March Madness - Searching for Spring - Part 4

After getting a new set of tires the morning of Tuesday, March 24 we were on our way by 8 a.m., with our first stop the rest area south of Falfurrias, where a Painted Redstart had been seen for the previous few weeks. After walking all around the area for a good half hour, the bird finally made an appearance with a small flock of Yellow-rumped (Audubon's) Warblers and a Ruby-crowned Kinglet...right near the car! It was singing some very short phrases, sounding more like a vireo than a warbler. But once found it was fairly cooperative for photos.

Painted Redstart. Falfurrias, Texas.

Painted Redstart. Falfurrias, Texas.

Painted Redstart. Falfurrias, Texas.

From there we headed north to Corpus Christi, and saw the first gulls and terns of the trip. Unlike those we saw in Florida in January, they were in nice breeding plumage now.

Laughing Gull. Corpus Christi, Texas.

Royal Tern. Corpus Christi, Texas.

A Brown Booby that had been photographed on some rocks there did not appear for us, so we continued north to the Lamar area which has in recent years become a fairly reliable area for Whooping Cranes, as it is adjacent to the Aransas NWR. As we'd hoped, two were still lingering there although they stayed at the back of a large open field so even the 1200mm reach of my spotting scope adapter didn't bring them in very close.

Whooping Cranes. Lamar area, Texas.

A little closer, but not much more cooperative for the camera, was a small group of Gull-billed Terns in a wet spot in the field...the same wet spot where a bunch of dowitchers had been in 2012.

Gull-billed Tern. Lamar area, Texas.

A couple of Turkey Vultures were walking around in the field fairly close by.

Turkey Vulture. Lamar area, Texas.

And along the shoreline, a Black Vulture appeared very close, and tame.

Black Vulture. Lamar area, Texas.

Black Vulture. Lamar area, Texas.

A fairly long drive later, we arrived farther up the coast at the San Bernard National Wildlife Refuge, where we hoped that an afternoon drive around through the marshes would turn up a calling Black Rail, a continuing nemesis bird for us. Along the road to the entrance, we saw a smallish (12 inches or so) snake in the road, and as we often do, went back to investigate. Often, they are road kills, and the straight body position and head tilted up of this one certainly suggested that was the case. But a closer look showed no injuries.

Western Cottonmouth. Near San Bernard NWR, Texas.

Western Cottonmouth. Near San Bernard NWR, Texas.

I suspected what the species was, but it took a while apparently for it to wake up while I tried to move it off the road, using my walking stick. But eventually, it did prove that it was a Western Cottonmouth.

Western Cottonmouth. Near San Bernard NWR, Texas.

And after more prodding than I wanted, eventually it was moved off the road and into the grass. Even with all this, the snake made only a single strike at the walking stick. Docile, or still sleepy?

Western Cottonmouth. Near San Bernard NWR, Texas.

There were many waterbirds around the refuge (see eBird checklist here), although photography was not very easy for many of them. We had gotten far enough up the coast to encounter Boat-tailed Grackles which were fairly numerous in the marshes.

Female Boat-tailed Grackle. San Bernard NWR, Texas.

Overhead there was a very pale hawk, which turned out to be a White-tailed Hawk.

White-tailed Hawk. San Bernard NWR, Texas.

And another was on a utility pole just at the exit to the auto tour route.

White-tailed Hawk. San Bernard NWR, Texas.

Unfortunately, we did not hear any Black Rails vocalizing. So we headed for the Freeport area for the night. Our plan for the next morning was to get to Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge as early as possible to make one more attempt to hear a Black Rail. Once again, there were lots of birds (see eBird checklist here), including lots of dabbling ducks.

Blue-winged Teal. Brazoria NWR, Texas.

Northern Shoveler. Brazoria NWR, Texas.

And a good number of Pied-billed Grebes.

Pied-billed Grebe. Brazoria NWR, Texas.

Since it was early morning, many birds were out and conspicuous including lots of Common Gallinules and, surprisingly, quite a few American Bitterns.

American Bittern. Brazoria NWR, Texas.

We dipped once again on Black Rail, so headed for Galveston where there were lots of cormorants and pelicans around the ferry docks.

American White Pelican, Brown Pelican, and
Double-crested Cormorant. Galveston, Texas

Brown Pelicans. Galveston, Texas.

Double-crested Cormorant. Galveston, Texas.

After the ferry crossing, we went to the Bolivar Flats Shorebird Sanctuary and walked down the beach where there were thousands of birds (eBird checklist here).

Western Sandpiper. Bolivar Flats, Texas.

Reddish Egret. Bolivar Flats, Texas.

Reddish Egret. Bolivar Flats, Texas.

Near the southernmost point where we walked, there was a large flock of American Avocets, though nowhere near the 9000 we'd seen here in April 1989 (before the sanctuary was created). There was a nice bunch of Sandwich Terns that were strutting around obviously displaying to each other. They seemed fairly used to people, although my slow approach (and 1200mm scope attachment) surely helped me get my best ever photos of this species.

Sandwich Terns. Bolivar Flats, Texas.

Sandwich Terns. Bolivar Flats, Texas.

Sandwich Terns. Bolivar Flats, Texas.

Sandwich Terns. Bolivar Flats, Texas.

Sandwich Terns. Bolivar Flats, Texas.

Closer to the north end of the beach, there was a good flock of Least Terns, which was a little unexpected as the bar graphs in the references suggest they might not arrive here until the first week of April. I stalked these birds slowly as well, and got my best ever photos of them too.

Least Tern. Bolivar Flats, Texas.

Least Tern. Bolivar Flats, Texas.

Least Tern. Bolivar Flats, Texas.

Least Tern. Bolivar Flats, Texas.

Least Tern. Bolivar Flats, Texas.

A little farther north, at Rollover Pass, there were more shorebirds including a larger flock of American Avocets, part of which is shown in my photo below.

American Avocets and dowitchers. Rollover Pass, Texas.

There were also shorebirds running around in the sandy parking areas, among the cars, including Willets and some plovers.

Willet. Rollover Pass, Texas.

It was nice to see and photograph a Wilson's Plover in breeding plumage.

Wilson's Plover. Rollover Pass, Texas.

And a bit of a surprise was a couple of basic plumaged American Golden-Plovers, which I don't usually expect in a parking lot.

American Golden-Plover. Rollover Pass, Texas.

Continuing north, we stopped at High Island in the hopes that there might have been an early fallout of trans-Gulf migrants. But sadly, that was not the case so we moved along quickly after getting a photo of a Cloudless Sulphur butterfly.

Cloudless Sulphur. High Island, Texas.

From there we headed into southwestern Louisiana, and made one last-ditch effort for a Black Rail in the late afternoon at Cameron Prairie National Wildlife Refuge (eBird checklist here). That effort, once again, failed but there were a lot of birds there including calling King Rails, and we wished we'd had more time to explore this area as it was close to sunset and we didn't want to get locked in.

We spent the night in southwestern Louisiana and spent the following two days driving back home to Michigan, through a lot of rain!

So the net gain for this trip was one confirmed ABA species (Aplomado Falcon0, raising the list to 693, and one additional species awaiting acceptance by state and national records committees (Striped Sparrow). Where to next? Stay tuned.