Pretty in Pink

Roseate Spoonbill (Platalea ajaja)
Spring fever is in the air all along the Texas Gulf Coast! And from what I hear, the rookery at High Island's Smith Oaks sanctuary is all aglow with the greens and pinks of happy egret pairs and spoonbill couples. (Can you say "twitterpated"?)

Unfortunately, I still have a week or two before I get to make that trek to High Island, so I'm biding my time by looking back at the shots from last year. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have.













Hopefully I'll get some better ones later this month!

As always, you can click on any of the images above to see a larger version. Also, check out Bird Photography Weekly #128 for more great bird photos from around the world.

Ibis in the Morning

White Ibis (Eudocimus albus)

Taken at Elm Lake at Brazos Bend State Park in Brazoria County, Texas.

The Daily Bird: White-faced Ibis

White-faced Ibis (Plegadis chihi)

San Bernard Revisited

It's been three weeks now since I returned to San Bernard National Wildlife Refuge with three separate memory cards full of photos. I've simply got to work on getting a better turnaround for getting pics downloaded and posted!

(Note: You can click on any of the images in this post to see the full-sized, detailed versions on Flickr.)

The morning sun rose unseen behind a dense fog that had settled in from the coast to well north of Houston, but the weathermen swore it would clear out by mid-day. As luck would have it, the skies had just about cleared by the time I made it to the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory in Lake Jackson, just a couple of miles from the refuge. Stopping over briefly at the GCBO, I started the morning watching cardinals, chickadees and titmice taking turns at the feeders and a tree full of roosting night-herons.


Yellow-crowned Night-Heron (Nyctanassa violacea)
By the time I turned down the gravel and dirt road leading into San Bernard, the fog had finally burned off, revealing a beautiful expanse of crisp blue Texas sky chocked full of life.


Northern Harrier (Circus cyaneus)
I started with the drive around Moccasin Pond, which was not quite as crowded as on my previous visit but still had plenty of waterfowl enjoying the spring weather. There were Blue-winged Teal, Northern Shovelers and American Coots aplenty.


While I saw fewer Red-winged Blackbirds than expected, there was an abundance of Boat-tailed Grackles on hand. Males and females alike perched briefly on branches, reeds and roadside posts all along the drive.


Boat-tailed Grackles (Quiscalus major)
I also saw plenty of ibises, with both adults and a few juvenile White Ibis present. The White-faced Ibises were even more numerous than on my last visit, and they seemed especially active and vocal this day.


White-faced Ibis (Plegadis chihi)
The egret family was well-represented...


Great Egrets (Ardea alba)


Snowy Egret (Egretta thula)
... as were the herons.


Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias)


Little Blue Heron (Egretta caerulea)


Tricolored Heron (Egretta tricolor)
There were also a handful of Black-crowned Night-Herons, both adult and juvenile birds that had not yet lost their youthful plumage. The glowing orange of these night-herons' eyes were absolutely stunning.


Black-crowned Night-Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax)
I have already posted several pictures of the kingfisher, grebes and bitterns that I saw, all of which were especially exciting finds.


American Bittern (Botaurus lentiginosus)
A trio of cormorants rounded out the highlights of the trip. One perched gracefully within fifty feet of my truck, its clear aqua blue eyes keeping a close watch as I crawled slowly by.


There were at least a dozen or so more birds on hand, including gulls, several shorebirds, Tree Swallows, sparrows, kinglets, mockingbirds and cardinals. Plenty of Red Slider turtles, a sleeping snake and a pair of alligators also made appearances. All in all, this was one fantastic outing.

I've uploaded more photos from the trip to my Flickr photostream, in case you haven't had enough. (The first six in that set are from my previous visit to San Bernard, all others are from the more recent trip.)

SkyWatch Friday #36

After four days of much-needed rain, the heavens over southeast Texas have turned a brilliant blue once again. And while we have awoken over the past several mornings to some of the thickest fog we've seen in months, once the mists burn off we are enjoying beautiful spring weather and cloudless skies.

To celebrate the gorgeous weather, I took off from work one morning and headed back down toward the coast on a solo outing to San Bernard NWR. Just as I arrived in the reserve, the sun burned through the last patches of fog to reveal a glorious blue sky. And while there weren't any interesting cloud formations at which to gaze, there was plenty to garner my SkyWatching attention as herons, hawks, ibises, gulls and more filled the skies.


(Click on any image to view the full-sized version)




I'll post more pictures from the trip as soon as I can finish weeding through them all.


For more intriguing images of the skies above our world, check out the SkyWatch Friday home page.

A Bunch of Old Coots

I spent last Saturday morning down at the San Bernard National Wildlife Refuge with a small group of Houston Audubon Society members. About a dozen or so of us were met outside the refuge office by our guides, Brad Lirette (current VP of the Texas Ornithological Society) and his four-year-old son Jason. Brad's knowledge of the area was remarkable, and young Jason bravely took on the responsibility of searching for man-eating alligators, poisonous snakes and sticks. (Fortunately, only the latter was encountered in any great numbers.)


Photo courtesy of Bill Saulmon
The day started out on an auspicious note, with two Sandhill Cranes (the first of several lifers of the day for me) and a small flock of White-fronted Geese standing in a field nearby, and a White-tailed Kite hunting overhead. Unfortunately, a cold front had moved through the night before, leaving heavily overcast skies and buffeting winds that blasted us throughout the morning. I'll blame the poor light and blustery weather for the uninspiring quality of my photos from the trip — that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

When all had arrived, we headed to Bobcat Woods to start our adventure. The walk through the trees shielded us from the wind, but it also kept all but a handful of cardinals, kinglets and warblers under cover.

Moving out of the forested area, we were assaulted full-force by the cold winds as we stopped at the Wolfweed Reservoir. The few scopes that were brought out were shaking so hard that they were only minimally effective, but we did manage to spot a few ducks, cormorants and dowitchers.

Oh, and for the record, the title of the post does not refer to the wonderful group of birders that attended this trip. Rather, it's a tip of the hat to these hardy fellows who alone did not seem to mind the wind and weather one bit:


American Coot (Fulica americana)
There were literally hundreds of American Coots dotting the wetland areas we visited, easily outnumbering any other species we saw.

There were a few interesting sights to be seen at Wolfweed. A lone juvenile Little Blue Heron made its slow way along the water's edge, off to one side of us. Everyone perked up at the sight of an immature Bald Eagle in the distance; I believe the consensus of the group put him down as a third year bird. We also had near flyovers of several White Ibis, Turkey Vultures and a lone Crested Caracara.


White Ibis (Eudocimus albus)
Retreating to the refuge of our vehicles, we made our way to the drive around Moccasin Pond. This, finally, was where most of the birds had taken shelter, hunkered down among the reeds and small islands that littered the area. Here were more coots, candy-corn billed moorhens, Boat-tailed Grackles and Red-winged Blackbirds. Here, too, were spoonbills, ibises, night-herons and egrets.


Great Egret (Ardea alba)
There were also ducks aplenty, including Shovelers, Pintails, Gadwalls, and both Blue- and Green-winged Teal. One of the highlights (and another lifer for me) was a small group of twenty or so Fulvous Whistling-Ducks huddled together near a floating gator.


Fulvous Whistling-Ducks (Dendrocygna bicolor)
Another bit of excitement came when we spotted a Peregrine Falcon actively hunting, diving in an attempt to stir up the ducks on the surface of the lake. Not far away, one of several Northern Harriers that we saw throughout the morning was also hunting, and it almost seemed for a short time that the two were working together to herd the waterfowl between them.

We did see a few shorebirds, although not as many as we expected. There were a handful of Yellowlegs (both species) running across the mudflats, and a small flock of Black-necked Stilts.


Black-necked Stilts (Himantopus mexicanus)
We also found two more lifers for me, a pair of Grebes. There actually were quite a few Pied-billed Grebes swimming along, not far from the roadside bank of the pond.


Pied-billed Grebe (Podilymbus podiceps)
But the bird that many in the group were hoping to see was the Least Grebe that had been reported several times recently at the refuge. To everyone's delight, we finally found the grebe near the opposite end of the loop. Unfortunately, he was actively diving and moving quickly away from us, and between his constant motion and small size and the choppiness of the water, I was unable to get a decent picture of this tiny water bird. (See BirdingBev's recent post for a great capture of the Least Grebe from her visit to San Bernard NWR.)

Although I was very disappointed with the majority of the photos I came away with, I can't complain about any other aspect of this trip. The weather could have been a little more cooperative, but all in all it was an outstanding excursion. I came away with several new additions to my life list, and a total of somewhere around sixty species overall. You can bet that I will gladly go back to San Bernard NWR at the earliest opportunity.

Pretty Maids All in a Row

I listened to an Eagles CD on the drive in this morning, and I've had that song running through my head ever since I pulled into the parking lot. It reminded me of an ibis encounter I had a couple of weeks back, so I figured: What better to write about this morning?


On my way in to work one morning I spotted an egret flying low over a nearby field, so I turned in to see where he was heading. I parked and quietly walked up the rise. But instead of the anticipated egret, I was surprised to find a wholly different set of waders playing "follow the leader" through the marshy grass.

White Ibis (Eudocimus albus)
The ibises (should that be "ibisi"?) would trudge single-file across one way, then stop and wander around looking for some breakfast. Then one would start heading back the other way — and the other three would fall in right behind, looking for a better hunting spot.


They almost seemed to be crisscrossing the area, and were very methodical in their search.


A few minutes later, the egret swooped in to check on the proceedings.

White Ibis and Snowy Egret (Egretta thula)
After what appeared to be a brief conference between the two species, the ibises returned to their work.


The egret stayed for a bit to oversee their work then took wing once again, flashing those "golden slipper" feet as he left almost as suddenly as he had arrived.


Almost as if on cue, the ibises fell into line once more. Pretty maids, all in a row.


For more great bird photos, check out Bird Photography Weekly #8.

Displaced by the Storm

Pictures of the destruction to homes and businesses caused by Hurricane Ike have been all over the local news and the internet. Many people were displaced by the storm, and some are still waiting to return to houses and property that were flooded or even destroyed by the storm.

But there were others who were involuntarily displaced from their homes by the storm — some that most people haven't even thought of as yet.


Last week as I was driving through some of the farmland near our home, 80-90 miles inland from the coast, I was surprised at the number of coastal and wetland birds I spotted. Several times I looked up at the sound of seagulls crying overhead, seemingly lost with the absence of sand and waves.

There were also many unusual scenes of egrets and ibises, wading through water still standing in fields that were flooded by the storm.


The majority of this group appeared to be cattle egrets (Bubulcus ibis — possibly immature, with yellow beaks and dark legs), which are common to the area; however, cattle egrets are not normally waders like the other egrets and herons found in this region, so I'm not positive I have identified them correctly.


Mixing in with these smaller egrets were at least three young roseate spoonbills (Ajaia ajaja), with their white plumage just starting to turn pink. This is the first time I have ever seen spoonbills this far inland or away from the coast or marshes.


A neighboring field hosted yet another pair of spoonbills, along with a half dozen or so of what I believe were snowy egrets (Leucophoyx thula — black bills, yellow around the eyes, black legs and yellow feet). They were fun to watch, appearing to dance as they walked through the watery grass, shaking a foot from time to time as they stepped gracefully forward.



In two fields I saw the much larger common egret (Casmerodius albus), towering over and yet standing apart from their much smaller cousins.


I spotted several dark forms mixed in with the fields of white waders, but at first couldn't tell what they were. Finally, just before I got back to town, I found a group much closer to the road and was able to spot the telltale downward curve of ibises.


The brown backs and wings, white undersides and mottled necks and heads mark these as immature ibises, although I can't say for certain whether these are white (Eudocimus albus) or scarlet (Eudocimus ruber) ibises.


White ibises are much more common along the Texas gulf coast, and I expect that is what these young birds were. However, I have heard of spottings of scarlet ibises in the coastal marshes near Sabine Lake, near the Texas-Louisiana border, or along the Bolivar Peninsula (just north of Galveston Island), so I suppose it is possible after a storm like Ike that those may have been blown a bit wayward.


In the days immediately following the hurricane's passage through the area, I found myself reading and re-reading Kenn Kaufman's column in the latest issue of Bird Watcher's Digest. He wrote of a recent visit to Galveston Island, and of the changes that have happened there over a number of years with regards to the human disruptions that have so affected bird habitats along the Texas coast. And with the limited space that has now been set aside for bird and wildlife habitation in this area, I wonder what sort of affect such a monstrous — if entirely natural — disruption such as Ike will prove to have on the birds of this region.