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.

Gilbert Riparian Water Preserve - 31 Oct 2012

After returning from Lake Havasu, we were getting several reports of a couple rare birds being sighted at the Gilbert Riparian Water Preserve; at least the 2 bird species are considered rare for Arizona.  And since this birding hot spot is only about 6 miles from my home, I had to venture out to see what I could find.  Sunday I struck out on both birds, but being tired and hot, I suppose that can be expected.  So I ventured out again on Wednesday and also met one of my birding friends, Ellen,  and she helped me locate one of the birds, a Chestnut-sided Warbler.  This bird is a rare but casual migrant to Arizona and the bird has been hanging around for about a week now and it appears to be a first winter female.  A male in breeding plumage would be ideal, but when it comes to a new life bird, one can't be too picky.  First glimpses of the bird was in dense foliage on the back side of a mesquite tree and was good enough for an ID, but no photos.  So we moved on down the path to the end and returned to find it flying across our path into another mesquite, but this time she became very cooperative and actually exposed herself on some branches and allowed nice photos.  I guess patience can be a virtue at times and the photos below were worth the wait.

 

 Chestnut-sided Warbler

 

 Chestnut-sided Warbler

 

Chestnut-sided Warbler

 

Of course this place is very well known for its water birds and even though the Black-necked Stilt is a fairly common wading bird, they are also one of the most photogenic birds and then when one captures a 3 photo segment of one it makes the photos a bit more interesting as if I captured a little bit of history that no one else captured.  First the probing in the water, then the plunge, and finally the results of its tiny morsel.

 

 Black-necked Stilt

 

Black-necked Stilt

 

Black-necked Stilt

 

Another unique find was a couple of Dunlin.  While they are not considered rare, they are far less common than some of the other waders and they are usually considered a nice find and they can be tough to pick out in large flocks of other wading birds.  Of course the Long-billed Dowitchers are always quite common at this location and the lighting was just right to allow a couple of photos.  Along with that we also located at least 6 Wilson's Snipe, but they blended in with the mud so well they probably escaped the eye of most casual observers.

 

 Dunlin

 

 Long-billed Dowitcher

 

Wilson's Snipe-Look close, there are 2 in this photo.

 

As with any trip to this place, a Green Heron can almost always be found and this was no exception.  This one was lying in wait for some minnows to swim by and become part of its meal that day.

 

Green Heron

 

Since this is fall with winter approaching, the waterfowl is plentiful on the ponds right now and one of the most elegant looking birds is the Northern Pintail.  If you can call a duck elegant, this one has to near the top to fitting the description.  Also had to snap a photo of a Green-winged Teal since it made itself available.  Sometimes the teals are a bit skittish and really try to keep their distance.

 

 Northern Pintail

 

 Northern Pintail

 

Green-winged Teal



Rocky Point, 2nd post.

On Thursday morning, April 26th,  I had decided I wanted to find Cholla Bay and get there before low tide which was recommended by some other experienced birders, but low tide was not until about 11:00 am, so I went back out to Sandy Beach which is where the condo was situated and quickly found some more fun birds.  Probably the biggest surprise was a Wilson's Warbler found around the condo's grass and bushes near the pool.  I have seen these hyper-active little birds many times, but they are usually in dense vegetation of trees and since Rocky Point does not have much for trees, except palm trees, this one was spending time in the very small bushes and landed on the lawn just long enough to capture a couple of photos.  Cute little birds and always nice to find.

Wilson's Warbler

From there I continued down to the beach and found quite a few birds on the beach already.  The photo is a Willet which was a new bird for me and once I found them, they were all over the place and when they fly, their wing pattern is unmistakable. 

Willet



I also encountered a small group of 8 Sanderlings and mixed in was a bird that was colored very differently.  It took me awhile to figure out that it was a Dunlin.  Now I have seen Dunlin before in Arizona, but always in their non-breeding plumage.  I had never seen one in breeding plumage, so it looked much different than what I was used to.  Really glad I was able to capture a photo of this one as they are quite colorful.  The slightly downturned bill and the black belly are key indicators.

Dunlin

From here I finally ventured out to find Cholla Bay and did not have much difficulty in that department.  I got there just before low tide and heading down the rocks to the beach area and immediately came upon a Whimbrel, which was another new life bird for me.  This bird did was mostly in the escape mode as it did not stop to allow me to get a head on photo.  The shape of the bill is unique, with its down curved bill it slightly resembles a Long-billed Curlew.  But the Whimbrel's bill is much shorter and there are other differences that help to identify it along with a bit different habitat.

Whimbrel



The diversity of birds found on Cholla Bay was very impressive.  It seemed that I would find something new and watch and catch some photos of that and then turn around and find another new bird had flown in nearby.  Found a lone 'peep' by itself that did not stand out and just shot a few photos to look at later and when I processed the photos I discovered it was a Black-bellied Plover still in winter plumage.  Did not spend too much time looking at the plover in the water as I was more distracted by a pair of Ruddy Turnstones that flew in.  This was a very nice find and had been one on my wish list.  Breeding plumage is very distinctive.

Black-bellied Plover

Ruddy Turnstone

Next new birds that made an appearance were Marbled Godwit with their upturned bills and a flock of Red Knots that seemed content to just rest in the water. 

Marbled Godwit

Red Knot

And finally a pair of Semipalmated Plovers stopped by rounding out an incredible morning on Cholla Bay at low tide.  The number of terns was also very high, but have decided to do another post later on to cover some of the many terns I found.

Semipalmated Plover