Texas - April 2015

What can one say about the scenery of coastal Texas from Houston to Brownsville on the Mexican border? Well, not much I'm afraid! It's flat, featureless and uninteresting. Still, we made our way to Houston for 10 days of birdwatching last month. It was migration time so there would be passage migrants as well as some new birds for me. I hoped there were still some new birds left after my overwhelming trip to Costa Rica in 2012.

After travelling to our first motel in Conroe we spent some time looking for birds on the way to the next centre, Rockport. First we stopped off in the W.G. Jones State Forest and spent the morning there enjoying good views of Eastern Bluebird, Red-bellied and Downy woodpeckers, as well as several raptors, including Swainson's, Red-shouldered and Red-tailed Hawks. The most numerous bird was undoubtedly the various grackles - Common, Great-tailed and Boat-tailed. Almost all of these were lifers. In birdspeak, a "lifer" is a bird you see for the first time in your life.

Eastern Bluebird. There was a car named after it!

Downy Woodpecker

Red-bellied Woodpecker

We arrived in Rockport late. Next day we took a boat trip around the lagoon to see the last dozen or so Whooping cranes before they migrated North. They were distant but unmistakable.

Whooping Crane, or whopping crane - it's about 2m tall.

For me, even better were the Black skimmers, as well as an array of terns and waders.
The skipper also took us close to shore to see the endangered Seaside sparrow, American avocets, as well as a Great Horned owl in the daytime which seemed to be drying our after the rain of the previous night. Even our humble Herring Gull was there.

Black Skimmers. Hard to see here but the lower mandible is much longer
than the upper. It skims the water with the lower mandible in the water,
snapping it shut when it contacts a fish.

American Avocets

American Oystercatchers (with chick - look carefully!)

Herring Gull - anyone know what fish it's caught?

Northern Harrier

Seaside Sparrow

Roseate Spoonbills

Caspian Tern - with that huge carrot bill.

Least Tern - the smallest.

Royal Tern - nearly as big as Caspian

We also visited an island where many herons and egrets had nested. A boat with photographers was moored right up to the island. We kept our distance but we still saw the birds well. The Great Egret's mating display is very attractive. It's something I've not seen before.

Reddish Egrets - male displaying

Great Egret displaying, followed inevitably by . . . 

. . . mating!

Great Egrets mating

There was a small local wildlife park which produced Black-chinned hummingbird, Mottled duck, Green heron, Black-bellied whistling ducks, Northern cardinal, Blue-winged teal, Cedar waxwing and Golden-fronted woodpecker.

Black-chinned Hummingbird

Northern Cardinal - female

Cedar Waxwings

Golden-fronted Woodpecker.
It had a strange display where it spread its wings either side of the branch.

Green Heron

Black-bellied Whistling-duck - as common as our Mallard.

Summer Tanager.
Very colourful like the Northern Cardinal, but without the crest.

On day we had a long drive to Brownsville. This found us just on the US side of the Mexico-US border. We spent the next five nights here. On the way, Scissor-tailed Flycatchers were quite common on wires and near petrol stations. These were nesting in the floodlight of a petrol station.

Scissor-tailed Flycatchers. Male with longer tail - naturally.

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

The journey also produced various raptors and the ubiquitous Northern Mockingbird.

Red-winged Blackbird. Not really a blackbird at all.

Chihuahuan Raven. Quite handsome if you appreciate corvids.

Harris's Hawk. Often a captive hunting bird.

Northern Mockingbird. Very common.

We visited various reserves and forests, notably the Conference Centre and the adjacent Bird Observatory on South Padre Island just off the main coast of Texas. It is this island that many migrating birds hit first on crossing the Gulf of Mexico. They are tired and hungry. As a consequence they are more confiding than normal and one can get quite close to them. 

Unfortunately, the weather wasn't as bad as we had hoped (?) so there were not quite as many migrants as there could have been. There was no 'fall' of birds because of bad weather. Nevertheless, we did see quite a few and some were spectacular. We even saw an unexpected Magnificent frigatebird flying over.

Magnificent Frigatebird

Franklin Gulls were also migrating and there were a couple of large flocks, c1000 each, which landed on the beach. 

Franklin's Gulls - part of a flock of around 1000

Franklin's Gull - Look at that lovely pink breeding flush.

I watched the trees around the centre and tried to get shots of the warblers and orioles. 

Baltimore Oriole

Hooded Oriole

Orchard Oriole

Northern Parula

Blue-winged Warbler. Sorry you can't see the wings from this angle.

Prothonotary Warbler. This is one for me. It's name means 'the first notary'!

Worm-eating Warbler. This one was quite weak and looked as if he might not make it. I hope he did.

We also did a boardwalk to find Sora and Clapper Rail but they were very elusive here, yielding only brief glimpses of the Sora. On another day we looked round the adjoining bird observatory. Here we had more luck. We saw several Sora and Clapper rails, as well as several other waders, etc.

Sora. Normally skulking, this one was quite confiding.

Clapper Rail. This one was fairly skulking. Boy, was it noisy!
Had a video of it but I re-formatted the card before downloading it. Oops!

Great Blue Heron - one of the biggest.

Kildeer. Larger than ringed plover and with two breast bands

Stilt Sandpiper

Black-necked Stilt. The longest legs, relative to body size, of any bird!

Greater Yellowlegs

Lesser Yellowlegs

A trip West to Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge was a nice diversion. The Chachalakas made a wonderful raucous duet above our heads. The Green Jay was confiding and we enjoyed good views of a Greater Roadrunner and Eastern Wood peewee. Also distant views of Wilson's snipe.

Chachalaka - Wonderfully vocal and loud.
They would probably get on your nerves if you lived nearby!

Green Jay

Greater Roadrunner. That's not his own chick he's carrying.

Common Gallinule

Our visit to Sabal Palm Sanctuary was interesting and brought us Buff-Bellied Hummingbird for the first time and good views of the Great Horned Owl and chicks. Also Least Grebe and Least Bittern.  We also saw several doves. My wife calls them all pigeons but I have a soft spot for Colombinas, etc.

Buff-bellied Hummingbird. 

Great-horned Owl

Great-horned Owl chick. Well, chicks - see his brother peeking out from behind. Aaah!

Inca Dove. Small, but perfectly formed.

Mourning Dove. Had by no means the most mournful call.
That honour goes to the White-tipped Dove.

White-tipped Dove. With a call to slit your wrists to!

White-winged Dove. With a beautiful blue eye ring.

Least Bittern

Least Grebe

Long-billed Thrasher - a sort of Thrush-zilla

Carolina Wren. Quite a big wren.

In the afternoon we headed back to South Padre Island where we saw some new sparrows, vireos, cuckoo and thrushes.

Yellow-billed Cuckoo - with yellow-tipped caterpillar!

Dickcissel - where do they think of these names!

Lark Sparrow

Lincoln's Sparrow

Savannah Sparrow

Veery. A small thrush.

Warbling Vireo

Black-and-white Warbler. Cute and very mobile.

House Wren. Quite like our wren really.

We also finally got a really good view of the fabulous Painted Bunting. This unfeasibly pretty bird really looks as though it has been painted.

Painted Bunting.
We got only one good view of this very handsome bird.

All too soon our trip was over and we headed back towards Houston. We passed the immigration checkpoint to see we hadn't illegally come from Mexico! We drove for hundreds of miles on land so flat that hardly any part can have been more than a metre or two above sea level! After dropping our cases off at the motel we went to Brazos Bend State Park. Shortly after our arrival, the heavens opened and we were forced to abandon the tour. We did, however, manage to see a large alligator and a Yellow-crowned Night-heron before we left.

Yellow-crowned Night-heron. I know you can't see the yellow crown here.
I should have ended with the Painted Bunting!

I never have a list before I go on a trip. Absolute numbers aren't as important to me as getting some nice photos to take home. I thought that many of the birds I saw in Costa Rica in 2012 would be the same as birds in Texas. When I got round to entering the sightings on BUBO (www.bubo.org - a great way to keep any list) I ended up with 86 lifers. I'm very pleased with that.

The day of our departure saw us make a brief stop at Jesse Jones (not James) State Park. Carolina chickadee and House finch were the highlights. 

The plane journey back wasn't too bad. I didn't sleep but I managed to get rid of the engine noise with my noise cancelling headphones. I can thoroughly recommend them for long trips. I've a feeling they will come in very useful on future trips.

Peregrine youngster makes it back!

After the heart-stopping events of a few days ago, I am pleased to report that the young peregrine who spent two nights on narrow ledges of the 20-storey building that is Quadrant House, finally made it back to the top. early on Tuesday morning he took advantage of a moderate breeze to help himself gain height.

He flew round the building and crossed to South Point but failed to reach the top. He clung just below the top for 15 seconds before abandoning the attempt and flying back to QH. A little later he flew up to the ventilation level, one floor below the top. His dad caught a jackdaw (we believe) and flew with it in front of the no. 4 chick, tempting him to make that last effort to gain the roof level once more. Phew!

On Tuesday night I dropped in on my way home from work and was overjoyed to see all four chicks and both adults visible at the same time on the top.

Barring any repeats, it looks as though all four will fledge and survive.

The local guardian has run an article this week. Here is a link:

http://www.suttonguardian.co.uk/news/11267732.PICTURED__Rare_peregrine_falcon_chicks_take_to_the_skies_above_Sutton/?ref=mry

I will report any further notable episodes here in due course.

Peregrines 2014 - fledging drama

What a drama!!  The peregrines on Quadrant House didn't nest last year but they have returned with a vengeance this year and produced four healthy chicks.

Fledging from such a high building is always fraught owing to the sheer sides of the main building. In the wild, on a cliff, youngsters flying for the first time might lose height but still be able to land on a ledge lower down and perhaps clamber back to the nest. Quadrant House is unforgiving and some chicks fall to the ground where they may be run over or predated.

This year, three of the chicks appear to have fledged without too much difficulty but No. 4 has had us all with our hearts in our mouths.

Last night he threw himself off in a show of bravado, completed a short circuit, lost height, tried again, lost more height and ended up clinging to the face of the block, fighting with the wires intended to stop birds perching.



Showing the chick, twelve floors up but eight floors below his dad!

Fighting the anti-bird wires

He tried to go up:

Not much success going up, so. . . ..

but fell lower and clung to the pebbledashing by his talons:

. . . . he loses height, but manages . . . .

. . . .to cling to the sheer side by his talons. Then, he manages . . .

. . . to claw his way back up to the wires . . .

. . where it was clear he was going to stay for the night.

Jane, one of the most stalwart volunteers decided to return at first light to see if he had survived the night.

Jane arrived at 04.00 and was pleased to see that the chick had survived. I arrived at 04.35 and was similarly heartened.

At 05.30, we looked up and the chick was gone. Over the next few hours he flew several times to different faces of the building, eventually ending up a few floors below where he had started. He later flew to the roof of a low building nearby, where he stayed for most of the day, at one point fighting off angry magpies and crows. When I returned later in the day I was able to admire this magnificent bird in all its beauty from relatively close quarters.

Sutton chick No. 4

This evening he flew again but is spending another night in the thundery rain. He hasn't eaten for over 24 hours and today's efforts must have weakened him. We don't yet know if he will survive another night. I do hope so!

Showy shrike on Sheppey

Mark Stanley and I wandered down to Capel Fleet on Sheppey to see the lesser grey shrike discovered yesterday. It was a bit of a trek over the fields but there it was doing what shrikes do (flycatching from the top of a bush). We approached to within 200 metres of it but there was some heat haze as it was a beautiful sunny day. Watched it for a couple of hours and then came away.

We didn't have a Great grey shrike to compare the size with but the stubby bill was very obvious.

Lesser grey shrike

Spotted crake at Oare keeps us waiting

Today I went with David Campbell to Oare Marshes. There were a few Curlew sandpipers, ruff, dunlins and bar-tailed godwits. There were quite a few golden plovers, lapwings, shovelers, redshank and teal, and a whole host of black-tailed godwits. However the main attraction was the spotted crake which had been there for a few days.

After scanning the East flood and admiring the range of birds on offer we went to the East hide where we learned that the spotted crake had been seen about 30 minutes before. We waited patiently for about half an hour and then I saw it! It came out briefly, looked at me, turned right and then deftly walked into the reeds. It was unhurried but it lasted only about 10 seconds and David missed it!

Nothing for it but to wait for it to show again.

We had to wait a couple of hours as it turned out but then the spotted crake put on a show for about 10 minutes. It was mobile and not very keen on coming out into the open but I got a couple of shots.
A nice end to the afternoon.

Spotted crake

Spotted crake