Texas Birding Bonanza – Part 2, The Cold Front

Our second full day of birding on the Upper Texas Coast began cloudy, warm and humid. We left our hotel near the Houston Airport at 7 AM and drove to Winnie, which took about 1.5 hours. We then made our way towards the world-famous Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge, though it took us a long time to get there due to several excellent flooded rice fields along the access road to the refuge. Shorebird numbers were pretty staggering. There were hundreds of Whimbrel, Willets and Lesser Yellowlegs wading in the fields. Mixed in were more goodies like American Golden Plover, Stilt Sandpiper, Upland Sandpiper, Long-billed Dowitchers, and Black-necked Stilts to name a few. Several Scissor-tailed Flycatchers were crowd pleasers as they sallied out for insects from powerlines along the road. Loggerhead Shrike, Swainson’s Hawk and our first Eastern Kingbirds were added to the trip tally.

Black-necked Stilt, one of many shorebird species seen today at Anahuac NWR, Texas. April 2014. Chris Charlesworth.

At Skillern Tract we were treated to a real ‘rail show’ when a very obliging King Rail wandered out in front of us, followed by a Virginia Rail and a Sora! The wetland here also produced Purple and Common gallinules, Black-crowned Night-Herons and Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks. One of my ‘crew’ photographed a gorgeous Yellow-bellied Water Snake as it crossed the path in front of him. The rest of us missed seeing the snake, but we were happy enough to see an American Alligator swimming across a waterway.

Sora at Anahuac NWR, Texas. April 2014. Chris Charlesworth.

We made our way to the Anahuac NWR visitor center and we just arrived in time. The clouds rolled in, dark and gray, and thunder could be heard in the distance. We took refuge in the bran spanking new center while the rain just chucked down outside for an hour or so. When we braved the elements and went outdoors the temperature had dropped an astonishing 10 degrees celsius over the course of the hour and a howling north wind made it feel even colder. The rest of the afternoon was spent birding from inside the van as we drove around Shoveler Pond at Anahuac. Through the water covered windows we could make out Roseate Spoonbills, White-faced Ibis, Neotropic Cormorants, Tricolored Heron, Forster’s and Caspian terns, and Fulvous Whistling-Ducks, amongst others. A Least Bittern flew by the van at eye level which was a welcome surprise.

Pied-billed Grebe in the pouring rain at Anahuac NWR, Texas. April 2014. Chris Charlesworth.

When an April cold front blows across the Texas Coast the birders begin to twitch and shuffle with excitement of the possibility of a fallout. We will keep our fingers crossed that tomorrow will produce some epic birdwatching at High Island!

April 15 – Alas, the cold front did not produce a mega fallout today. Apparently, the cold front extended into southern Mexico and basically no birds lifted off from the Yucatan yesterday. That said, we still had a good day. When we emerged from our hotel the temperature was a bone chilling 3 degrees celsius! The wind blew for most of the day from the north, making it quite a chilly experience. At High Island’s Boy Scout Woods we started off with a bang, a male Golden-winged Warbler flitted about right near the park entrance. Along the trails we picked up other migrants such as a stunning male Hooded Warbler, some Tennessee Warblers, a Blue-winged Warbler and Northern Parula. Non-warbler migrants included Baltimore and Orchard orioles, Swainson’s Thrush, Brown Thrasher and Indigo Bunting.

Next, we moved on to the Bolivar Peninsula. The wind hampered with us here too, not allowing us to use our scopes. The strong wind basically blew all the water from Rollover Pass off into the bay, and simulated a mega-low tide, making the birds way too far away to see. Still, we picked up some shorebirds at Rollover, such as Marbled Godwit, Ruddy Turnstone, Semipalmated Plover, Short-billed Dowitcher and Sanderling. Several tern species, including Royal, Least, Forster’s and Sandwich sailed by,  as did Brown Pelicans and Laughing Gulls.

Long-billed Curlew. Several seen at Yacht Basin Rd on Bolivar Peninsula, TX. April 2014. Chris Charlesworth.

Along Yacht Basin Rd we had several very confiding Long-billed Curlews in amongst the marsh. A distant Wilson’s Plover was seen through the shaky scope, and a Least Sandpiper paused briefly. Best bird here though was a Clapper Rail wandering around in a watery channel about 15 feet in front of us….and where was my camera? In the van.

After a coffee stop to warm ourselves up, we carried on to Bolivar Flats. Most of the birding had to be done from inside the van here, because otherwise we would have been ‘sandblasted’. We did get out however, to put a lovely Piping Plover in the scope. Also along the Bolivar Peninsula today we had Crested Caracara and Peregrine Falcon.

To finish off the day we spent a couple of lovely hours at High Island’s Smith Oaks, where the breeze died down a bit and we found ourselves shedding layers. The birds were quite good here, with the highlight being a gorgeous male Painted Bunting feeding on some mulberries. A dozen or so Rose-breasted Grosbeaks paid the mulberries a visit as well, and we had great views of a couple of Yellow-billed Cuckoos. Wood Thrush sang from the understory but remained hidden, and although we could hear warblers chipping away in the trees, the only new one we saw was a female Black-and-white Warbler. Since the passerine migration was a bit slow, I took the group to the heronry, which is always a big hit, especially with any photographers in the group. We watched, at close range, nesting Great and Snowy egrets, Tricolored Herons, Roseate Spoonbills and Neotropic Cormorants. Even though there was no fallout, we had a great day of birding.

Roseate Spoonbills. Heronry at High Island, TX. April 2014. Chris Charlesworth.

Chris Charlesworth

 

Texas Birding Bonanza – Part 1

As many of you know, Avocet Tours works in conjunction with British based Limosa Holidays. Basically Limosa rounds up the people, almost always from the U.K., and sends them over to North America, where I meet them and give them a great birding experience. April 11, I left home in Kelowna, BC, and made my way to Houston, Texas, via Calgary. It was quite a bumpy flight, with plenty of turbulence over the foothills in Alberta. Before the plane came to a stop in Houston, I saw a lovely Scissor-tailed Flycatcher sail by my tiny window.

I spent the morning of April 12, doing some scouting at Jesse Jones Nature Park, a lovely forested patch of land in suburban Houston, not far from George Bush Intercontinental Airport. The mixed forest here has many different species of deciduous hardwood trees as well as Loblolly and Shortleaf pines. I racked up about 30 species as I strolled the trails, perhaps the best of which was a pair of Prothonotary Warblers.

Female Prothonotary Warbler at Jesse Jones Nature Park in Houston. April 2014. Chris Charlesworth

Other birds I heard and or saw included White-eyed, Yellow-throated and Red-eyed vireos, Northern Parula, Pine Warbler, Red-headed and Red-bellied woodpeckers, Red-shouldered Hawk, Tufted Titmouse and Carolina Wren to name a few.

My group of 8 arrived at 2:30 PM on a British Airways flight from London, but it took until 4 PM for everybody to clear customs and gather their luggage. First birds of the tour as we made the short transfer to the hotel included Barn Swallow and Rock Pigeon. I had to remind the ‘Brits’ to contain their excitement. We had a look at the little pond behind our hotel and were quite surprised to find a nice variety of shorebirds. There were several each of Lesser and Greater yellowlegs as well as a couple of Solitary Sandpipers and a Killdeer. Also wading along the waters’ edge was a Snowy Egret and a Green Heron.

Our first full day of birding, April 13, was spectacular. Overcast skies and forecast thunderstorms threatened to be a problem, but the worst we encountered was a light drizzle for about 20 minutes. W.G. Jones State Forest, about 30 minutes north of Houston is where we began our birding. The forest here is managed directly for one of the USA’s endemic species (endemic meaning a species found only in one country in the world), the Red-cockaded Woodpecker. These rather quiet and shy woodpeckers depend on forest fire to renew their habitat, so the understory is burned off annually. The species is colonial and nest trees are marked with white or green bands. Unlike other woodpeckers, Red-cockadeds don’t make much noise, and they don’t do much drumming, so finding them can be a challenge. We were lucky today and had fantastic views of 4 or so. Still, in all the times I’ve seen this species, I’ve never actually seen the namesake ‘red cockades’. Other woodpeckers put on a nice show here as well, with nice sightings of Pileated, Red-bellied and Downy woodpeckers. The other real ‘target bird’ of the piney-woods is the Brown-headed Nuthatch. These slightly larger look-a-likes of Pygmy Nuthatches, have a distinctive rubber ducky squeaky call note. We did eventually get very nice looks at them as they dangled amongst the pine cones. Eastern Bluebirds are doing well here also, most likely due to the great number of bluebird boxes scattered throughout the forest. We watched Tufted Titmouse, Northern Cardinal, White-throated Sparrow and Ruby-throated Hummingbird come in to feeders. Summer Tanagers were fantastic to see, as usual, glowing brilliant red against the sombre gray sky.

After lunch at…..guess where?? Subway, we visited Jesse Jones Nature Park. Again, we were treated to fantastic scope views of a male Pileated Woodpecker. We tried to turn every Red-bellied Woodpecker we saw into a Red-headed, but no luck today. We did see Pine Warbler, White-eyed Vireo, Carolina Wren, Carolina Chickadee, Broad-winged Hawk and several other species here. Along the Cypress Boardwalk a Prothonotary Warbler gave us a frustratingly fast, but good view. A male Northern Parula sang right out in the open for us. Around the visitors center at feeders were Chipping Sparrow, House Finch, Blue Jay and several Eastern Gray Squirrels. I didn’t snap a single picture today unfortunately….will try to get some tomorrow though.

Chris Charlesworth

Avocet Tours ‘Okanagan Spring Birding’ April 4-6, 2014

At 8 AM on Friday, April 4, I met 11 birders at the Parkinson’s Rec Center in Kelowna and we were all ready for 3 days of birding in the South Okanagan.  The weather was lovely this morning with mixed sun and cloud and fairly warm temperatures. Our first stop was at Hardy Falls near Peachland, where we met up with Patricia and Jean from Calgary who also joined our group. Birding along the trail at Hardy Falls was very pleasant and as we made our way up towards the waterfall we were rewarded with lovely views of a Pacific Wren. Once at the waterfall it didn’t take us long to find the American Dipper, our target bird for this location. The dipper was fixing up its nest, adding bits and pieces of grass and moss to the structure that was merely 2 feet away from the raging waters of the waterfall.

American Dipper gathering nesting material. Hardy Falls, Peachland, BC. April 2014, Photo Clive Keen.

Tour participant Clive Keen, from Prince George, took this lovely picture of the dipper as it gathered nesting material. Our next stop, after a quick stop at Tim Horton’s, was the Penticton waterfront along Okanagan Lake. Near the ‘Big Peach’ we scanned through about 50 gulls. Included were three common species; Ring-billed Gull, Herring Gull and California Gull. Also included was an immature Thayer’s Gull, as well as an adult Mew Gull and an immature Glaucous Gull! What an excellent haul, we thought as we made off like bandits with a few good birds in hand.

Immature Glaucous Gull stretching wings at the beach on Okanagan Lake in Penticton, BC. Apr 2014. Photo Clive Keen.

Another of Clive Keen’s fantastic photos from the tour shows the immature Glaucous Gull, actually a lifer for Clive, stretching its wings in the morning sunlight along the Penticton waterfront.

We then gathered at the Holiday Beach Resort in OK Falls where we checked in to our accommodations and also had a scan of Skaha Lake where both Horned and Red-necked grebes were seen.  At the OK Falls Campground we had lunch and went for a short walk around the property. Overhead a pair of Merlins courted and called rather incessantly. Our first Ruby-crowned Kinglet of the trip flitted about in the trees in the park alongside Pygmy Nuthatches and Black-capped Chickadees.

We wound our way up the Green Lake Road from OK Falls, pausing briefly at Green Lake itself to view the waterfowl. There were plenty of Lesser Scaup, along with a few Ring-necked Ducks, Bufflehead and Common Goldeneye.  The Ponderosa Pine forest near Mahoney Lake produced White-breasted, Pygmy and Red-breasted nuthatches together in one tree, as well as Cassin’s Finch, Mountain Chickadee and Mountain Bluebird. Driving towards White Lake we saw stunning Western Bluebirds and the subtly beautiful Say’s Phoebe.

Male and female Mountain Bluebirds. White Lake, BC. Mar 2014. Photo Chris Charlesworth

I took this ‘action shot’ of a pair of Mountain Bluebirds along White Lake Road on a scouting trip just prior to the actual tour. The female appears to be telling the male to get off her favorite perch. The lovely White Lake basin itself dotted with sagebrush and rolling hills, was alive with the songs of Western Meadowlarks. Raptors were on the move today and we saw Rough-legged and Red-tailed hawks, Bald Eagle, Northern Harrier and American Kestrel here.

After a scrumptious dinner we headed out for a little nocturnal outing, starting off at Road 22 with a calling Northern Saw-whet Owl. Despite the fact the bird was calling right in front of us, we never could spot him.  A Muskrat paddled across an oxbow while a pack of Coyotes let out a haunting chorus of howls into the darkness. We made our way north via Black Sage Road and the Fairview-White Lk Rd. Along Black Sage Road a Great Horned Owl was seen by some as it sat on a telephone wire. Along White Lk Rd we tried for Western Screech-Owl near Park Rill. Though we did hear one in the distance, we never caught a glimpse of this elusive forest denizen. A Great Horned Owl was hooting away at Three Gates Farm on White Lk Rd. so we didn’t even try to find a screech-owl there. The showing of stars was rather spectacular tonight. We made our way back to the motel for some much needed rest!

Common in towns and cities of Okanagan. Photo Clive Keen.

Saturday, April 5 turned out to be a thrilling day of birding in the South Okanagan. We began at the cliffs at Vaseux Lake where a male Canyon Wren sang his little heart out and let us view him through the scope. We then ventured up into the higher elevations along Shuttleworth Road to search for woodland species. At the usual spots amongst the giant Western Larches along Venner Meadows Road we encountered up to 5 Williamson’s Sapsuckers this morning. Several of these were heard drumming and calling only, but a male and female put on a lovely show for us, even displaying as Lesley Robertson watched through the scope. Other goodies here included an obliging Northern Pygmy-Owl that sat atop a pine and allowed us to watch for a lengthy time through the scope. High-fives to Lou and Edith Davidson, as it was a lifer for them! Though we tried the high elevation forest near Rabbit Lk for birds like Boreal Chickadee, Pine Grosbeak and White-winged Crossbill, none of the aformentioned birds would appear. There was a brisk breeze here, which may have been keeping the birds in hiding. Clive Keen pointed out another calling Northern Pygmy-Owl and Jane and Dawn from Alberta saw a Gray Jay, so at least we weren’t skunked. On the way back down to OK Falls, a Moose was a pleasant surprise in an old clearcut.

Moose, OK Falls, BC. April 2014. Photo Pam Laing.

We had lunch at Christie Memorial Park in OK Falls. The appearance of two Golden Eagles high overhead, and a pair of Yellow-rumped Warblers flitting through the trees, interrupted our meal, but we weren’t too worried.

For the rest of the afternoon we visited Road 22 north of Osoyoos where we saw quite a number of new birds such as Long-billed Curlew, Osprey and thanks to Pam Laing, a Northern Rough-winged Swallow. Along the S.E. dyke we were treated to excellent views of a pair of Bewick’s Wrens, while along the S.W. dyke we saw a Marsh Wren as it sang from the reeds. Out in a flooded field at Road 22, with several American Wigeon, were two male Eurasian Wigeon, their red-heads glowing in the afternoon light.

Bewick’s Wren. Road 22, Osoyoos, BC. April 2014. Photo Pam Laing.

After dinner we headed out for some more ‘owling’, driving back up to Rabbit lake in hopes of finding a Boreal Owl. Unfortunately as we ascended the road, snow began to fall and it was quite heavy by the time we reached Rabbit Lake. On our way back down to OK Falls, we tried unsuccessfully for Barred Owl.

Avocet Tours group birding in south Okanagan. April 2014. Photo Pam Laing.

Sunday, April 6 was the final day of this Spring birding blitz of the valley and we began at River Road and Hack’s Pond. On the pond were American Coot, Mallard, Green-winged Teal and a somewhat elusive Pied-billed Grebe, while in the bushes around the pond were Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Song Sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos. A flooded field near the south end of River Road yielded another male Eurasian Wigeon as well as a snoozing Wilson’s Snipe.

Deadman Lake, at Road 21, had plenty of waterfowl on it, though nothing new. Over the ridge to the N.W. of the lake we watched an immature Golden Eagle soaring. In a grassy field south of the lake we saw our one and only Savannah Sparrow of the tour.

After a short break at the Osoyoos Visitors Center we headed up Hwy 3 to the Richter Pass. Our first stop was at Spotted Lake, just so those who were visiting the area for the first time could see the unique pattern of rings. At the Elkink Ranch I eventually spotted a pair of Chukar on the sage covered hillside above the hwy and we got great scope views.

Richter Pass, Osoyoos, BC. April 2014. Photo Pam Laing.

On Richter Lk were Ruddy Ducks, new for our list, and a Greater Yellowlegs. At Nighthawk Rd we had our lunch amongst the sweet-smelling sage. Not too many birds were seen here, other than Western Meadowlarks. Our final stop of the tour was at the Red Roost Gift Shop near Kaleden. The feeding station was a bit quiet here, perhaps due to the presence of an adult Sharp-shinned Hawk. We did see Cassin’s Finch, Spotted Towhee, Steller’s Jay and several other species here. Our trip list total was 104 species!

Chris Charlesworth