A Texas Tuesday

Our third morning in Winnie, we had more hard decisions to make. The wind was still coming in from the south, so we didn't know if we could expect to find anything interesting at High Island, but that's the place we'd come to see, so it was hard to pass it up for two days in a row. On the other hand, if the passerine birding is poor, one can always count on shorebirds. Our plan ended up being a morning stop at High Island, and then to spend the rest of the day out on the Bolivar Peninsula.

It was still slow at High Island. Still, at Boy Scout Woods, we found our first ever Gray-cheeked Thrush hanging out at dried puddle called, optimistically, Prothonotary Pond. That was pretty cool. Buoyed by our success, but oppressed by the deadly silence embracing Boy Scout Woods, we headed over to Smith Oaks where we found more silence. Some berry eating birds were feeding in hackberries there, which was fun to watch, but the highlight of the morning was our first Chestnut-sided Warbler of the trip. That's an incredibly pretty bird, so we took the time to property enjoy it.

Then it was off to the Peninsula!

The Bolivar Peninsula is a long sand bar that stretches off toward Galveston Island. It looks to be a popular vacation destination, with many houses (on stilts) along its length. After Hurricane Ike in 2008, it was stripped of many of its buildings by the tremendous storm surge accompanying that storm, but it's being rebuilt and looks mostly cheery, now.

Though, there are still many signs of the hurricane.

We picked up a few lifers on the peninsula. At Rollover Pass, we found our first American Oystercatchers and Piping Plovers. We had some help from a friendly Brit with the former, but had to scrape the latter out with our scope from a distant sandbar. We also enjoyed watching the many terns' graceful antics, especially the pretty Black Terns.

We also tried for Nelson's Sparrows in the marsh grass. Supposedly you can pssh them up, but we didn't have any luck, despite trying in whatever hopeful marshy places we could find. We did have a couple of Magnificent Frigatebirds at these stops, soaring in the distance. Those are some friggin' birds.

The weather continued poorly with an absolutely buffeting south wind coming in off the ocean. When we stopped at Bolivar Flats, which is supposed to be one of the premier shorebird locations in the entire country, we had a hard time keeping the scope up. The wind was probably constantly blowing at 20 mph with stronger gusts. The birds were hunkered down, and we had sand in our eyes, hair and mouths. That's what birding is all about!

Blowing Away at Bolivar

We made it out to the tip of the peninsula, where an industrial-looking lighthouse towered over a frothy brown sea and a grassy old fort. We tried to loop around on a different road, but found the hurricane had washed out a bridge and had to turn around. The low traffic, though, allowed us to slowly admire the many shorebirds in some ponds there. We got right up close to some, which was very nice.

Bob Road was a great stop on our way back, with more shorebirds that allowed close approach. We got our first Stilt Sandpipers for the trip, and the only Wilson's Phalaropes. It was interesting to see the phalaropes out of the water. One of them was walking in frantic circles, much like the way that they forage when they're swimming - which is how we normally see them.

Then we dropped by High Island one last time. We found a couple more warblers that evening, including our first Tennessee and Black-throated Green Warblers for the trip. We ended up back in Winnie for a late dinner at a Cajun Steakhouse. Libby got a fantastic dish of grilled alligator, and I got some nice fried crawfish. It was definitely the most memorable meal we had on the trip, and we really felt like we were partaking of the local cajun flavor.

Pictures from the day are up on Flickr.