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After leaving High Island, we drove west along Bolivar Peninsula to catch the ferry to Galveston.
As usual, the Bolivar harbor was busy with Cormorants, Laughing Gulls, American White Pelicans and Brown Pelicans (below).
Apart from the usual hordes of Laughing Gulls, on this trip the ferry was followed by numbers of Royal Terns.
There were other terns also. At first I thought these were Forster's but then I noted their yellow-tipped bills and realized they were Sandwich Terns.
Once on Galveston, we did a quick drive along Sportsmens' Road. My first Reddish Egret of the year was too distant to photograph but a Great Egret and a Great Blue Heron were a little closer.
The roadside ditches were empty except for a couple of Willets and the only other bird we saw was a solitary White Ibis.
Although I had high hopes for Lafitte's Cove, it turned out to have only a few resident birds and even fewer migrants. In fact, the only migrants we spotted were a Gray Catbird, a Gray-cheeked Thrush and two Scalret Tanagers (below).
As this was our last birding stop, it meant that our trip ended with a whimper rather than a bang. We weren't too disappointed, though, because overall the trip had been quite productive: We had seen 90 species, of which almost half were new birds for the year.
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Sunday morning I was up early and arrived at Rollover Pass on the Bolivar peninsula before dawn.
As on our February visit, there were plenty of birds but almost all of them were far from the beach. An additional problem was that there was such a strong wind that it was impossible to hold binoculars or camera still. So after taking a blurry photo of a group of American Avocets, I headed further along the peninsula in hopes of finding a more sheltered spot and more birds.
I ended up at the end of Yacht Basin Road, where several Willets were looking unhappy as they stood facing into the wind.
A solitary Red-breasted Merganser was bobbing around nearby.
By now the light was much better and the wind seemed to be decreasing somewhat, so I headed back to Rollover Pass. Although most birds were still well out of reach, there were a few on the beach. This Black-bellied Plover was one.
This Willet was another.
Occasionally a Brown Pelican would glide majestically by, only feet above the water.
Disappointed by the comparative lack of birds, I started driving out through the parking area but had to stop when I noticed a Snowy Egret fishing in a small pool next to the rusted siding of the main water channel. I can never resist the chance to watch and photograph Snowies!
The Egret was sharing the pool with a Willet.
I was so busy watching the Snowy Egret and the Willet that I almost missed noticing a Great Blue Heron that was standing motionless only a few yards away.
After thanking the Heron for being such a cooperative photo subject, I headed back to Winnie to collect Dee. Our plan after that was to hang out at High Island until our friends showed up.
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We didn't have a lot of luck with birds along the Bolivar peninsula on Sunday morning. Rollover Pass had thousands of birds but all of them were on sandbanks far away from the beach.
The beach at Retillon Road wasn't much more productive either. All we saw were Brown Pelicans, a Long-billed Curlew and Ring-billed Gulls.
Things picked up when we reached the ferry harbor, which had many handsome Brown Pelicans.
There were also several groups of American White Pelicans, most of which were busy grooming.
Only one of the American White Pelicans was fishing.
As usual, the ferry ride over to Galveston provided lots of opportunities to photograph Laughing Gulls.
I was very taken by the beautiful eyes of this Ring-billed Gull, as I'd never before noticed the red eye-ring.
Luckily, I had remembered to bring along some Triscuits and so Dee was able to have fun feeding Laughing Gulls from the stern of the boat.
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We decided to end the year with a 2-day trip to the coast. We started at Anahuac NWR, where birds were comparatively scarce.
A male Vermilion Flycatcher was a welcome sight but the bird refused to come within camera range. We were luckier with an Osprey that posed on a sign at the start of the Shoveler Pond loop.
Out on the water, American Coots and Common Gallinules (below) were the most common species.
There were also quite a few Black-bellied Whistling Ducks and Pied-billed Grebes.
Most of the ducks we saw were Northern Shovelers, like this female.
The others were Blue-winged Teal.
Herons and Egrets were few and kept their distance, except for one Snowy Egret that was near the road.
We saw only a couple of White Ibis.
As we were leaving, I noticed a White-tailed Kite hovering behind the butterfly garden. When I reached the area, the bird was perched but it soon flew off.
The road down to Rollover Pass on Bolivar was lined with American Kestrels and Red-tailed Hawks: We counted over 30 Kestrels and 19 Red-tails.
The water was very high at Rollover and so most of the birds were on sandbanks too distant for photos. There were plenty of birds present, though: Both Pelicans, many Gulls, hundreds of Black Skimmers and American Avocets, several species of Terns and Plovers, a dozen Long-billed Curlews, Marbled Godwits, scores of Willets, Ruddy Turnstones, etc.
I had to content myself with photographing the few birds that were on the beach.
American Avocets are always worth a look and a photo.
Willets are much plainer but I can never resist them.
I ignored the many Laughing Gulls but took a quick shot of a Ring-billed Gull.
A Black-bellied Plover looked rather drab in its non-breeding plumage.
Several smaller Plovers were scuttling around on the beach and I managed to get pictures of a Semipalmated Plover and a Piping Plover.
After that, it was time to head to Galveston for a late lunch at Mario's on the Seawall.
As usual, the ferry ride provided lots of opportunities to photograph Laughing Gulls as they followed the boat.
By the time we finished eating, it was to late for photography and so we headed for our motel. My plan was to get up early the next day to go out and look for Sandhill Cranes. As it turned out, there were plenty of Sandhills around, as well as plenty of other interesting birds.
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