Sunday morning I paid yet another visit to Baytown Nature Center. This time I had a very specific objective: To see the male Brown Booby that had been reported there. It is a rare bird for Texas and a species that I had never seen before.
Sure enough the bird was perched where it had previously been reported. Unfortunately, it was rather too distant for clear photos.
While waiting (in vain) for the Booby to fly closer, I checked birds at the water's edge.
A young Laughing Gull and several Forster's Terns were hanging out on pilings.
A couple of Spotted Sandpipers were wandering along the shoreline.
When it became clear that the Booby was not going to move, I headed for home, but on the way I stopped to admire Killdeer paddling in shallow puddles and a juvenile Yellow-crowned Night-Heron surveying the scene from a convenient snag.
I also stopped to watch a beautiful Tricolored Heron as it completed its morning grooming.
My final sighting was of a pair of Osprey circling high above me, one noticeably smaller than the other.
The smaller bird, presumably a male, kept doing dramatic aerial manouevres, no doubt trying to impress the female.
As far as I could see, she wasn't very impressed.
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