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On Thursday morning we headed down to Galveston to meet up with our friends Carlos and Macarena Aguilar. Then we all set off together for the Bolivar Peninsula and High Island. The Audubon beach on Bolivar is always a good place for a stroll and I thought our friends would enjoy seeing the large wading bird rookery at High Island.
The ferry trip was quiet - no no dolphins, no terns and only a few Laughing Gulls. However, the harbor at Bolivar had its usual complement of Double-crested Cormorants.
As normal, it had lots of Brown Pelicans, too, most of them busy preening.
I had just mentioned to Dee that we never see White Pelicans on the ferry ride when what should we spot but a score or more White Pelicans. Like their brown cousins, many of them were also preening.
The Audubon beach was fairly quiet for birds but still well worth a visit. The first birds up were Long-billed Corlews, always a delight to watch.
There were Laughing Gulls aplenty. Some were mixing with Royal Terns ...
while others were watching Ruddy Turnstones scuttling around on the sand.
Willets were busy feeding, too.
And there were several Dunlins.
I spotted only a couple of Wilson's Plovers and this solitary Snowy Plover at the pools behind the beach.
Meanwhile a few Black-bellied Plovers were wandering in the surf.
A crowd of Least Terns was too skittish for me to photograph but a Forster's Tern was more tolerant of our presence.
By now it was time to head to the Stingaree restaurant for lunch before moving on to High Island. However, I couldn't resist stopping for a minute to watch Brown Pelicans skimming majestically over the sea looking for fish.
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On Monday morning we rounded off our trip with a visit to Mitchell Lake, just south of San Antonio. We'd wanted to go back there ever since our first visit, in December on our way home from Big Bend.
The Bird Pond was busy with hundreds of American Coots as well as numbers of Gadwalls and Northern Shovelers.
Mixed in among the other ducks were a few Ruddy Ducks, the females looking much drabber than their mates.
One of my target birds for the day was Least Grebe and we saw half-a-dozen.
Moving further into the refuge, we checked out several of the other ponds. The first had a Cinnamon Teal paddling along in front of Blue-Winged Teal.
A few minutes later, we spotted a small group of Green-winged Teal. That's the first time I've ever seen all three Teal in one area.
In the next pond a solitary Double-crested Cormorant looked out of place perched on some kind of pipe in the company of a hundred White Pelicans.
As we watched, the Pelicans gradually hopped into the water and floated slowly away.
In one case, though, this was preceded by a good bout of bill scratching.
The site had a nice mixture of other birds, including Crested Caracara, Yellow-rumped Warblers, American Pipits and Savannah Sparrows. More exciting was a good look at a Grasshopper Sparrow, a bird I rarely see.
Red-winged Blackbirds were everywhere. Most of the males were showing off their shoulder flashes and singing to attract females.
Most of the females didn't seem to be very impressed!
Back at the entrance, we spent a few minutes outside the visitor center. I was pleased to see several Purple Martins using the martin house there - until Dee pointed out that they were fake birds. Two Black-chinned Hummingbirds chasing each other around the gardens were definitely real, however, as were several White-crowned Sparrows and Brown-headed Cowbirds perched near the feeders.
It was now time for us to hit the road back to Houston after what had turned out to be a very rewarding three days. Luckily, spring break had only just begun and I was hoping to fit in another short trip later in the week, perhaps in conjunction with a drive down to Galveston to see some friends who were staying there. The landscape and birds on the upper Texas coast would certainly be very different from those in the Hill Country.
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We were up early on Sunday to make our 20+ mile drive to Concan. We'd heard that Bob Rasa, a well-known local birder, was going to be leading a birdwalk around Neal's Lodges at 8:00 a.m. and we were hoping to tag along.
Bob was there when we arrived and, while we waited to see if anyone else turned up, he pointed out a Yellow-throated Warbler in the trees right in front of Neal's store. The morning was too dark and gloomy for good photos but I rather like the one impressionistic shot I got of the Yellow-throated.
When it became clear that we were going to be the only participants in the morning's walk, Bob took us down to the feeders at Cabin 56 to see what was happening there. It was busy and got even busier over the next 30 minutes.
A succession of sparrows showed up: White-crowned, Chipping, Rufous-crowned, Clay-colored and Lincoln's.
Lincoln's Sparrow
Black-chinned Hummingbirds buzzed around while Northern Cardinals and a male House Finch competed to see who could best brighten up the morning.
Black-crested Titmice made constant trips to the platform feeder.
Then one of my favorite birds appeared: a Black-throated Sparrow. We'd seen these before, at Marathon on our visits to Big Bend, but we'd never had really good looks until now. A spectacular bird!
Bob was determined to take us to see the star bird of Neal's Lodges, the Golden-cheeked Warbler, and so he and I set off to look for it. Dee stayed behind because she wasn't dressed for scrambling across rough country.
On the way to the hill where Bob hoped to show me the Golden-cheeked, he drove me down to the bank of the Rio Frio. Northern Rough-winged Swallows were zooming overhead while Canyon Wrens were calling from both sides, their calls sometimes joined by those of a Belted Kingfisher. We passed a pair of Eastern Phoebes who had built a nest in a hole in a large boulder.
Feeders at a house on stilts were attracting lots of American and Lesser Goldfinch as well as several Pine Siskins. We looked for Green Kingfisher - a bird I desperately want to see - on the river bank but saw only a White-eyed Vireo.
Back in Bob's truck, we drove across the river to a hill on the other side. For the next hour we walked and scrambled around the places where Bob had most recently seen the Golden-cheeked Warbler. Bob kept hearing the bird's soft chipping call but all we saw was a Hutton's Vireo, a bird I hadn't seen since leaving California.
Then we got lucky and had a quick glimpse of a Golden-cheeked up in a tree. Another Golden-cheeked called from the next tree over. And this time it stayed visible long enough for me to take some photos. Not great pictures but good enough to show the bird's distinctive face markings.
By now it was 11:00 a.m. and I thanked Bob and headed back to find Dee. While she and I were waiting for lunch to be served at Neal's Dining Room, I walked back to the feeders at Cabin 56. Things had quietened down a little there but I noticed that a pair of Bewick's Wrens were nesting in a dead tree only feet from where people sit to watch the feeders.
At 11:30 we stopped birding to have (a very good) lunch a Neal's. It wasn't quite the end of our birding, though, because right outside the dining room I looked up to see a Golden-fronted Woodpecker climbing around in a tree.
The woodpecker was our final bird at Neal's. After lunch we set off on our drive back to San Antonio, where we were staying the night. However, we were hoping for some more good sightings on Monday morning, when we intended to visit Mitchell Lake before heading home.
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What a trip! Great weather, easy driving and lots of good birds. We even ate well, too. Who can ask for more?
The birding started when we arrived at Cook's Slough late Saturday morning. It was much quieter than on our previous visits and we didn't see a single Vermilion Flycatcher this time. In fact, the only flycatcher we saw was an Eastern Phoebe.
The ponds had only a few Northern Shovelers, American Coots and Gadwall. The boardwalk had Golden-fronted Woodpecker, Verdin and several Lincoln's Sparrows.
The Heron Flyway was busier, with White-eyed Vireo, Northern Rough-winged Swallow, Northern Parula and lots of Yellow-rumped Warblers. with one of the latter showing clearly how the species got its name.
Our walk was interrupted by a dozen Wild Turkeys that ran frantically across the path ahead of us.
Green Jays were easy to hear but difficult to see and photograph.
The best sighting of all was in the parking lot, where we got to watch a pair of Bewick's Wrens carrying nest material to a cavity behind the site's dedication plaque.
On our way to the motel, we stopped off for a few minutes at the Uvalde Fish Hatchery, hoping for lots of shorebirds. As it turned out, there were very few: only Killdeer, a Long-billed Dowitcher and several Least Sandpipers.
However, the visit was worthwhile because we saw our first Black Phoebe and Cinnamon Teal of the year.
Before dinner I drove over to Fort Inge.
The ruins weren't much to see but there were good stands of prickly pear and some beautiful mountain laurel.
I scrambled to the top of the volcanic hill that overlooks the fort, passing blooming yucas on the way.
There were good views from the top of the hill.
However, the only bird I saw was a Turkey Vulture that floated down to check me out. They may be ugly birds but, boy, can they fly!
Back in the parking lot I noticed a small bird hopping along the fort wall. It took a while before it let me catch up and see it was a Rock Wren.
So our trip had started fairly well with some good birds and 12 additions to my year list.
We were planning to visit Neal's Lodges in Concan the following day and hoping that this would produce an even better selection of birds. As you'll see later, we certainly weren't disappointed.
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