Rockport Beach Park

Rockport, Texas has many great birding areas and one always cited is the Beach Park.  It’s  long sandy beach with lots of grassy picnic areas.  It also is the protected nesting site of hundreds of Black Skimmers -- that graceful bird known for flying low over the water, lower mandible skimming for small fish and other goodies. 

Black Skimmers on the go

I’ve not been to the park since dogs are not allowed and every time I’m in Rockport, I have Penny with me.  Today, I brought my bike and left the dog in the truck and pedaled in for a little birding.  Hundreds of Laughing Gulls filled the air with their raucous calls as I passed by and up ahead, I saw a gaggle of Black Skimmers circling and landing.  There’s a nice observation area near the roped-off nesting site and I took a bunch of photos of the birds whirling by.  It was quite a spectacle.

They’ll start nesting next month and I’m sure it is quite a sight to see the chicks and their parents up close.  Perhaps next year we’ll stick around a little later.

Laughing Gulls

I saw a Long-Billed Curlew, a Pied-Bill Grebe, a Willet, a bunch of American Avocets, Herring/Laughing/Ringed-Billed Gulls, and a number of other birds during the short bike ride.  It’s a place I will get back to another time.

The Laughing Gulls, now in their plumage, just are characters.  Here’s a lineup from the walkway to the observation platform.  They laugh -- and tend to make you chuckle as you see and hear them.  

Yellow-faced Grassquit: Yes!

Yellow-faced Grassquit

A rare tropical bird, a Yellow-faced Grassquit, showed up at Goose Island State Park about a week after we left in January. For a month now, I have read posts of sightings of him - hundreds of birders have come to see him and he's been very cooperative.

I thought that it would be a one-time chance to see him so we decided to return to the park for a week. It's also a place we love and a good spot to celebrate my birthday. So we drove the short distance down from Goliad this morning.

While driving in to look at the few vacant sites, we drove by the spot where he's been seen. Probably 25 birders were there, binoculars up and looking - and it was hard not to just stop the truck and trailer and join in.

We signed for a nice spot, got unhitched and set up and it was time to exercise the dog - which I did by bike. We rode past the spot but the few folks there had seen nothing since the morning. So, figuring we had all week, I had lunch and a little rest.

Mary suggested I go back and so I did. There were some women down from Houston and a guy who flew in for the weekend from Oregon. We waited and watched a few sparrows. The women decided to leave and I was about to when the Oregon guy - who is quite skilled as a birder - saw it fly into the brush and yelled "bird." That got the gals hustling back and sure enough, the little rascal was just perched in the shade. You could see him but when the Oregonian got his scope, the bird was spectacular.

The Grassquit breeds from central Mexico to northern Ecuador and northwestern Venezuela, and also on the Greater Antilles and nearby islands (e.g. the Cayman Islands, and Jamaica). It is not a migratory bird but moves about outside the breeding season. It's neat to think how far from home he is - and what an extremely rare sighting for the U.S.  Glad we came back here.

I'm sure I'll get to see the guy a few times more and get some photos. The one above is from the web - but is just like the guy I saw this afternoon.

Rio Grande Turkeys

As I was sitting behind the Airstream reading on our last evening in South Llano River State Park, the dog stirred and became interested in something behind me.  It was a “parade” of about 25 Rio Grande turkeys strolling down the park road enroute to their roosting spots along the river.  They are pretty birds -- a little smaller than our eastern turkeys but seemingly longer and taller.  It is pale and copper-colored having tail feathers and tail/rump coverts (short feathers located at the base of the tail) tipped with a yellowish buff.

South Llano River SP is home to one of the most significant Rio Grande turkey roosts in Central Texas.  About 800 turkeys roost every year at the park and their grounds are marked off until April.

The Rio Grande wild turkey is native to the semi-arid areas of the southern Great Plains states: Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Northeastern Mexico. It received its common name from the Rio Grande River, which is the water supply bordering the brushy scrub, arid country of some of its prime range in western Texas and northeastern Mexico. This race of turkeys generally occurs in areas having 16 to 32 inches of rainfall.

This subspecies was first described by George B. Sennett in 1879 who said it was intermediate in appearance between the eastern and western subspecies, hence its scientific name, Meleagris Gallapavo Intermedia.

Rio Grande Turkey strutting its stuff

Originally existing in the millions, this turkey had depleted to extremely low numbers by 1920. Formal programs involving trapping and transplanting were initiated in the 1930's and today it exists over much of its ancestral range. Texas has the most Rio Grandes with a population estimated at over 600,000 birds.

One of the neat things camping at South Llano River is to hear the turkeys call to one another in the early evening -- and then again in the morning.  And then to see them parade from their roosts, sometimes displaying as in the photo I took the other day. 

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My New Favorite Bird

As we have progressed through the South and Southwest with our Airstream, I have made favorites of several species of birds I've seen.  The last one was the Cactus Wren.  I never saw one (knowingly) last year and once I spotted one in Falcon State Park, I knew what size they were, where to look, and what to listen for.  And then, I ran into them all the time.  In fact, one was singing to us as we packed to leave our last campground.

Towhees have been birds I've been looking for.  I found one, then dozens, of Canyon Towhees at Davis Mountains State Park.  They are a bit bland but neat birds.

Spotted Towhee

But the Spotted Towhee has me enamored these days.  I saw my first one at a feeder here at South Llano River State Park and now see them each day.  They are beautiful and there agressive scratching the ground for food is fun to watch.  They hop and attack their food -- feathers puff, dirt flies.  They've got a lot of spunk.

So, until I find a new favorite, the pretty Spotted Towhees are my pick of the week.

Water

One of the tricks that western birders seem to know is that if you can find water, you can usually find birds.  That’s been the case for me the last week or so.  At Big Bend, we stopped at an old ranch site where a dilapidated windmill, clanking away, delivered a little water in drips but attracted some interesting birds including a Green-tailed Towhee.

Here at Davis Mountain State Park, where I have seen a number of life birds including the Montezuma Quail, they have water at all feeding stations.  I put out a water drip at our campsite and regularly attract Canyon Towhees, Black-crested Titmice, White-winged Doves, Cactus Wrens, and a host of different types of sparrows.

Not far from here is a dry creek which has a little “seep” -- a wet spot under some clumps of bushes.  It’s about a quarter-mile hike up the creek bed and as you get there, the birds all fly off but ten minutes later, you can see dozens of birds.  I was particularly looking for the Black-chinned Sparrow which I saw.  (It’s a little drab this time of year -- mostly grey -- but it’s Black-throated cousin -- also there -- is starting to show breeding plumage.)  Here’s my list from yesterday morning for about 30 minutes of watching and photographing:

Black-chinned Sparrow
Black-throated Sparrow
White-winged Dove
Black-crested Titmouse
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Pyrrhuloxia
Cactus Wren
Chipping Sparrow
Western Scrub-Jay
Canyon Towhee
Phainopepla
Lark Sparrow
Vesper Sparrow
Northern Mockingbird
Rufous-crowned Sparrow

Here are a few photos I took at the “seep:”

A Black-chinned Sparrow in non-breeding plumage

I love the Black-crested Titmouse

A pair of Cactus Wrens

Life Birds on this trip

To date, I have added 35 birds to my list and missed a number of others.  All except one were in Texas.  I haven't gone out of the way for any rarities but just logged stuff I've seen.  It's an interesting way to recall the birding along the way -- eBird does it electronically.

Altimira Oriole

Black-vented Oriole

Black-vented Oriole

Mary and I took a drive down to Bentsen Rio Grande State Park to do a little birding today. It’s about an hour and half drive - no big deal for Texas - and the park has a great reputation for special birds. However, Hurricane Alex hit the Rio Grande River hard (as we have seen here at Falcon) and the high water decimated Bentsen. Many areas are still not open and the habitat is slowly recovering.

Plain Chachalaca

We took a cold walk spotting the standard warblers and gnat-catchers, Green Jays, and woodpeckers and were a bit discouraged -- but still enjoying some nice looks at birds.  Mary headed back up to to the center to warm up and I went on a bit to a river outlook, hoping to see an Anhinga.  Which I did -- three of them in fact.  They were too far away to photograph but they were a new bird on my life list -- one that I’ve just missed at other places.

There has been a rather rare bird - a Black-vented Oriole - hanging around the RV park next door for several weeks.  It’s been chased by many birders but I hadn’t heard much about it in the last few days and hadn’t planned to try to see it.  (Our time was limited with the dog waiting in the car.)  As I came back, I saw a guy with a big lens sitting on a bench, looking into the woods so I asked him what he was seeing.  “The oriole is up there,” he reported -- and soon had a neighbor on the bench.  We watched the bird move through the foliage, never really coming into the open, but giving us some nice looks anyways.  I shot some pictures, more for the record than for high quality, and was thrilled to nail this lovely bird who normally is in Mexico or Central America.  It’s survived a number of below-freezing nights recently and looked no worse of wear.

At the same time, a noisy gang of Plain Chachalacas strode up to the feeders. These turkey-sized birds are hard to miss but this was my first time seeing them -- so they became lifelist bird 3 for the day.

I returned to find Mary and she reported that she had seen the Clay-colored Thrush up by the feeders.  I knew that bird was often seen at Bentsen but probably walked right by it.  So I back-tracked, waited just a few minutes, and Bingo -- one showed up at the feeder.  Bird 4 for the day.

Clay-colored Thrush

We don’t go crazy chasing birds but it’s fun to see new stuff and add them to the list.  I’ve got a few sparrows and hawks I’d like to see here at Falcon before we leave next week but I won’t lose any sleep if I don’t.  Just watching the Caracaras and Ospreys fly in the high winds of the last few days has been a treat - as was seeing a couple of special birds today. 

Avian Eye Candy

Yesterday morning, Mary and I drove down to Salineno, a small refuge on the Rio Grande about 20 minutes from here. Cheryl, the host, has many feeders and attracts a wonderful variety of South Texas birds. When we went there last year for the first time, it was visual overkill -- just so many different birds that we never see up north. It reminded me of my first time snorkeling -- there is almost too much color and movement for your senses to process.

Today was no exception. When we first got there, a “sharpie” had just passed by scattering the birds so it took a few minutes for the orioles and jays to start returning. We sat in lawn chairs watching Green Jays, three types of Orioles (Altimira, Hooded, and Audubon), Greater Kiskadees, and a host of other species flock to the peanut butter and loose bird food. Here are a few of the shots I took. Enjoy -- we certainly did.

Altimira Oriole

Long-billed Thrasher eats while Green Jay waits impatiently

Golden-fronted Woodpecker

Audubon Oriole at feeder

Green Jay with a mouthful of crunchy peanut butter

Greater Kiskadee

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Some Birds of Goose Island

With both shorebirds and woods birds, Goose Island has a wonderful population of bird species and the surrounding areas add some variety.  I’ve added seven birds to my life list (231) since I got here and saw four birds this afternoon that I’m pretty sure were Anhingas but Penny was with me and they flushed before I could positively ID them.  They might have been double-crested cormorants so I’m hoping to get another chance at another place.

Most songbirds are not breeding so there is little birdsong but we hear lots of calls here -- the ubiquitous Red-winged Blackbirds and Long-tailed Grackles are noisy as are the Northern Cardinals.  A pair of Great Horned Owls sound periodically as does a Red-shouldered hawk.  The Inca Doves call out "squirrel poop" continually during the day. 

I went on two organized bird walks where we saw 40 or so species each time.  I also spent a lot of time riding the bike and walking with binoculars and camera hanging from my neck.

A lot of my photos needed a bigger lens but I don’t have the budget or the inclination to lug a monster lens around with a tripod -- at least at this time.  Here are some of my favorite shots from this time at Goose Island.  They give you a nice idea of the diversity of the birds here.  Good birding.

Great Egret this afternoon

Pied-billed Grebe

Inca Dove

Black-crowned Night Heron thinking he's invisible

E.T. -- a captive Great Horned Owl used in a wonderful talk on raptors

Red-shouldered Hawk perched just around the corner from our campground

Roseate Spoonbills are starting to get their breeding plumage

Pelicans

As a pilot and as a birder, I love pelicans.  I’m intrigued by the way they fly inches off the water, in “ground effect” and it’s fun to watch them weave back and forth with the traffic flow on a long causeway.  The Brown Pelicans are impish-looking as noted in the photo below.  At Goose Island State Park, they’ll line up begging for fish parts when sport fisherman return and clean their catches.

Brown Pelicans at Goose Island State Park boat ramp

White Pelicans, to me, seem more regal and reserved although I saw one in a tussle the other day with an Osprey for a catch -- it was thirty seconds of aerial dog-fighting with the pelican ending up with the catch.

Brown Pelicans fish by plunging headfirst into the water -- giving you the “that’s got to hurt” feeling as you watch.  White Pelicans tend to herd the fish as a group and skim off the ones they have corralled. 

The oil spill did not go west to this part of the Gulf and the pelican numbers seem strong.  The browns will stay here while the whites head north where we’ll see them off the New England coast later this spring.

Both types of pelicans are spectacular landers.  They wheel in, extend their feathers, slow and sometimes sort of water ski with their feet.  Haven’t seen a bounced landing yet -- they are great naval aviators.