Texas - Texas Point and McFaddin - Saturday 28 May
So another reasonably long drive and we arrived ax Texas Point National Wildlife Refuge (NWR). Perched on a small tree overlooking the car park was a singing Dickcissel:
We started the trail into the marsh, past the trail sign which a hunter had peppered with shot (detestable people hunters - I may have mentioned that before, sorry for going on!) and quickly realised we had forgot to apply mosquito repellent. Some 17 significant bites between us, we made it back to the car and sprayed ourselves liberally with Jungle Formula (the new aerosol version is much more effective than the old spray). Before heading on, the marsh itself being quiet at this time of year, we spotted a Great-tailed Grackle on the other side of the road:
And on a bush at the entrance to the marsh, a female Orchard Oriole appeared to be trying to lead us away, no doubt from the proximity of her nest:
From Texas Point we headed to Sea Rim State Park and McFaddin NWR, where the beach was mostly covered with people scrambling around in 4x4's, it being Memorial weekend, so most of the expected birds were absent due to the disturbance.
A Brown Pelican flew by:
The lady volunteer at the entrance though had been very helpful and advised us to visit a certain pool where nesting Wilson's Plover were present:
We started the trail into the marsh, past the trail sign which a hunter had peppered with shot (detestable people hunters - I may have mentioned that before, sorry for going on!) and quickly realised we had forgot to apply mosquito repellent. Some 17 significant bites between us, we made it back to the car and sprayed ourselves liberally with Jungle Formula (the new aerosol version is much more effective than the old spray). Before heading on, the marsh itself being quiet at this time of year, we spotted a Great-tailed Grackle on the other side of the road:
And on a bush at the entrance to the marsh, a female Orchard Oriole appeared to be trying to lead us away, no doubt from the proximity of her nest:
From Texas Point we headed to Sea Rim State Park and McFaddin NWR, where the beach was mostly covered with people scrambling around in 4x4's, it being Memorial weekend, so most of the expected birds were absent due to the disturbance.
A Brown Pelican flew by:
The lady volunteer at the entrance though had been very helpful and advised us to visit a certain pool where nesting Wilson's Plover were present:
A few waders braved the traffic, scuttling along the shore looking for food including this Sanderling:
Still not having really found a top birding spot, we decided to head on Anahuac NWR. The plan had been to stay in Webster, near Galveston, on the Saturday night then head to Anahuac on Sunday morning but it was only mid-afternoon and it was kiiind of on the way so we headed over there. On the way we spotted one of my priority target species for the holiday, a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, this one a juvenile:
Labels: birding, birding in texas
posted by Michael at 6:45 pm
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