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April is my final month working at Lone Star CyFair and I'm hoping to see some spring migrants here before I leave. I haven't had too much luck so far, though.
There are plenty of our common residents around, including innumerable Northern Mockingbirds.
This one gave me a very hard look as I was photographing it!
Our Purple Martin gourds are pretty much fully occupied now.
A Double-crested Cormorant occasionally pops in to see what the fish situation is like in our ornamental pond.
The nature trail - now much reduced by ongoing constriction work - has had plenty of resident birds, including N Cardinals and Blue Jays, but until Friday the only migrants I had seen were Blue-gray Gnatcatchers.
The two small wetland areas on the nature trail both have water and so I've been checking them for migrating Waterthrush. On Friday I finally got lucky when I spotted a Louisiana Waterthrush by the water's edge.
Surprisingly, it was part of a group of birds that also comprised two Northern Cardinals, a Blue Jay, three Great-tailed Grackle, three White-throated Sparrows and a Swamp Sparrow (below).
Mixed flocks of birds are common but this seemed like a very odd mix of species.
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As the weather forecast for Sunday morning was good, we drove over to Sheldon Lake State Park. The weather did turn out to be excellent but, partly because of this, the park had many more visitors than usual and this seemed to make many birds keep their heads down.
We started off with a quick stop at the old parking lot at Carpenter's Bayou and were delighted to see that the water there was no longer completely covered by vegetation. I was hoping to see Wood Ducks but had to be content with Anhinga, Black-bellied Whistling Ducks, American Coots, Common Gallinules and Blue-winged Teal (below).
When we reached the main entrance, we were greeted by a beautiful Eastern Bluebird.
Further along the entrance road the ponds had Black-necked Stilts, Greater Yellowlegs, Snowy Egrets, Great Egret and Great Blue Heron. Even more exciting, there were three Red-breasted Mergansers, one of our favorite bird species.
The ponds at the environmental center had only a few birds. We saw half-a-dozen Yellow-crowned Night Herons.
Eight Black-bellied Whistling Ducks were hanging out in one pond.
In another a Little Blue Heron was posing amid the reeds.
One of the highlights was when a Bald Eagle circled overhead in the company of three Broad-winged Hawks.
Another highlight was spotting a Great Kiskadee. I had heard this bird on my previous visit but hadn't managed to see it. This time both Dee and I got looks at it and I even got a (not very good) photo.
If birds were scarcer than usual, other wildlife was not. This little chap popped up right in front of us.
Two of the ponds each had an alligator.
When we passed one pond, Dee noticed that a broad-banded water snake was resting on a log.
When we passed the spot a little later, we saw it had been joined by a larger relative.
I'm not sure how many red-eared sliders we came across but this was the handsomest of all the ones we saw.
When we leave Texas for Spain this summer, I'm afraid that birds won't be the only wildlife that I'll miss!
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On the way back from High Island we took our friends for their first visit to Anahuac NWR, our favorite nature site in southeast Texas. We didn't get there until mid-afternoon and so there were fewer birds visible than usual. However, there was still enough to see to make for a very pleasant afternoon.
We started by driving down to Frozen Point. The Burrowing Owl didn't appear but the field where it lives had plenty of Black-necked Stilts and Willets (below).
Killdeer were much in evidence, too, looking for tasty morsels in the cow pats.
We had lunch in the old Visitor Center. Unfortunately, no swallows had yet arrived to nest there and the Vermilion Flycatcher was a no-show again. However, we did run into a very pretty bullfrog. Although I've heard thousands since we moved to Texas, this was the first one I'd actually seen.
A slow drive around Shovelers' Pond turned up nothing except some of the most common birds.
A Great Blue Heron was the only heron we spotted.
Most birds that we saw were Common Gallinules and American Coots (below).
Great-tailed Grackles were also present in large numbers.
Our final bird was this Pied-billed Grebe.
I'm hoping that more birds will be around when we visit the site in April on our way to look for spring migrants in High Island.
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Our friends were late arriving on Sunday and so we didn't reach High Island until noon. The Smith Oaks rookery was very busy - with both birds and people.
There weren't only birds and people either, because a large alligator was lurking across from the first observation platform
Nearby there were a couple of Common Moorhens and Blue-winged Teal.
As usual, the first area with nests was largely occupied by Neotropic Cormorants.
Several Snowy Egrets were prowling near the water's edge.
Since our previous visit the number of Roseate Spoonbills had increased significantly.
For me, as I'm sure for many other people, one of the most enjoyable aspects of the rookery is to watch Roseate Spoonbills as they fly into and out of the nesting areas.
By far the most numerous of the nesting birds on this visit were again Great Egrets, most looking splendid in their breeding plumage.
It is always great fun watching these magnificent birds as they fly back to the rookery with nesting materials.
Some of the materials the Egrets bring in are impressively large.
Others are, well, much less impressive.
Whatever the size of the contributions, each bird's partner is waiting at the chosen site to take charge of the materials and add them carefully to the growing nest.
The Great Egrets and Spoonbills made a nice contrast with the numerous Black Vultures that kept passing overhead.
After an hour at the rookery we left High Island to fit in another visit to Anahuac NWR before we headed for home.
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