Texas Round Up

Final Texas post. We made it back to Philly last night after a long day of traveling. Here are a few final photos from the trip. Here are a few non-avian critters. This butterfly landed on the hood of the van while we were at the San Antonio Botanical Garden.

Butterfly

This one is a little more icky. A Diamondbacked Water Snake with half his lunch still hanging out of his mouth. It looks like lunch was a perch.

Diamondback Water Snake - with fish

I walked right past this iconic critter of the south - the Armadillo. Lori spotted it digging for ants just off the trail. This is a life critter for me and really cute.

Armadillo

Believe it or not, the trip included non-birding activities. The girls took a trail ride one day that I will let them tell you all about. I didn't go. Horses and me don't mix. I think I inherited that from my mother.

On the trail

Connie and I spent the hour and a half that they were riding in the antique shops in the local town. I thought they might want an ice cold beer after the ride. They appreciated every drop!

Ice Cold Beers!

We also went to Austin for a day so that Di and Barbara could visit a friend who moved there. The rest of us did some sight seeing. One of the sites not to be missed is the Congress Ave Bridge which crosses the river right in the middle of town. There is nothing unusual or spectacular about the bridge itself except at dusk when over a million Mexican Free-tailed Bats come pouring out of it. This is a nightly occurrence that is attended by hundreds of people. This video is just a snippet. It went on like this for 20 minutes.

After the bat cave - we made the long drive back to San Antonio but not before stopping at the famous "Buc-ees" rest stop. We had a rundown of Buc-ees attractions from the owner of Warbler Woods (don't ask). She told us all about the private bathroom stalls, and how you can order a sandwich from a computer, and get gas, and they have all kinds of snacks. It all sounded like a Wawa to us. We giggled until we actually saw the place. It is HUGE. They have over 120 gas pumps and the 3rd cleanest bathrooms in the country (now I want to see #1 and #2). Here is a shot of the gas pumps.

Buc-ees Gas Pumps

Here is a shot of about 1/4 of the stalls in the Lades Restroom. You really get an individual stall.

Buc-ees Bathroom

Oh, you must ask Barbara about her new Detroit Redwing friend and the written warning she got after leaving Buc-ees without turning on the headlights to the van.

Detroit Redwings fan (left), Flyers fan (right)

A few more bird photos round out the trip. The first is a Bewick's Wren that popped up to scold me when I was waiting for the girls to get mounted up on the horses.

Bewick's Wren

Here is an Eastern Phoebe waiting for us to move off of the deck at a local Nature Center so that she could feed the babies in the nest that she built above the door.

Eastern Phoebe

There are Crested Caracara all over Texas. This one hung out on a utility pole at Mitchell Lake.

Crested Caracara

Another encounter with one of our target birds on our last day and the best photo of them all.

Golden-cheeked Warbler

Final photo is female Scissor-tailed Flycatcher in flight - unmistakable!

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

We rounded out the trip with 162 species. No bad.

Corpus Christi - Aransas Area

Texas is a big state. Texan's like to tell you that its the largest state, but Alaskans take exception to that. In fact, if you cut Alaska into 3 pieces, Texas is still only the 4th largest state. All of that being said, Texas is still a big state. We drove for hours to get to some of the places that you have been reading about but somehow it doesn't seem that far when you look at the map. I guess it's all relative. For instance, it took us 2.5 hours to get to Blucher Park. We left there and went out onto the barrier islands - Padre to the south and Mustang to the north of the bridge. We saw some usual suspects like this Black-bellied Plover along the back bay.

Black-bellied Plover - Texas

We also saw some not-so-usual birds - another target species for me - the Franklin's Gull. I had no idea that we would see them in flocks. I kind of expected one here and one there. But they were very obvious in flight. They look almost exactly like our Laughing Gulls only they have different wing pattern at the tip and they also look pinkish when you see them flying. Check it out.

Franklin's Gulls - Texas

 This is a good comparison shot for those who care. The Franklin's Gull is closest and farthest. The Laughing Gull in the one over to the right. Can you tell the difference?

Franklin's and Laughing Gulls - Texas

We went out to the coast hoping for some shorebirds or other gulls but all we saw was wind and whitecaps.

Windy Beach - Padre Island

Thanks goodness the park rangers came along. They told us to go to Port Aransas for lunch and take the Ferry over to Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. Here we are at Virginia's Bar and Grill where we had lunch. It was terrific.

Bird Nerds at lunch

This is the FREE ferry! It took all of 5 minutes to get to the other side. We have no idea why they don't just build a bridge.

Ferry Ride

Aransas NWR was a bust. We were hoping for Whooping Cranes but we didn't see any. The sign at the Visitor Center told the tale - they leave in Mid April. We were there on April 15th. Sigh. We were delightfully surprised to see Upland Sandpipers along the road into the park. In fact, we counted 16 of them. It was difficult to get a good shot since they would fly away if we got out of the car. They are unmistakable to identify since they are one of the very few shorebirds that is found in grassy fields. Birders call them "Uppies".They are rare in our area as they prefer open grasslands. Lakehurst Naval Airstation in NJ is the closest place to see them.

Upland Sandpiper - Aransas Texas

Of course, you can't throw a stone in South Texas without hitting a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher. They were everywhere along our drive. I can't help but snap photos of them.

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

After the Whooping Cranes leave, Aransas is kind of empty. We climbed the observation tower anyway. We asked a lady to take our photo. She added her thumb to the top left corner. . .

Bird Nerds - observing nothing

We got a few species to add to the Texas list - Least Bittern and Sora - both calling from the Alligator Pond. It was a long drive back to San Antonio.

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher - in Philly

One of the things about the Big Year is that I hear about all of the rare birds in the area via Internet, text, email and phone calls. The other thing about the contest is that when you get a rare bird, you think WOW.  And then it's weird when another one shows up. When a third one shows up, you start to be blase about it. OK, the fourth time it shows I start to wonder how "rare" it really is.  The bird that I'm talking about is usually found in Texas in open field habitat. It has been seen 3 times in NJ and this weekend in Philadelphia.  Philadelphia as in a very urban area. Bartram's Gardens is located in southwest Philly along the Schulkyll river. The gardens are pinned in by row houses and train tracks but it does have an open field that is pretty perfect for flycatchers. 

I took the opportunity to shoot a few photos before a hockey game. At first, I couldn't locate the bird or any other birders for that matter. A few guys showed up with scopes and we went into the woods where the bird was reported. I think there were too many kids and dogs and joggers around the field for the bird to hang around. I decided to go into the field anyway and wait for the bird to return. I made the right choice. I stood quietly near a few bushes in the middle of the field and viola - the bird showed up.  WOW! What a sight. The extra long tail is enough to make this bird special but the salmon flanks puts it over the top.

 

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

 Here it is flying. Check out that tail!

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

The hockey team lost 2-0 but they played great. 

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

We got to see a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher in Cape May a few weeks ago, but didn't have our binoculars or camera with us.  A really nice guy lent us his binoculars so that we could see the bird - which I needed for the stupid contest so I could at least count it.  That was a few weeks ago.  As luck would have it - another (or the same) bird was spotted yesterday at Higbee beach so we went down to see it - this time with our gear.  What a show!  This bird flitted around the field as if he was all alone.  Here are some photos. It's a pretty handsome bird.

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

 You can really see the scissor tail when the birds flies. 

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

 Here is a shot showing how close the birders were to the bird and it didn't seem to care at all.

Another pretty good photo showing the beautiful salmon belly and scissor tail. The bird was gone this morning. I hope it gets back to Texas safely.

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher