A Birding Day

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It really annoys me how so many wildlife sites have fanciful and misleading names: "Bobcat Woods," "Alligator Nest Pond," "Armadillo Trail," "Warbler Walk," etc. Just about the only thing you can be sure of in these places is that you won't see any of the animals mentioned in the sites' names. It's rather like the way many housing subdivisions have names that are either totally inappropriate (e.g., "Rocky Glen Drive" in totally flat Cypress) or that describe landscape features (e.g., "Oak Lane"or "Prairie Way") which were probably destroyed to make way for the subdivisions.

I mention this to explain the frame of mind I was in the other morning when I parked outside Bobcat Woods on the San Bernard NWR.

I got out of the car and walked towards the woods. A cat crossed the trail ahead and slipped under a fence rail. A domestic cat, of course. Or was it? I walked over to the fence and looked down. Five feet away, a bobcat looked up at me. We stared at each other for several seconds. Then I broke the spell by reaching for my camera, and the bobcat trotted off through the vegetation.

I will never complain about misleading signs at San Bernard again - even though I didn't see a single Water Moccasin at Moccasin Pond or a single Rail at Rail Pond!

San Bernard NWR
San Bernard was my first stop on a long birding drive I was doing and it was not at all productive in terms of birds.

The entrance road had a Loggerhead Shrike and a pair of Turkey Vultures.


Otherwise, all I saw were a couple of wading birds and a lot of Red-winged Blackbirds and Great-tailed Grackles.




After 45 minutes, I decided to press on to my second destination.

Brazoria NWR
Brazoria is one of my favorite sites but on this particular day it, too, was extremely quiet. A couple of alligators were lazing in the water.


The largest concentration of birds I saw was a group of twenty White Ibis and Roseate Spoonbills.


Disappointed by the lack of birds at the two marshland refuges, I decided to try a very different type of site: the beach at Surfside.

Surfside
Unlike the other two sites, this one was very busy. Unfortunately, though, the busyness was due to people and cars rather than birds. A brief drive along the beach revealed only Willets, Sanderlings and Ruddy Turnstones and so I left the coast and headed north.






Brazos Bend SP
I didn't reach Brazos Bend State Park until early afternoon, the very worst time for wildlife viewing. However, as always at this great site, there was still plenty to see.

Yellow-crowned Night Herons were everywhere, some with impressively long plumes on their heads.


Anhingas and Common Moorhens were very much in evidence, too.




This Purple Gallinule was one of four I saw in about as many minutes at 40-Acre Lake.


Given that I'd started the day with seeing a bobcat, it seemed appropriate that my final sighting should be of another mammal: a raccoon exploring the edge of Elm Lake.


Year List
The Purple Gallinules took my year list to 207 species.
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Yesterday Dee and I spent four hours at San Bernard NWR on a perfect winter day. There were fewer birds than I had hoped for but we still saw 41 species.

The entrance road was lined with Loggerhead Shrikes and American Kestrels.

American Kestrel

Although the Moccasin Loop was quiet for water- and wading birds, we saw enough to keep us occupied.

Eastern Phoebe

Great Blue Heron

White Ibis

Ruddy Duck

Pied-billed Grebe

American Alligator

Bobcat Woods was very busy with common birds.

Bobcat Woods

Savannah Sparrow

Savannah Sparrow

Common Yellowthroat

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

The highlights of the day, though, were all the great views we had of raptors: Northern Harriers, Red-tailed Hawks, Red-shouldered Hawk, White-tailed Hawk, Merlin and Crested Caracara.

Red-shouldered Hawk

Red-tailed Hawk

San Bernard in the Rain

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After the disappointment of our cancelled Whooping Crane cruise, we made the best of our drive back to Houston by stopping off at San Bernard NWR. Unfortunately, while birds were very plentiful, the driving rain made it difficult to see them and even harder to take photos!

We had good views of a Bald Eagle but the photos didn't turn out so well.

This Great Blue Heron was kind enough to let us watch him from only a couple of yards away.


This Cattle Egret was our first of the year.


We had good views of a Crested Caracara and an American Bittern, but photos were impossible.

The road was busy with groups of American pipits. There lots of Savannah Sparrows also ...

but most of the time they were only dimly visible through the windshield wipers.

Barn Swallows constantly circled our car, often only inches away. Meanwhile, our first Tree Swallows of the year swooped over the water or sat in rows on branches.

While Dee had a snack lunch in the car, I braved the Bobcat boardwalk in pouring rain.

I was rewarded with extremely blurry views of Swamp Sparrows.

Behind Bobcat Woods, I was surprised to see that the lakes had been outfitted with an observation platform and a covered picnic area. The lakes themselves were busy with Great Blue Herons, American Coots and other wading and water birds, but I was already too wet to enjoy them.

In spite of the weather, we enjoyed our brief visit. (It isn't every day you get good views of a Bald Eagle.) We'll certainly be heading back to San Bernard before long.

Trip Totals
In spite of the weather, we enjoyed the trip and saw 50-60 species. The only lifer was Whooping Crane but we also had 8 new-for-the-year species: Redhead, Osprey, Glossy Ibis, Northern Parula, Barn Swallow, Cattle Egret, Sanderling and Black-bellied Plover. This takes my 2009 list to 154.

It Ain't Over Till ...

Sunday morning we met up with our friends the Aguilars for birding and a picnic at San Bernard NWR. I was hoping for lots of sparrows, as well as a good range of water and wading birds.

Unfortunately, the refuge was closed because they were just starting a controlled burn.


To make matters worse, it was so cold and windy that there was no way we were going to be able to picnic. However, we did see a few birds, including my first Greater Yellowlegs and White-faced Ibis of the year, plus no fewer than five Wilson's Snipes.

Rather than abandon the day, we decided to drive up to Brazos Bend State Park. I've never found it to be great for birds but it's always a pleasant place to walk around.

We started our afternoon at the park with a very cold picnic at 40 Acre Lake. Even birds like this Tricolored Heron seemed to be feeling the chill.


When the sun came out and the day warmed up, we headed over to Elm Lake, which was busy with a variety of water and wading birds, as well as numerous Yellow-rumped Warblers and American Pipits.

American Pipit

There were groups of Black-bellied Whistling Ducks everywhere.

They and a couple of Little Blue Herons seemed totally unconcerned by our presence.



The trees near the lake were hopping with smaller birds: Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, Pine and Orange-crowned Warblers, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Eastern Bluebirds and Tufted Titmice.

I couldn't get a good photo of an Eastern Bluebird ...


... and the Tufted Titmice were almost equally skittish.


Overall, Brazos Bend was very productive for birds. I saw 39 species, of which 12 were new for the year: Black-bellied Whistling Duck, Blue- and Green-winged Teal, Common Moorhen, Tricolored and Little Blue Heron, White Ibis, Red-shouldered Hawk, Tufted Titmouse, Carolina Wren, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher and Eastern Bluebird. Outside the park I saw two other new birds. Rock Dove/Pigeon and White-tiled Kites. This took my year list to 80 species, which is not bad considering how little birding I've done to date.