Texas: Bolivar Flats Bird Sanctuary

After spending most of the morning at Anahuac NWR, on April 29, my next destination was the Bolivar Flats Bird Sanctuary near the tip of the Bolivar Peninsula. Another great place for birding, but a notice to anyone planning a visit to this beach area; wear long sleeve shirts and pants, no shorts.  Or maybe make sure you have insect repellent applied as there are some large flies there that can really bite and leave a welt.  I learned the hard way, but the birds were worth it.  

This is a great place to see lots of shorebirds, along with gulls and terns.  One of my target birds was the Piping Plover, a bird that is listed by IUCN, (International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) as 'near-threatened'.  Its breeding habitat is also popular with humans making its breeding efforts vulnerable.  Not only did I find this marvelous bird, but I found 6 of them!

  

Piping Plover

Piping Plover - there are 4 of them in this photo

Dunlin, Semipalmated Sandpipers and Wilson's Plovers were fairly common and could be seen running up and down the beaches.

Dunlin

Semipalmated Sandpiper

Wilson's Plover

Least Terns and Black Terns were also very common and the Least Terns were putting on a show with a male courting the female by offering her a small fish.

Black Tern and Least Tern

Least Tern

This spot is also a great spot for Reddish Egrets which is a species that I have seen in Arizona (rare) and also in Puerto Penasco, Mexico.  And I could see one far off in the distance, but upon closer inspection I found one a bit closer, but did not look quite like the normal bird that I have seen.  This one happened to be a much more uncommon color phase, the White-morph.  The distinctive bi-colored bill is the key field mark of all Reddish Egrets and helps to identify this bird and assure it is not a Snowy Egret or a juvenile Little Blue Heron.

White-morph Reddish Egret

One other bird of note was a fly-over by a Peregrine Falcon which looked a little out of place along a sandy shoreline.

Peregrine Falcon

After leaving this area I headed back and made a couple of stops along the way, including Roller Over Bridge.  This time and without extra people I was able to capture a couple extra photos of birds that I was not able to obtain with the group that I had the day before.

 Black-bellied Plover

 Black Skimmer

 Sanderling

Laughing Gull, Black Skimmer, Caspian, Royal and Forster's Terns

At another stop, a Willet was more than obliging for some photos.  This bird was very common just about any location where there was water.  The Willets in Texas have more of a brownish color than those in the west that tend to be gray.  They may appear to be a boring bird in the coloration department, but once they take flight, they are quite striking in appearance.  Just goes to show what is sometimes hidden in those wings.

 Willet

Willet

And the final bird?  Yes, another Common Nighthawk that landed in front of my car on a gravel road.  

Common Nighthawk

Day 3 comes to a close with an abundance of great birds and with one day left, I had to plan my time well to see what else I could add to my list of wonderful birds in Texas.

Texas: Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge

Day 3 and this time I had decided to visit Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge which is located a bit west of Highway 124 that connects Winnie and High Island.  Then also head south to the Bolivar Penisula and the Bolivar Flats Bird Sanctuary.  This is a huge area with a lot of marshy areas full of reeds, cattails and grasses but also with open areas of water.  One of the nicest assets to this area is the Shoveler Pond Loop; a paved one-way road that is about 2½ miles long around it and there are places to pull over to view and even a boardwalk or two going out into the marsh.  I fell in love with this place and was so glad I took the advice of another Texas birder, Sheridan Coffey, to pay a visit. I liked it so well that I came back the next day as well and found some more special birds and creatures.  But for day number 3, this is a brief synopsis of my findings and most of the photos were taken driving on the Shoveler Pond Loop.

One of my key life birds that I wanted to find on this trip was the Boat-tailed Grackle.  Now that I look back on this idea, I find it was a little absurd.  Not only did I find it, but I got to know it so well that I really became a bit annoyed with it; very common and very obnoxious! Very similar to the Great-tailed Grackles so common in Arizona in appearance and behavior.  Some other birds provided some decent photo opportunities along the way.

Boat-tailed Grackle

Eastern Kingbird

 Marsh Wren

Orchard Oriole

Blue Jay

While driving very slowly along the road, at one point I glanced in my rear view mirror and noticed a strange looking bird cross the road behind me.  I immediately stopped the car and headed back to where I last saw it disappear, which was a small area of grass and shrubs on the edge of the water.  Then it showed itself for a brief moment, (where I tried for photos and failed on the focus part) and when it called, I knew it was a King Rail.  This family of birds can be difficult to see as they tend to be very secretive so it was a great feeling to actually see one even if the photos left a lot to be desired.  This was a life bird I had not expected to see.

King Rail

Yellow-crowned Night Heron was another new addition to my list and I was able to see both adults and juveniles.

 Yellow-crowned Night Heron - adult

Yellow-crowned Night Heron- juvenile

Taking the road south from the visitor's center, I veered off from the paved road to take the road to the boating landing, and along the way, I discovered some more new found 'Common' birds; the Common Nighthawk which has been featured in just about every post from this trip, so here is one more.  This one appears to be sleeping on a post.

Common Nighhawk

Nearby were a pair of Forster's Terns taking a rest on posts.

Forster's Tern

Just as I reached the parking area of the boat dock I happened to see another strange looking bird walking in the grass.  This was my first view of a Clapper Rail and I was stunned to find one in full view and allowing me to take photos.  A bit like the King Rail, they are most generally a secretive and elusive bird.

 Clapper Rail

Clapper Rail

My last photo is one of a Laughing Gull.  This was the most frequently encountered gull during my visit to Texas and are actually probably one of the most smartly dressed gulls there are.

Laughing Gull

After having such a successful visit to Anahuac NWR, I now turned my attention to the Bolivar Penisula and the Bolivar Flats Bird Sanctuary.  This will be covered in the next blog post which will probably be delayed due to assisting in the North America Migratory Bird Count this coming weekend.  

Texas: 2nd Day, Part 2

Too many birds in one day to include all in one post, so this second part is going to focus more on waterbirds and another previously mentioned bird.  At noon, the Houston Audubon Society had another field trip and this one took us to the actual Gulf Coast and some great water birds.  First stop was Rollover Pass and the first birds we found up close and personal, were some Ruddy Turnstones.  This is one gorgeous shorebird and can really stand out in a crowd of other shorebirds.  We were so close we could see the awesome coloration of the legs and feet.  Love the black lines on the feet and the black 'knees'.

Ruddy Turnstone

Additional shorebirds included Black-bellied Plover and Wilson's Plover.    

Black-bellied Plover

Wilson's Plover

We had a total of 7 species of terns at this location, plus a Black Skimmer and of course some gulls and a few other shorebirds.  All of them were resting quite comfortably on the sand bar until an unexpected Broad-winged Hawk decided to make a brief appearance in the sky and that created pandemonium with all the birds taking flight but to return very shortly after the hawk disappeared.  

 Various terns

 Royal Tern

Broad-winged Hawk

At one brief stop near the shore, we had another 'Common' Nighthawk sitting on the ground.  Having never seen this species before this trip, now I had seen one the day before in flight, one in the morning at High Island on a wire, and now a third one resting on the ground in broad daylight.  (Be prepared to see more on a couple future posts as this was not the end of seeing this very unique bird.)

Common Nighthawk

So now back to High Island and this time my focus was to check out the rookery in Smith Oaks Woods in the afternoon.  This spot is a photographer's dream in late afternoon in spring with all the nesting and breeding birds.  They have built some great platforms that gives photographers great viewing with an abundance of subjects for your photography skills.  Here is a sampling of what I was able to capture.

 Cattle Egret

 Great Egret with chicks

Neotropic Cormorant with chicks

 Purple Gallinule

 Tricolored Heron

Tricolored Heron

 Roseate Spoonbill

 Roseate Spoonbill on nest with egg

Roseate Spoonbill

By the time this day had come to a close for me and my birding I had added a total of 15 new life birds.  Some were not photograph-able, but I did get some good looks at some.  When birding with a group, photos are always not going to happen as it is quite enjoyable to let others see these birds as well.  List for the day includes; Dickcissel, Tri-colored heron, Yellow-crowned Night Heron, Broad-winged Hawk, Tennessee Warbler, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Scarlet Tanager, Red-eyed Vireo, Ovenbird, Golden-winged Warbler, Common Tern, Sandwich Tern, Hooded Warbler, and Black-throated Green Warbler.  Not a bad day at all.  

Texas: The Real & Serious Begininng

Day 2, and I was up early as today was the day I had planned to spend in High Island, a small town about 19 miles south of Winnie.  It is called High Island as it is where a salt dome is located and it sits about 30 feet higher than the surrounding flat grasslands and marshes.  Due to this slightly elevated height, it is covered with many very tall trees which is one of the first places that many of the migrating smaller birds such as warblers will immediately touch down after their long flight over the Gulf of Mexico.  They are many times exhausted and are in search of food and water.  The Houston Audubon Society monitors and maintains about 4 stands of trees in this small town and during peak migration they offer 3 daily birding trips lead by well qualified guides.  I wanted to take advantage of these 3 trips so I could become more familiar with the area and maybe find birds that I could easily overlook.  The weather for this day started out a little bit worse than Sunday; still a strong southerly wind, overcast and rain showers in the morning, it cleared up later in the day with some sunshine.

The first tour was centered around Boy Scout Woods in High Island and one of the birds that I discovered early on, was another Common Nighthawk.  After seeing the one in flight the day before, this day I was blessed to find one perched on a wire allowing lots of views and photos for anyone that was there.  As it turns out, I ended up finding 4 more of these birds sitting still; 3 on the ground and 1 on a fence post all in different locations during my stay.

Common Nighthawk

Starting with birding in the woods, I quickly discovered the the Gray Catbird was quite common and if you could locate the mulberry trees, then you would most likely find one of these birds feasting on those berries.

Gray Catbird

At one spot, I stumbled upon a Yellow-billed Cuckoo feasting on tent caterpillars.  This have always been a bit of a shy and elusive bird for me as they are quick to dart into thick vegetation when they know you are near.  This one was quite content and allowed me some great photos of this bird; even with a worm in its beak.

Yellow-billed Cuckoo

The rest of the birds that I had the pleasure of seeing were the smaller passerines or song birds.  Some were difficult to photograph as they were most often in the deep shade of the trees, or a bit too far for good focusing.  They include a male American Redstart, a Black-throated Green Warbler (new life bird), Common Yellowthroat, Eastern Wood Pewee (new life bird), Indigo Bunting female, Painted Bunting, Rose-breasted Grosbeak (new life bird), Scarlet Tanager (new life bird), and a Tennessee Warbler (another new life bird).

 American Redstart

 Black-throated Green Warbler

 Common Yellowthroat

Eastern Wood Pewee

 Indigo Bunting - Female

 Painted Bunting - Male

 Rose-breasted Grosbeak - Male

 Scarlet Tanager - Male

Tennessee Warbler

This day of birding has to be split up into 2 different posts due to the sheer numbers of birds.  The next part will focus on water birds as one of our trips involved a coastal trip and some great birds near water and also my visit to the Smith Oaks Rookery on High Island later in the afternoon.  I ended up with 14 new species of birds for this day, so it was really quite awesome!