Since the wind wasn't letting up, we decided to forgo High Island on Monday. Looking through the book for possible locations to visit, I noticed that Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge was to our west, and therefore closer to Houston than Winnie. Great, since Anahuac is a must-see spot, it worked out perfectly.
On the way there we scanned the fields we were passing to see if any were flooded rice fields. We didn't even really know what a flooded rice field looks like, so when we didn't find any, we weren't sure if we were doing something wrong. Flooded fields are like magnets to certain species of shore eschewing shorebirds. Texas birders call them "grasspipers," and we hadn't seen several of them. Even though we didn't find any flooded fields, we did find an Upland Sandpiper in a dry pasture.
Photo by Johnath via Wikipedia.
At our first stop, we took a windy walk along a sidewalk. Brown-headed Cowbirds, Eastern Kingbirds, and a fly-by Yellow-billed Cuckoo were the highlights of the stop, but we also got to enjoy some of the non-bird wildlife of the area. Check out this Little Brown Skink:
Our next stop was in the main refuge, where we helped a turtle cross the road. It was just past a slight bend in the road, and had only narrowly escaped a grisly fate from a passing truck when we first saw it. The crazy thing is that when I picked it up to move it an enormous amount of water came pouring out of this thing. It was like a water balloon inside the shell had popped or something. I barely dodged the deluge, and was left with a renewed appreciation for the water-carrying capabilities of the common Red-eared Slider.
There used to be some patches of trees in the refuge that are supposed to be good for migrants, but they seem to have taken a pretty heavy battering by the recent hurricanes that have torn through here. Ike was a big one, and the tallest trees in the willows in the refuge were snags. Still, we got a few more Orchard and Baltimore Orioles in what was left of them.
Then we drove around what is called Shoveler Pond. At this point in time, it's a muddy ditch with a little water in the bottom of it, and the "pond" is a bone-dry field on the other side of that ditch. It's been incredibly dry in Texas this year, and it was really evident. Still, the muddy ditch attracted dowitchers, Lesser Yellowlegs, Black-legged Stilts, and our only Wilson's Snipe for the trip. Best of all were a couple of King Rails, which were lifers, and several Least Bitterns, which appeared to be migrating in off of the gulf.
Next, we drove down to the sea-side to see if we could find Nelson's and Seaside Sparrows. The Seaside Sparrows turned out to be easy, but the Nelson's Sparrows eluded us for the day. It was great, though, to get up close and personal with some Eastern Willets. Eastern Willets breed along the gulf and mid-Atlantic coasts, and seem likely to be a different species from the larger, grayer birds that winter on the American coast and migrate into the interior to breed given their disjunct breeding populations.
Since all we see here in California are the interior birds, we rarely see Willets of any sort in breeding plumage. At some locations on this trip to Texas, we saw the two together in the same pond.
As we were stopping to use the facilities on the way out, a couple of birders from Georgia invited us to see a King Rail family in their scope. The babies never cooperated with us, but we did get to see a Sora and some other shorebirds as well as get some better looks at King Rails. Then it was off to Houston!
We took more pictures of birds on this day than we did any other day, and there are thirteen photos in the set from the morning. It's great to be able to take pictures of birds from the car, and the Willet above is a sign of that. We also have a good picture of an up-close Eastern Kingbird.
There used to be some patches of trees in the refuge that are supposed to be good for migrants, but they seem to have taken a pretty heavy battering by the recent hurricanes that have torn through here. Ike was a big one, and the tallest trees in the willows in the refuge were snags. Still, we got a few more Orchard and Baltimore Orioles in what was left of them.
Then we drove around what is called Shoveler Pond. At this point in time, it's a muddy ditch with a little water in the bottom of it, and the "pond" is a bone-dry field on the other side of that ditch. It's been incredibly dry in Texas this year, and it was really evident. Still, the muddy ditch attracted dowitchers, Lesser Yellowlegs, Black-legged Stilts, and our only Wilson's Snipe for the trip. Best of all were a couple of King Rails, which were lifers, and several Least Bitterns, which appeared to be migrating in off of the gulf.
Next, we drove down to the sea-side to see if we could find Nelson's and Seaside Sparrows. The Seaside Sparrows turned out to be easy, but the Nelson's Sparrows eluded us for the day. It was great, though, to get up close and personal with some Eastern Willets. Eastern Willets breed along the gulf and mid-Atlantic coasts, and seem likely to be a different species from the larger, grayer birds that winter on the American coast and migrate into the interior to breed given their disjunct breeding populations.
Since all we see here in California are the interior birds, we rarely see Willets of any sort in breeding plumage. At some locations on this trip to Texas, we saw the two together in the same pond.
As we were stopping to use the facilities on the way out, a couple of birders from Georgia invited us to see a King Rail family in their scope. The babies never cooperated with us, but we did get to see a Sora and some other shorebirds as well as get some better looks at King Rails. Then it was off to Houston!
We took more pictures of birds on this day than we did any other day, and there are thirteen photos in the set from the morning. It's great to be able to take pictures of birds from the car, and the Willet above is a sign of that. We also have a good picture of an up-close Eastern Kingbird.
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