A Weekend on the Coast: Part 2

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As in January, we didn't have to wait for the Galveston-Bolivar ferry on this trip. Quite a change from the summer, when a 60 or 90-minute wait isn't unusual.

I resisted the impulse to add to my already-huge collection of photos of Laughing Gulls around the boat, and I didn't manage to get a single photo of the several dolphins that kept surfacing nearby. However, I couldn't resist taking a photo of a Double-crested Cormorant in the harbor.


Once more, Bolivar Flats Beach was hosting very few birds.

Willets seemed to be the most common visitors. With their drab gray plumage, they are not the most exciting of birds.


That is, until they fly! I was thrilled to finally get a photos showing how beautiful their wings are in flight.


There were a few Sanderlings and three Long-billed Curlews, a bird I always love to see.

Long-billed Curlew

Then at the water's edge I noticed a different bird, my first Marbled Godwit of the year.


A group of 100-200 White Pelicans and a scattering of Brown Pelicans was too far offshore for photos but I saw what looked like a long line of Laughing Gulls at the far end of the beach. As I approached, I realized I was actually seeing 1,000-2,000 American Avocets.


When I took a couple of shots of the nearest birds, the whole flock lifted off and moved further away. What a sight!



Since it was already afternoon, we decided not to stop anywhere else on Bolivar and to drive straight to Anahuac. The refuge is recovering well and almost all of the debris deposited by Ike has now been cleared.

The visitor's center is still in ruins but was already attracting its annual visit by Barn Swallows. The road nearby had a very handsome Red-tailed Hawk.

Red-tailed Hawk

Although the Willows area is now devastated, we stopped for a few minutes to admire a flock of male Red-winged Blackbirds.

Red-winged Blackbird

Deanne insisted that I also photograph one of the handsome female Great-tailed Grackles perching on reeds nearby.


The loop produced very few birds indeed - a dozen or so American Coots, Northern Shovelers and Blue-winged Teal, a handful of Yellowlegs, a few Savannah and Swamp Sparrows, one Snowy Egret, one White Ibis and two Black-necked Stilts (new year bird). American Alligators weren't too plentiful either; we saw only five.

Swamp Sparrow

Trip Summary
Given that we seemed to see only a few types of birds at each stop over the weekend, I was amazed to find that the trip total was 75 species. These included eight year birds: Common and Forster's Terns, Black-and White Warbler, Boat-tailed Grackle, Marbled Godwit, American Avocet, Barn Swallow and Black-necked Stilt.

My year list now stands at 139. At this stage last year I had seen 154 species - but that included 38 species seen on trips to Phoenix and San Francisco, plus several more on a weekend trip to Rockport and Aransas. So this year's total isn't bad, considering that I haven't yet been more than 70-80 miles from Houston.

Wordless Wednesday

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"A Weekend on the Coast: Part 2" will be posted tomorrow.

A Weekend on the Coast: Part 1

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Saturday Afternoon
Our weekend away started with a picnic lunch with friends at El Franco Lee Park. It was almost noon when we got there and so the site was understandably quiet for birds. However, a short walk along the lake side produced an Osprey, a pair of Red-shouldered Hawks and an Eastern Screech Owl.

The highlight of the visit, though, was a close encounter with a possum. He trotted near the car for a while.


Then - probably to avoid me and my camera - he popped into the water and swam away.



When we arrived in Galveston, our motel room wasn't ready, so we bought lattes and drank them sitting on the rocks below the seawall. We were entertained by watching a Common and a Forster's Tern (both new year birds for me) fishing nearby.

Sunday Morning
I was up at dawn to explore - in thick fog - the area along Stewart Road.
Lafitte's Cove is recovering well from Ike and had my first spring warbler of 2010, a Black-and-White Warbler.


Settegast Road was empty of birds except for three male Boat-tailed Grackles perched on a wire and singing to attract females. The largest bird, on the right in the photos below, kept singing out while edging up to the others and pushing them further along the wire.




Then they would try to assert themselves by displaying their feathers and singing out, too.


As always, Sportsmen's Road had a range of birds. I watched a Laughing Gull sitting on a post and making the occasional squawk. It didn't seem to me to be a very productive way of passing the morning - until I realized he was calling in his partner. They made a cute couple.


The jetty had a solitary Ruddy Turnstone.


The water by the edge of the road had a handful of Yellowlegs and Willets.

Greater Yellowlegs

More interesting were a Belted Kingfisher and some larger waders, including several White Ibis.


I don't know anywhere better for getting close-up views of Tricolored and Great Blue Herons ...

as well as Reddish and Snowy Egrets.

Reddish Egret

A Herring Gull made a nice change from the scores of Laughing Gulls.


By now it was time to pick up Dee from the motel and to take the ferry to the Bolivar Peninsula.
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Chaos on Campus

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We had a great weekend trip to the coast - but it will take me until tomorrow to sort through photos and blog about what we saw. In the meantime, here's a blog about early last week on the CyFair campus.


The LSC-CyFair is not the best birding place at present, because the soccer fields and much of the rest of the campus are covered with heavy earth-moving equipment and mud. The birds that usually flock to these areas – Eastern Meadowlarks, Killdeer, Savannah Sparrows - are having to squeeze onto what few undisturbed patches remain. These Great-tailed Grackles managed to bathe in a ditch between a parking lot and one of the construction sites.



Most of the Nature Trail is untouched – but you have to walk over oceans of mud and across various trenches to reach it. The birds still hanging out today included N Cardinals, Eastern Phoebes and Yellow-rumped Warblers. Luckily, the artificial river and the two retention ponds are not affected and they have been fairly busy lately.

I thought that our ducks had all left but today I saw that the river still has a cosy little group of three Lesser Scaup and two Ring-necked Ducks.


At lunchtime the retention ponds were quiet except for a couple of Great Egrets but the waterfall area had a Belted Kingfisher and a Great Egret, as well as two Double-crested Cormorants and two Snowy Egrets.



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A Weekend Away

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No photos today, I'm afraid, because we're away for the weekend. We're heading down to Galveston, stopping at El Franco Lee Park along the way to have a picnic lunch with friends. We'll spend Saturday night on the island and then take the ferry to Bolivar Peninsula on Sunday morning.

If we're lucky, the Audubon beach on Bolivar will have a good selection of shorebirds. It's hard to believe but migration time is almost with us again. So just when I've started getting to grips with identifying geese, ducks, sparrows and other winter birds, I'm going to have to brush up my knowledge of migrant shorebirds and then of warblers.

No doubt we'll also look in at Anahuac NWR on our drive back from Bolivar to Houston. It will certainly be interesting to see how the refuge's recovery from Hurricane Ike is progressing.

See you again on Monday!
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Brazos Bend: Elm and Creekfield Lakes

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After a wonderful hour at 40 Acre, it was time to see what Elm Lake had to offer. Perhaps because it was getting lighter now, the birds there were less obliging. I tried to creep up on a group of Cattle Egrets but they quickly flew up into a tree.



Some Black Vultures were clustered on the trail ahead but they, too, flew up as I approached.


Blue-winged Teal and American Coots were equally skittish and I felt quite guilty for disturbing their peaceful morning.








I felt less guilty when a White Ibis let me watch as it prowled around by the trail, its bill and legs a spectacular shade of red.


And a Snowy Egret was too busy preening to pay me any attention. As I watched it cleaning its beautiful plumage I could almost (I say, almost!) understand how demand for its plumes to decorate ladies' hats had brought this species to the edge of extinction in the early Twentieth Century.




Then it started again: The deep bellowing of male alligators. First one. Then a second joined in. Then a third and a fourth. They kept calling as I walked along the edge of the lake. They were too far away for good photos but I finally got a shot that shows how the water bubbles and dances off their backs when they bellow.




As it was almost time to head for home, I was only able to make a quick stop at Creekfield Lake on my way out of the park.

I disturbed an American Crow that was hunting by the water's edge.


Nearby a Pied-billed Grebe was diving for food.


Four alligators were lazily cruising the lake and it seemed only fitting to end my trip by taking a photo of one of them.


From a birding point-of-view, my visit had not been particularly productive: 32 species, of which two were new for the year (Glossy Ibis and Northern-Rough-winged Swallow). However, I will never forget the sound of those male alligators - and the sight of those water droplets bouncing up from their backs.