but we have seen plenty of them the past couple of years. I don't wknow whether they have become increasingly common or whether we've just gotten better at noticing them.

A Black-bellied Plover was nearby. It won't be long now until they turn up in their spectacular black and white breeding plumage.

At the third parking area we looked unsuccessfully for the Burrowing Owl. However, the bay there had several birds.

A Ruddy Turnstone, always a pleasure to see, wandered along the rocks.

A Willet and a Greater Yellowlegs were competing for prey in the same patch of shallow water.

The Willet soon tired of the competition and drove away the Yellowlegs.

Laughing Gulls were flying low over the waves and I noticed they kept dipping their feet into the water as they did so. I'm not sure if they were fishing or just playing.

 

When a sparrow popped up on one of the rocks, I thought for a moment I was looking at a Seaside Sparrow. Then I realized it was just a Savannah Sparrow. A pretty bird all the same!

We headed up to do the Shovelers' Pond loop, stopping on the way to do a quick and unsuccessful search for the male Vermilion Flycatcher that winters near the Visitor Center.

While the wind was still keeping most birds hunkered down out of sight, the landscape was as beautiful as usual.

Shovelers' Pond  had mainly American Coots.

Some of the Coots were clustered in large rafts.

There were quite a few Common Gallinules also, although these were hanging out in pairs or small groups.

Numerous dark Ibis and several Forster's Terns were flying about but none came near enough for photos. So I had to make do with one of the Savannah Sparrows that common among the spring flowers along the edges of the road.

As the weather was not really conducive to productive birdwatching, we decided to cut short our day and drive up to Winnie, where we had booked a room for the night at the excellent Winnie Inn & Suites.
Our plan for the following day was for me to do a little dawn birding on Bolivar and then for us to go to High Island to meet up with some friends and their children who had never seen the Smith Oaks rookery.
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New Trail on Skillern Tract

.Crossing the bridge, we turned left onto a new concrete path, which gave good views over more flooded fields. The fields seemed to be empty.

Then swarms of thousands of birds would rise up in the distance.

Sometimes the swarms were caused by Northern Harriers diving down onto ducks and other birds grazing in the water.

The path soon ends at an observation platform overlooking a stretch of wetlands that was very busy with hundreds of Blue-winged Teal as well as American Coots, Common Gallinules, Pied-billed Grebes and a single Least Grebe.

We saw few large waders except for this Tricolored Heron.

On our way out of the Skillern Tract, we passed a Loggerhead Shrike that had found a good perch from which to hunt.

Back on FM1985, we were lucky enough to come across a Swainson's Hawk that was too busy grooming to be disturbed by our presence. What a magnificent bird!

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A Quick Return To Anahuac

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 We arranged to meet friends at Baytown Nature Center on Saturday morning but it was raining hard on that side of town and so we met up at the new Anahuac NWR headquarters instead. The HQ is on FM 563 a few miles south of I-10 and we thought it would be a good place to explore while we waited for the rain to stop.

We spent an enjoyable 40 minutes looking at displays and watching a movie about the local refuges. Then we walked along the trail that leads from the HQ buildings through the woods to the edge of Anahuac Lake. We didn't see or hear a single bird but we were entertained by the dozens of spiders building webs across and near the boardwalk. 

We'll try the trail again later in the year, when there is likely to be more bird activity. It certainly looked like it could be a good site to visit during fall or spring migration.

When the rain stopped, we decided to head over to the main Anahuac refuge. There we had our picnic lunch in what used to be the visitor center, surrounded by Barn Swallows, a few of which were still sitting in nests.

Our lunch was interrupted when a dozen or so large birds appeared and kept circling very high in the sky above us. They turned out to be Wood Storks.

The garden was empty of birds but had lots of dragonflies.

A slow drive around Shovelers' Pond turned up Black-necked Stilts, Great Egrets and a couple of Willets.

Then two Clapper/King Rails put in a brief appearance.

I was so busy watching for birds in the ditch around the pond that Dee had to point out a Least Bittern perched high in the reeds on the other side of the road. I find Least Bitterns fascinating birds and I loved the way this one was clinging to the reeds.

As we were leaving Shovelers' I noticed a bird in the reeds. It had fluff on its head and so was clearly a youngster.

At first I wasn't at all sure what I was looking at. Then I noticed an adult bird standing nearby and keeping an eye on the youngster. Yellow-crowned Night Heron.

We didn't see a great number or variety of birds at Anahuac and we didn't see a single alligator. However, the visit was worthwhile if only for the Wood Storks, Rails, the Least Bittern and the Yellow-crowned Night Herons - and, of course, the magnificent marshland scenery.

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Anahuac

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At Anahuac NWR we had a picnic lunch in the old visitors center, which we had to share with some nesting Barn Swallows. One nest had five hungry youngsters in it.

Meanwhile the parents were hanging out on the road.

It was very hot by the time we started our tour of Shoveler's Pond and so it wasn't surprising that we didn't see a lot of birds. It was odd not to see a single alligator, though.

The ditch around the pond had a few Black-necked Stilts, Green Herons, Tricolored Herons and Killdeer, as well as a solitary Cattle Egret.

After the number of Clapper/King Rails, Soras and Least Bitterns that we had seen three weeks earlier, we were very disappointed to see only a solitary Rail.

Even Eastern Kingbirds were scarce this time.

As our Saturday afternoon visit was so unproductive, I decided to return to the refuge just after dawn on Sunday. It was a good decision. Even before I turned onto the entrance road, I came across a young Swainson's Hawk.

The ditch around Shovelers' Pond looked beautiful in the morning light.

On one side of the road a Yellow-crowned Night Heron stood motionless by the water.

The far bank on the other side of the road was in deep shadow, causing a Least Bittern to look rather ghostly and almost hiding a Rail that was passing behind it.

Killdeer were trotting along on and by the road.

Down in the ditch another Killdeer was taking two fledglings for a walk. The light was just good enough for me to get a recognizable photo of one of the youngsters.

Male Great-tailed Grackles were calling everywhere. Some were displaying alone, perched on fence posts or bushes.

Others were competing for the attention of females.

Down in the ditch the most common birds were Black-necked Stilts, looking very elegant as they searched the water for prey.

A second drive around the pond turned up even more birds, including a couple more Least Bitterns, one of which stretched its neck right up at the sound of my camera shutter.

I had good looks at three more Rails.

One of several Tricolored Herons was so focused on fishing that I was able to get a couple of decent photos.

My final bird was a female Orchard Oriole perched in the reeds.

On my way out of the refuge I stopped to admire a rabbit that was sitting on the road enjoying the morning sun.

Now it was time to head back to pick up Dee from the motel in Winnie so that we could start our drive along the Bolivar peninsula to Galveston.With any luck Bolivar would have some interesting shorebirds and the ferry ride over to Galveston might produce my first Magnificent Frigatebird of the year.
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