It's a Great Day to Bird

Month: December 2018

Don’t Mess With Texas – Part One

8 December 2018

We finally made it to Texas after 3 ½ months on the road!

After a cool evening, we started the morning at Palmetto Island State Park (Louisiana).  The darkening sky foretold the forecast for rain, and rain it did – if not ‘cats and dogs’ then buckets full.  The rain on our ‘tin tent’ van was very loud.  By the time we left our campground at 8:00 a.m., we had endured almost an inch of rain.  We decided to forego cooking in the rain and made haste to the nearby community of Abbeville, LA to find a restaurant for breakfast.  Maybe going out to breakfast is a “west coast thing” because we haven’t found many places open for breakfast in the south, unless you are in a large city.  We googled restaurants in Abbeville (sizeable town closest to our campground) and found two non-fast food restaurants that served breakfast.  We went to the first one and found it had closed permanently.  So we stopped at the second place – Park Restaurant.  This turned out to be a popular place.  We got a table, got served coffee, and then we waited, and waited, and waited to have someone take our order.  One waitress kept ignoring us.  Finally, the woman who served us coffee took our order.  Southern hospitality?  Not so much.  Maybe if you are another southern regular, but they knew we weren’t locals.  They are lucky I’m not the type of person to leave on-line reviews, otherwise the number of stars would descend.

This is our campsite. Notice the pooled water near the trees. It was dry the night before.

We then proceeded to make our way to Texas via the back-roads.  This required we take a short ferry ride out of Cameron, Louisiana.  We were waiting for the car ferry when I realized that a place I wanted to bird was about a half mile behind us.  So we managed to get turned around and went to the Cameron Pier to bird.  We had to pay $5.00 for the pleasure of parking in the driving wind and rain and using a nasty looking restroom.  We also birded, of course – there were two nice viewing platforms, each with a roof shelter.  We were surprised to find on the beach, by my estimation, over 1,500 Laughing Gulls, 200 Black Skimmers, 50 or more American Avocets, and smaller numbers of terns, other gulls, and other shorebirds.  It was an amazing sight to see as the birds braced themselves against the wind.  We had a bird’s eye view so to speak as the bathrooms were part of one of the elevated viewing platforms (they don’t want their toilets washing away during a hurricane).

Scrub habitat on the way out to the pier. I was hoping to see a Nelson’s Sparrow here. No luck.

Cameron breakwater jetty

On the beach were thousands of gulls, mostly Laughing Gulls. Guess it was too windy to fly.

Jack carrying the spotting scope – this was the elevated viewing platform/restroom building. Nice for observing the birds.

Parking lot campground. No one here when we first arrived, but then a camper from Idaho showed up before we left.

Jack on the trail to one of the viewing observation platforms

View from that platform. There were several brave souls fishing from the breakwater, but access was not easy.

Now we are waiting for the ferry.  The cost to cross is $1.00.  It probably took longer to load the vehicles than to cross to the other side.

On the ferry and arriving to the opposite shore

As you can see not the best of days

After birding, we stopped to get lunch knowing it might be late by the time we got to our campground – Sea Rim State Park in Texas, which turned out to be true.  We didn’t pull up to the campground until 4:35 and we didn’t have reservations yet.  Luckily the park staff person was taking busy with a telephone reservation or she would have left at closing – 4:30 pm.  So, we sneaked in just under the wire.

In Texas you have to pay a day-use fee in addition to a campground fee.  Doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, (why not make it part of the camping fee?), but whatever.  There are a number of state parks we want to visit in the lower Rio Grande Valley that don’t have campground, but charge a per person day use fee.   Hot tip: Buy the Texas Park Annual Pass ($70.00 per year), which allows everyone in a vehicle free day use and if you stay two nights at the same campground you get the second night for half-price.  Right now (2018) the second night discount may only be applied twice in a year.  Starting in January 2019, the second night discount will be for unlimited times.  So if you spend any amount of time in Texas (a big state with lots of great birding spots) the pass is great.  I think on our last trip we saved over $100 by having the pass.

Once we arrived at Sea Rim State Park I had to go to the beach to check out the birds.  In addition to lots of gulls, I had eight different shorebirds:  Long-billed Curlew (first of year), Sanderling, Willet, Snowy Plover, American Avocet, Dunlin, Least Sandpiper, and Semipalmated Plover.  I didn’t stay long because my hands were freezing and I was losing daylight.  Ah, but what a great way to end the day – on the beach with shorebirds.

Port Arthur Texas – mostly oil and gas refineries …

… which you must pass by when you travel to Sea Rim State Park

Campsite #1 at Sea Rim State Park – a little bit of water

Boardwalk at Sea Rim State Park. This boardwalk takes you from the campground to the beach.

View of the dunes from the boardwalk

The beach here is quite nice. Not the white sand we found in Florida however.

Not sure what this came from – interesting though

Dusk

9 December 2018

Well at least it wasn’t raining this morning.  However, it was cold (for southern Texas) with temperatures in the mid 40s, but with the wind chill factor it felt more like 30 degrees F.  Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.  Not much colder at our Homer, Alaska home, although they are getting snow – finally.

We had breakfast and decided to move campsites.  We wanted a spot where the picnic table was on dry land, not surrounded by water – like campsite #1.  Most campers don’t use or need their picnic tables.  We need ours.  Jack went to the park office when it opened at 8:30 am, interrupted coffee time, and got our site changed from #1 to #11.  We now have a view of the ocean from our camper van and a dry site.  Sweet!!!

Campsite #11 at Sea Rim State Park (a pull through). Higher (slightly) and drier.

Despite all the gunfire we heard when we woke up and during breakfast (tis the season to hunt waterfowl), we decided to drive the road within the nearby McFadden National Wildlife Refuge.  We did see a number of hunters –not a friendly bunch – as we checked out the area for birds.  At first it seemed pretty slow, but at the end we were surprised to find we had a total of 35 species, so not too bad.

This refuge is pretty flat

Killdeer

Brown-headed Cowbird

There are several lakes on the refuge. Not much waterfowl, but then people were hunting them.

Marsh Wren

Pied-billed Grebe

Osprey on the road

Spotted Sandpiper

Spotted Sandpiper

We did see where four feral hogs had been shot and left for the TV’s (turkey vultures).  Yes, I took photos.  I like to photograph dead things.  I know weird.  And later I saw something large, and black moving off in the distance.  I got my binoculars on it and at first though it might be a black bear.  They do have black bears in Texas, although rare.  Now people in Alaska have a general inkling as to the size of black bear.  So if I could mistake this animal – which turned out to be a feral hog – for a black bear, then that hog was HUGE!  That is one animal I would not want to cross paths with on any given day.  And closer to the road we saw four more live feral hogs also large in size.  They were very quick to run off, but hey hunters shoot away.  These hogs are non-native and very destructive to native habitat and wildlife.  Get rid of them I say.  I think that is one animal I “might” be able to kill.  “Might”.

Dead wild boar/feral hog

These animals are non-native and destructive to native habitat. Good riddance.

We came back to the campground and decided to walk the beach and day-use area to check out the birds.  This park has a nice wetland boardwalk but it is closed due to disrepair.  I hope they replace it.  Jack and I think all the ducks from the nearby refuge came over to the park ponds to escape the hunters.  The ponds were filled mostly with Gadwall, with a few American Wigeon, Redhead, and Lesser Scaup in the mix.  Oh, and we cannot forget the American Coot.

Snowy Egret

Great-tailed Grackle – female

Great-tailed Grackle

This Snowy Egret was at a small pool of water near the park entrance booth. Maybe looking for a frog?

Blue Crab

We saw the crab on the road where it could easily get run over so Jack picked it up and moved it closer to a pond and off the pavement

On the beach we had our usual assortment of shorebirds, gulls, and terns.  Nothing new to report from last night.  We did pick up a lot of garbage on the beach.  I picked up a lot of rope related products, and fishing line – my pet peeve.  Occasionally we would find a piece of clothing.  Did those items come off a fishing boat or from the oil rigs out in Gulf of Mexico?  We can see a few off-shore oil rigs from the park.

Beach roped off to keep vehicles off this portion of the beach. Not sure why.

This pile of fishing line was about the size of a dinner plate. Lots of plastic on the beach. Not good.

A fish, of course. Not sure what kind.

10 December 2018

We woke to beautiful sunny skies, cold temperatures (41 degrees F), and calm winds.  Hated to leave pleasant, quiet, Sea Rim State Park, but the goal today is to bird Anahauc National Wildlife Refuge and Bolivar Peninsula, with camping at Galveston Island State Park.

Sunrise from our campsite at Sea Rim State park

The Great-tailed Grackles liked to visit our campsite – hoping for food handouts

We made it to Anahauc NWR around 9:30 a.m., and proceeded to spend 4 ½ hours birding the refuge, primarily by driving the Shoveler’s Loop Road which is only 2 ½ miles.  But, there were a lot of birds to see.  In total we had 59 different species – a really, really, really great day to bird.  I think the highlights were the 300+ Black-bellied Whistling Ducks – all roosting on a narrow strip of ground in the marsh, and the American Bittern that Jack found on the side of the canal just off the road.

Boardwalk near the visitor center

Loggerhead Shrike

American Coot

Lots of canals on the refuge

Blue-winged Teal – Drake (male)

This American Bittern was walking in the open at the base of the dike road.

Seemed oblivious to our presence

Which was fine by us

Surprised by how many Pied-billed Grebes we saw (26)

Green Heron

One of the ponds

Eastern Phoebe

Small alligator

Boardwalk on Shoveler’s Pond loop road. In the past this area has always had tall Phragmites – a very, very tall grass, which made it difficult to see anything.

A watersnake perhaps?  Maybe even a Texas Indigo Watersnake?

Black-bellied Whistling Ducks – we estimated there had to be around 300 or so

Gee I wonder how they got the name “Black-bellied” Whistling Ducks. We know how they got the “Whistling” part of their name. They have a whistling call.

Jack checking out the ducks. Notice he is wearing his down jacket.

Northern Shoveler – drake (male)

Northern Shoveler – either a first year bird or a molting bird (male)

Northern Harrier – the first one we’ve ever seen on the ground. Must have caught something?

Red-tailed Hawk – in the eastern U.S. they are much lighter.  Of course this bird is a juvenile.

When we were here last (January 2017) we saw a Burrowing Owl on the refuge.  We remembered where it was spotted so we went to check the spot out.  No owl.  Darn.  I did hear a Yellow Rail, it was so teasingly close, but well hidden in the vegetation.  These birds are very hard to see or find.  And later I learned that we missed the Yellow Rail and Rice Festival in Louisiana in late October.  I guess a good time to see these elusive rails is when the rice fields are being harvested.  Some year I will go to Louisiana for this unique bird festival where you ride on a combine looking for flushed Yellow Rails.  I love rails so would really like to see this elusive bird.

Crested Caracara on a bloated dead cow

Shrubby habitat on the refuge too

Trail we took near the visitor center which leads to a viewing platform

After the refuge, we drove towards Galveston via Bolivar Peninsula.  High Island is a town on the peninsula known as a “fallout” hotspot – migrating birds stop to rest and ‘fuel up’.  High Island is situated within the primary migration corridor where migratory songbirds stop after crossing the Gulf of Mexico on their way to their breeding grounds further north.  We missed the spring migration season, but would like to come back one of these years to check out this great migration.  We did stop off at Bolivar Flats Shorebird Sanctuary (17th Street Jetty) and saw quite a few shorebirds (in total), with the largest group being American Avocets.  We estimate there were at least 300 of these birds, mostly roosting.  We also had Long-billed Curlew, Willet, Least Sandpiper, Marbled Godwit, Killdeer, and Black-bellied Plover.

17th Street Jetty

Mad Flats loved by shorebirds

American Avocets – we estimated about 300

Long-billed Curlew

We took the free ferry from Bolivar Peninsula to Galveston and made our way down Seawall Boulevard in Galveston.  As the name implies, the road follows the beach.  Galveston is a very heavily developed commercial tourist destination – lots of places to spend your money on items you don’t need or on a plethora of restaurants.

Bolivar lighthouse

Our ferry to Galveston

We were allowed to get our of our vehicles, but if we wanted to “feed the seagulls” we were suppose to do that at the back of the ferry

Back of the ferry. Luckily no one was feeding the gulls.

Gulls enjoying the ride

The three (gull) stooges

To me this gull looks happy. Maybe he likes riding on the ferry?

Great-tailed Grackles were on board hoping for food handouts too

We stopped at Kroger’s to stock up on food.  When we came out of the store it was twilight and the parking lot was being mobbed by grackles.  There must have been a thousand or so of these birds – great chaos, reminds one of the Alfred Hitchcock movie “The Birds”.  Car roofs were covered with birds, including ours.  And more were on the ground and flying about.  A truly amazing spectacle.  We assume there was a roosting site nearby.

The number of grackles in the Kroger parking lot were amazing

Here there are about 30 on the top of our van

We got to the campground around 6:15 p.m., and found a spot for the night.  This is the first time this trip that we’ve gotten to our campground after dark.  I don’t like doing this because you can’t see much of the campground to select the right site (I’m choosy), but the birding was just too great to give up so we couldn’t get to the campground before sundown.

Campsite #2 at Galveston Island State Park.  A nice spot with no one to our right and restrooms nearby.

11 December 2018

Another cold morning, but the sun was shining, which really helps keep the coldness away and the mental spirits high.  I didn’t have to put on my Ugg knockoff boots today.  After breakfast we drove to the park office to register for another night.  Then we went across the road to the “bay” side of the park and walked a short trail.  I think if they get high tides the trail is under water, as the trails were quite muddy.  Although we did see 19 different species, including two White-tailed Kites, I was hoping to catch a glimpse of the LeConte’s Sparrow, which is found in this area.  No luck – drats.  One of these days I will see that bird.

View of the bayside of the park from a viewing platform

White-tailed Kite near our campsite

We then drove to town so I could download a registration form.  Jack and I are going to Uganda in September 2019 to see the Shoebill and hopefully an additional 300+ birds – many of them new birds.  I REALLY want to see the Shoebill (Jack calls it the ‘ugly bird’ so Google it and you decide).  This bird has been high on my list (okay the top) of birds I want to see.  I’m thinking of staying an extra day or two to see the bird – again if we saw it and for the first time if we didn’t.  We had planned to go to Australia and New Zealand next fall, but this opportunity came along and the price was right.   We are going with Talon Tours, a bird tour company that a friend, Betty Siegel, uses a lot.  So I printed off the forms, wrote out the deposit check, and mailed the forms and check – we’re committed.

This guy was driving his golf car in downtown Galveston. He blew through a stop sign.  Luckily no cars were coming from the opposite direction.  The car was decorated for Christmas.

Afterwards we caught the Galveston-Bolivar ferry again (remember – free) and headed to Bolivar Flats beach to check out the shorebirds.  Two additional shorebirds I want to add to my ‘First of Year’ list are:  Wilson’s Plover and Piping Plover.  At the beach we did see a single Wilsons’ Plover.  Hard to mistake this bird with its light pink legs and its large bill (large relatively to the other plover bills – Snowy, Piping, and Semipalmated).  As we walked the beach we also picked up trash.  A lot of trash.  And we hardly made a dent.  Texas has an anti-litter marketing campaign “Don’t Mess With Texas”.  I don’t think it works, especially on certain beaches.  And Texas should initiate  a recycling campaign.  The parks don’t have recycling containers.  As a country, we use and dispose of too much plastic.  Remember – the key is to “reduce”, “reuse”, and then “recycle” what you don’t reuse after you’ve reduced.  Reduce packaging and waste!  Okay, end of lecture.

Habitat on the way to the beach – this property is owned by Houston Audubon

You can camp (for free) on Bolivar beach. The beach is quite wide.  We saw at least four different campers.

Wilson’s Plover -note the large bill, light pink legs

Now that is a “long” bill – Long-billed Curlew. Easy to see how it got its name.

Ring-billed Gull – I guess we know how this bird got its name too

We are thinking this was some type of “Ray”. It looked pretty dehydrated.

We’ve seen a lot of Loggerhead Shrikes on this trip

We did another short stop at Bolivar Flats Shorebird Sanctuary – 17th Street Jetty.  Still a lot of shorebirds here, but the number of American Avocets was only half of what we saw yesterday.  Still fun to watch the shorebirds peck away for food in the mud.  We also saw a raccoon making its way across the mud flats.

Hard to tell from this photo but there is a lot of trash on the beach. So much for “Don’t Mess with Texas”.

Jack walking on the Jetty

Whimbrel

Dunlin

Black-bellied Plover

This is a bait shop near the jetty. We counted six cats. Yikes!!! Keep your cats indoors folks. And spay or neuter them.

Great-tailed Grackle catching a ride on the ferry back to Galveston

I checked on the prices of rooms at this hotel and they were less than $150 per night. I guess Galveston in December is not the “high season”.

We returned to the campground and took a nice hot shower, where I was joined by three frogs.  They were quite small – the largest about the size of quarter (it’s entire body).  I don’t know if they liked all that steam or not.   Tomorrow we head to San Bernard National Wildlife Refuge, then on to Brazos Bend State Park near Houston where we will camp for the next three nights.

12 December 2018

Overcast today, but not much wind so bearable, although sometimes no wind is a curse when you are in an area with a lot of mosquitoes, which we were when we went to the San Bernard NWR this morning.  They swarmed the van, not very inviting. This is our third visit to this refuge.  The refuge has several trails (which we didn’t take because of the mosquitoes) and an auto drive (which we did take.)  We saw a lot of raptors here today – sheer numbers, not necessarily a lot of different species.  The Red-tailed Hawks really like this area.  We observed eight of them.  We also had a Merlin, several Turkey Vultures, a Northern Harrier, two Bald Eagles, and a great find – a White-tailed Hawk.  The White-tailed Hawk is a FOY (first of year).  I expected to see this species near the lower Rio Grande Valley, so was surprised to find it here.  A pleasant surprise no less.

We spent almost three hours at the refuge, and saw a total of 39 different bird species.  At one stop – Wolfweed Wetlands, we spotted over 20 small, young alligators in the same wetland slough.  About half of them were practically resting on top of each other.  Female alligators typically lay about 20 eggs, but young alligators are heavily preyed upon (before they can become a formidable predator), so all these alligators were probably the result of more than one female.  But who knows???  Typically, only one of the 20 babies will live to be an adult.  Maybe by hanging out together they increase their chance of survival.

This main wetland is comprised of several ponds with water-control dikes.  In the past the dikes were a mowed pathway but now they are unmaintained and impassible.  Each time we’ve been here there is less and less area to walk around these ponds.  Today we could only access the observation platform.   We didn’t see many species from the viewing platform  – mostly American Coots.

Path to viewing platform

Viewing Platform

As you can see the refuge staff have mowed around the platform, but not the dike trails. There aren’t any of the typical refuge signs prohibiting entry, but with alligators in the area I’m not about to walk in the tall grass on those dikes.

And speaking of alligators…the smallest one was checking us out

Not easy to see, but there are probably 15 alligators in this small area alone

After touring the refuge we drove to a nearby Target store to get a few supplies and then headed to our campground for the next three nights – Brazos Bend State Park (near Houston).  I really like this campground and park.  I think the best sites are #122 and #106.  There aren’t many people here today, so we got a decent site (#120) – #122 is the most popular site in the campground, and was fully booked and #106 was booked our last night there so we couldn’t get either of these campground sites.

The campground will probably see more use on the weekend.  Last time we were here – 2017 – we had to stay one of three nights in an overflow area – essentially a parking lot as the campground was full for the weekend.  Maybe since it is close to Christmas there isn’t as much interest in camping.   Oh, and surprisingly, despite being close to Houston, we have only intermittent cellphone/internet coverage (our carrier is AT&T – what service).   Oh well, I guess this way we can really enjoy the park and leave the rest of what’s happening in the world behind.

13 December 2018

Boy did it ever rain last night – again (we’ve had a lot of rain on this trip).  I left a pan outside and Jack swears there was about two inches of water in the pan.  I even recorded, on my phone, the racket from the rain hitting our ‘tin tent’, although it sounds worse in person.  There were a lot of rain puddles (small lakes) in the campground and at least one picnic table was surrounded by water.  Luckily our campsite did pretty well.

Campsite #120 at Brazos Bend State Park

I birded around our campsite and it was alive with post-rain activity.  “The park was alive with the sound of bird life” (sung to Sound of Music).  I know, I know.  We had really close up views of Carolina Wrens (remember Wrens are some of my favorite birds) near our campsite.  Of course the light wasn’t that good for photos, nor my camera.  Or should I blame it on the photographer – me???

Nothing could be finer than to see a Carolina Wren in the morning…

Carolina Wren

After I got my fill of birding our campsite, we headed to Elm Lake.  We decided to walk about 0.50-0.75 miles from our campsite to the lake, rather than drive the short distance. We birded along the way and once we got to the lake we heard this “whistling” sound.  That sound came from numerous (hundreds) Black-bellied Whistling Ducks.  Now we know how they got their name – they tend to make a whistling sound when disturbed and they have black bellies.  In all I estimate there were, at least, 500 Black-bellied Whistling Ducks on the lake.  I counted one group huddled together and came up with 91.  And that was just one small part of the lake.  When they are roosting they blend in quite well and it is easy to miss many.

Lots of “Live Oaks” in this park. Beautiful trees.

You can see the water line from past floods on these trees

Another magnificent live oak

Just a little bit of flooding. Hurricane Harvey brought a lot of rain to Houston and flooding. Here too.

Black-bellied Whistling Ducks

And speaking of the lake, we did the 1.7-mile loop trail around Elm Lake.  But first we stopped at a lake viewing platform (which looks out over the lake) near the day-use area.  Here we got close to the Whistling Ducks and other birds.  I asked Jack if he wanted to start walking around the lake on the left or the right.  He said left.  So off we went.  And you had to pay attention to the trail.  As a result of all the rain there were a lot of puddles and slick muddy areas.  As we got close to the beginning of to the trail (east side – it is a loop trail), I looked up to see this HUGE alligator crossing the road about 30 feet from us.  I yelped, then stepped back, got out my camera, and took some photos as the alligator advanced (lumbered) across the road.  I even took a short video.  Once he got across the road he plopped down by the trail as if daring us to come forward.  Oh good, now he is really close to where we want to start on the trail.  So we ‘bravely’ headed off in the opposite direction, with the hope the alligator would be gone by the time we got back around the lake.

Elm Lake

Viewing Platform at the day-use area (Elm Lake)

I have not intentions of “feeding” the alligators …

… including this monster

The trails were pretty wet and muddy from last night’s rain – at least on the north side of the lake

Trail around Elm Lake – west side.  We had to pass two alligators near the trail on this side of the lake.

Blue-winged Teal

I love how these turtles stretch their legs out behind them. I keep thinking “Turtle Yoga”.

Great Egret

Immature Little Blue Heron

Common Gallinule (formerly known as Common Moorhen)

Lot of Pied-billed Grebes here too (17)

This is the habitat on the opposite side of the trail from the lake – south side

This family of Black-bellied Whistling Ducks was roosting on the observation deck on the south side of the lake

I love this park as it has some really good birding.  We saw a total of 42 species today, of which only two were ducks: Black-bellied Whistling Duck and Blue-winged Teal.  We actually had a lot of songbirds – something we haven’t had in awhile having been on the coast  where you are more likely to have gulls, terns, shorebirds, and waders.  So a nice change to have mostly songbirds.  Of course, now I had to be alert to these birds’ calls and songs all over again – to jar my memory.  I keep saying “I should know that call”.  Learning and remembering bird calls is not my strong suit.

Going along the lake we did have to walk gently by three large alligators situated alongside the trail and giving us ‘the stare’.  They were not the size of the humongous one from the road, but still nerve-wracking when they raised their head and made any movement.  When we stopped by the Nature Center,  I was told alligators really don’t want to eat humans (hmm, was that an experiment?) but one had drowned a guy who was drunk and decided to go swimming in an area known to be frequented by alligators.  He did say this was the first death in Texas by an alligator in over 140 years.  Of course, that could be “known” deaths.  They may not want to eat us, but their bite can still harm us.  Thus, I’m reluctant to go too close to an alligator, especially  a mom defending her young.  I read if a gator starts to hiss, that is a sign to back off.   Personally, I like it when they go into the water before we get close to them.  And speaking of going into the water, when we walked by a bunch of American Coots they flushed (took off across the lake).  Then the water starting swirling and there was splashing.  We didn’t see what caused the commotion, but we think an alligator got agitated by the actions of the coots and slipped into the water sight unseen.  That got our attention too.  Oh, the humongous gator was gone …. yeah!

Later we walked from our campsite to the Creekfield Trail.  It was coming on dusk so there were a lot of Turkey and Black Vultures coming into roost.  Of course, whenever anyone walks by their roost trees, off they fly, circle around, and land once again.

Boardwalk and observation deck at Creekfield Lake

Turkey Vulture

Black Vulture

Mixed flock (Black and Turkey Vulture)

Turkey Vultures look to be checking something out

Despite the early rain and all the large alligators, we had great birding today.

14 December 2018

Brrrrrrrr.  Cold, cold, cold today.  The wind really makes the cold cut through you, especially without the sun – yes it is overcast, so no sunny warmth.  We drove to the day-use area at 40-Acre Lake to take the 40-Acre Lake trail (still part of the park).  We ventured out, went a short distance to a viewing platform, checked out the lake, and then quickly went back to the van to get more clothes.  I changed from my jeans into a pair of Smartwool long underwear and pile pants, another coat, and warmer gloves.  Jack added another layer under his winter coat and got his gloves.  And after walking and birding in the windy, cold weather, I was still cold despite my added layers.

Observation platform at 40-Acre Lake day-use area. We went here first then quickly retreated back to the van to put on some warmer clothes. Chilly out.

There is a connecting trail between 40-acre Lake and Elm Lake so we took that and walked around Elm Lake again.  You never know what you might see in the same area again.  Today was a “cardinal” day.  They seemed to be everywhere.  We also had a Red-shouldered Hawk that flushed from the ground and flew to a nearby tree.  When we put the scope on him we could see he was feasting on a frog – frog legs for dinner.  Despite the cold temperature it was a nice walk, in part because the alligators were apparently all in the water.  Too cold for them to be up on land I guess.  We had 41 different bird species today.  That figure would have been higher if I had counted the birds I saw and heard in the campground, including two Pileated Woodpeckers.

Trail around 40-Acre Lake on the west side

Great Blue Heron

Trail between 40-Acre Lake and Elm Lake

It truly was a Northern Cardinal day – male cardinal

Red-shouldered Hawk in a tree munching on a frog

Snowy Egret and Little Blue Heron

A precarious perch

Now how do I turn around on this railing?

It was really comical to watch this Little Blue Heron turn around on the railing

Tricolored Heron

American Bittern

All puffed up in the cold weather

Immature White Ibis

Black-bellied Whistling Duck

Female Northern Cardinal with a berry in her beak

Tricolored Heron

Yes, more Black-bellied Whistling Ducks. They do like to hang out together.

Northern Cardinal

We weren’t quite sure what this came from – nutria maybe. It wasn’t on the trail going out, only on the trail coming back.

Headless Bird – Probably killed by an owl. They like the heads.

40-Acre Lake Trail – near the end

Speaking of campground.   The loop we are in has 39 sites, and only six of those sites were occupied last night.  Not a busy time at the campground right now.  That may change somewhat because today is Friday and this popular campground seems to always fill up during the weekend.  Tomorrow we leave this park.  We’re not sure where we will be staying next.  We need to decide whether to visit a state forest and hope to see a Red-cockaded Woodpecker or go to a national wildlife refuge established to protect the Attwater Prairie Chickens.  Let’s just say we have a better chance with the woodpecker, and that chance isn’t very good.  Spring is a better time for seeing either bird.

15 December 2018

Having internet is both a pain and a blessing.  It was nice not to have internet for two full days (rarely did we have a signal on our phone and Texas State Parks does not provide internet service in their parks).  However, it is also hard to plan for future birding spots and campgrounds.  We had several birding options for today: (1) bird Brazos Bend State Park again, (2) bird Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge, and (3) bird W.G. Jones State Forest.  The last time we went to the Attwater National Wildlife Refuge was in 2014.  All I remember is being chased by some cows in a field.  Jack remembered watching a movie about the prairie chickens and being chased by the cows.  Neither of us remembered they have a five-mile auto route.  Jack was ready to move on and didn’t want to bird the state park again, so we chose W.G. Jones State Forest located north of Houston.  This state forest is supposed to have Red-cockaded Woodpeckers.  Well, we never found out because we only got within ¼ mile of the forest.  It had taken us almost three harried hours of freeway driving and misroutes to get almost there.  So, in disgust, we said forget it.  We wouldn’t have sufficient time for a hike and to search for the bird.  We decided to just go on to Somerville State Park (Birch Creek Unit) near Austin – our campground for the night – and call it good.  The campground was at least another two hours away.

Why so disgusted?  Have I mentioned I hate Google Maps?  Or at least the woman’s voice giving directions.  I also hate the fact they give you several routes to chose from, you chose the one you want, then they try to direct you to the “faster” route.  If I had wanted the another “faster” route I would have chosen it in the first place.  And you have to quickly opt out on your phone from “going the faster route” in order to stay on the original route you chose.  And I understand you can’t turn off this feature off.  I think I might switch to the “Maps” app that comes with the phone and forget Google Maps.  Another thing I hate/dislike is that I cannot prevent the app from putting me onto toll roads.  Have you ever been to Houston and the surrounding area?  Every major road is a toll road.  And on some road sections and exits you can’t access unless you have their pass.  Well we don’t.  Google maps had us going on a road that only those with the toll pass could use.  So what good does that do us.  Sorry for the rant, but with technology today Google should be able to design a better map app.  I guess I need to tell them that.

So, no hiking and looking for the woodpecker.  We finally made it to our campground around 2:30 pm.  I was worried that we wouldn’t get a spot.  Ha!  Not to worry.  In our camping area alone (Old Hickory) there are only four camp sites occupied in the 42-site camping area.  Guess this campground isn’t too popular in the winter or at least on this particular Saturday in December, which is fine by me.

Jack checked in and the park staff person helping him tried to get him to take a puppy off her hands.  Probably good I didn’t go into the park office.  I probably would have snatched one or two of them up.  However, we are staying in an Airbnb rental for six days (December 20-26) in Donna Texas, and they don’t allow pets.  The woman told Jack that people in the area dump unwanted dogs all the time.  Now that really *&^%$# me off.  However, I won’t go off on a rant about how people treat animals.

We did walk a portion of the campground roads.  No traffic, which was nice.  We could stop and listen and watch birds without having to get off the road for vehicles.  We did see about 15 different species within the 55 minutes we were out and about.  Beautiful day here.  Sunny, little wind, and temperatures in the low 60s.  Tonight will be cool, but that’s okay with us.   We have an electrical hookup campsite so I can plug-in our small heater to take the chill off – especially nice in the morning.

Campsite #82 at Somerville Lake State Park (Birch Creek Unit)

Trail around the campground portion of the lake

Somerville Lake

16 December 2018

Today we walked the campground checking out the birds prior to leaving for relatives who live near Austin, Texas.

A little hard to tell but we had frost on the ground this morning

Blue Jay

This will be our first visit to Jack’s cousin’s home in Dripping Springs, Texas.  We told them we would be there sometime after two.   Jack wanted to check out the Charles Umlauf Sculpture Garden in Austin first.  He saw a reference to the sculpture park on our road atlas, but he didn’t know anything else about the garden.  He was, however, intrigued.  When we arrived, I think he was surprised to see actual “people sculptures” in the garden.  They also had some sculptures in a building, including three busts of Farrah Fawcet Majors.  He must have had a thing for her.  In all, there were over 50 of his sculptures in the garden.  In 1985, Charles and his wife gifted their home, his studio, and over hundreds of sculptures  to the City of Austin.  He born in 1911 and died in 1994.

I liked some of the sculptures, but many were depressing.

Painting on the side of a building in Austin Texas

St. Michael and Lucifer

Mother and Child

Crucifixion

Icarius – falling into the sea as his wings are melting. That’s what happens when you don’t listen to your father and you get to close to the sun.

Angel’s Wing

Nun

Ballerina

Eagle

We had a nice visit with Jack’s cousin and his wife.  They are world-travelers so we enjoyed their experiences.  And, always good to catch up with family.  They have a lovely home in the “Hill Country” of Texas.  We regret we couldn’t stay longer to enjoy their company and explore their twelve-acres of bird habitat, although I did see a Black-crested Titmouse (FOY – first of year bird) at their feeder.

17 December 2018

After a pleasant morning spent visiting with family over great fresh-roasted coffee (literally), we left and headed south.  Our campground for the night is Goose Island State Park near Rockport.  Rockport was hit hard by Hurricane Harvey.  It will be interesting to see how they have recovered over the past year.  The campground has a camping area along the bay, but those sites are still closed due to hurricane damage.

I was a little worried the campground would be full, but I need not have worried.  I think the campground is less than 50% occupied even with the bay camping area closed.  I suspect a lot of people are not in the camping mood so close to Christmas.

Since we left Jack’s cousin’s house late in the morning, and we had some shopping to do, today was essentially a travel day.

In Wimberly, Texas they have painted “Cowboy Boots”. This one was at a local grocery store.

Campsite #140 at Goose Island State Park

18 December 2018

Decision day.  Stay another night at Goose Island State Park or move on?  We decided to stay another day.  When Jack went to register for another night the park staff person mentioned that ten Whooping Cranes were spotted this morning by “The Big Tree”.  The “Big Tree” is a part of the park, but located about a mile away.  So off we went to see if the cranes were still there.  Sure enough.  We only saw five Whooping Cranes, but that was plenty.  There were also about seven Sandhill Cranes in the pasture with the Whoopers – perfect!

Earlier in the morning (and last night), I had heard what sounded like a lot of birds.  Late afternoon (yesterday), I looked up and saw some ducks fly over and thought nothing of it.  Ducks don’t make that kind of call.  Well I forgot the Black-bellied Whistling Duck does make a call that sounds more like a songbird.  Sure enough, this morning when I heard whistling and looked up in the sky I spotted the ducks as they flew over.  I could see their black bellies.  At the pasture with the cranes there must have been about a hundred of them.  In total, our morning excursion netted 25 different species of birds – a whooper of a morning – so to speak.

I love it – the “Become a Birder” sign at the park near a feeding station

One of two feeding stations at the park. Not much activity though.

Well there was this Yellow-rumped Warbler

Whooping Cranes

Turkey Vulture

Black Vulture guarding the area so you don’t trespass

So before leaving the “Big Tree” area we thought maybe we should check out this state record tree.  The tree is a Coastal Live Oak, and it is indeed BIG.  The tree is estimated to be over 1,000 years old.  So it has survived a lot of hurricanes, including the latest – Hurricane Harvey in 2017.  The tree is 11 feet across the trunk, 35 feet around, 44 feet tall, and 89 feet across the crown.  I must say that I am in love with the majestic live oaks of the southern U.S.  They always have leaves, as the seasons progress they are always replacing leaves.  The leaves just don’t all fall at one time (like in the fall).  Hence the term “live”.

Not the “Big Tree”, but impressive nonetheless

The “Big Tree”

This tree had an impressive number of limbs, but didn’t look alive

We decided to go to a small city park in the town of Refugio, Texas.  We visited this park in 2017 looking for the Golden-crowned Warbler.  We never did see it, although there were a lot of great birds there, including a Green Kingfisher and a Barred Owl.  We got all the way to the park, about 35 miles away from the campground, only to find it closed.  Jack asked some city street maintenance workers doing some work in the park if it would be okay to bird the park.  One said no, that it was too dangerous because of limbs on the ground and the potential that limbs could fall at any time.  When asked why the park was still closed, the maintenance worker said they were addressing dangerous trees in neighborhoods first.  Okay, that hurricane occurred over a year ago, but government has its own time table.  One of the guys Jack talked to used to live in Homer.  Small world.  He told Jack that he and his partner helped build Don Jose, a Mexican restaurant in Homer.

Crested Caracara we observed on the road to Refugio

We decided to partake of the fast food in Refugio and joined the high school students at McDonalds (yes, really) and Dairy Queen (love their Dilly bars).  We then went back to the campground and decided to bird the immediate area.  We walked over to the bayside of the park.  There is an area where fisherman can clean their fish and this is where the American White and Brown Pelicans love to hang out – free food.  In all, despite the disappointment in not birding at Refugio, we had 33 different bird species here, so not too shabby a afternoon of birding.

This trail was only maintained a short distance

Brown Pelican

Brown Pelican

American White Pelican

There is a elevated boardwalk behind this fencing, but it just ends. No platform.

Savannah Sparrow

May the force be with you

Although the bayside wasn’t open to “camping” you could fish during the day from the camping sites

Not my idea of camping, but it has always been full when we’ve been at the park.

Ruddy Turnstone

Ruddy Turnstone and Laughing Gull checking something out to their right

There is a dock nearby with a fish cleaning station. Guess who was popular? Yes, the fisherman. The pelicans were waiting for handouts.

Give me some, give me some

The pelicans were both on land and on the water waiting for handouts

Size comparison between the two types of pelicans

Campground nature trail

White-winged Dove

The habitat along the trail was pretty dense, so not easy to see birds

More of Texas to come.  Until then keep birding…

It’s A Great Day to Bird

 

 

Southern States

Alabama

We made quick work through Alabama after leaving Ft. Pickens (Florida) campground this morning under rainy skies, with the threat of strong winds, thunder, lightening, and even a tornado.  Our Alabama adventure is short since the southern Gulf traverse of Alabama is less than 100 miles long, and we are staying tonight in Mississippi at the Davis Bayou campground of the Gulf Islands National Seashore.

I noticed a lot of funeral homes and cemeteries in our short drive through Alabama.  We even had to stop for a funeral procession, not that Jack wanted to.  He even tried joining them before I encouraged him to pull over.  We aren’t used to stopping to allow funeral processions to pass.  Most people we know are cremated rather than buried in a cemetery, let alone in a cemetery in the winter – although I think ‘bury’ is a relative term here since the water table is so high.

Mississippi

We got to our campground around 3:00 pm.  Luckily the rain had stopped.  The rain and wind was quite heavy on the west end of the Florida Panhandle and into Alabama.  Again our windshield wipers were at maximum strength and still it didn’t feel fast enough to clear the windows of rain.  But luckily we made it.

We did a short hike before dark, walking and birding the one-half mile nature trail.  This trail is about a half mile from the campground so we walked along the estuary and saw a few waterbirds before we got to the nature trail itself, but on the nature trail the only birds we saw (as we didn’t hear any) were two Carolina Wren.  Always a pleasure to see a wren if nothing else.

Site #49 at the Davis Bayou campground

Everyone stops at this pond to see the alligator

A boardwalk adjacent to the park road

A bouquet of mushrooms

Bright and early , we went to the Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge, located just 15 miles from our campground.  How sweet is that?  We love it when the refuges or birding spots are located near our campground.  Saves on a lot of driving and having to get up too early.   As the saying goes the early birder(er) gets the worm or in our case the birds.

We got to the refuge around 8:30 a.m., and took a short nature trail.  Of course despite the trail’s ½ mile length, we still spent about two hours birding the trail and the parking lot area.  In all we saw 23 species, and none of these were Sandhill Cranes.  We’ve visited this refuge before (2014) and we didn’t seen any cranes on the refuge then.  We had to drive to some nearby neighborhoods to find the cranes (like Homer cranes).  We did that again today, but no luck.  We did, however, get the attention of one of the landowners.  I don’t think he liked us driving down the dead-end road where he lives.  That’s okay, I would have wondered about him too if he had driven down our dead-end road.

The trail adjacent to the visitor center

Pine Flatwood habitat

Pitcher Plant – carnivorous

Same trail

This Blue Jay was really puffed out

Blue-headed Vireo

Brown-headed Nuthatch

Here you can really see the “brown” head

Eastern Bluebird

Eastern Bluebird

Jack at the trail kiosk

This viewing platform was closed down…

… supposedly temporarily, but the platform looks like it should be torn down and rebuilt

Yes, more mushrooms

We went back to the campground and stopped off at the Gulf Island National Seashore visitor center were we watched a 20-minute movie about the park.  The movie was quite informative and well-done.  There are several uninhabited, no road access, barrier islands that make up the National Seashore so maybe someday we will take a guided boat visit.  Just not this trip.  If we lived in this neck of the woods, we would definitely have a boat – the inlets, bays, and estuaries are quite inviting and, good birding of course.

We then went back to the campground and walked to the boat launch area.  This spot is considered a birding hotspot, just not today.  Still it was nice to be out in the sunshine and mild weather enjoying the beauty of the area.

Linderia columnata – edible. I didn’t try it. If I don’t buy it in the store, I don’t eat it – mushrooms, that is

Boardwalk at the visitor center

Male Hooded Merganser – we had six total Hooded Mergansers

View from the boat ramp area

Louisiana

Time to leave Mississippi and head into Louisiana.  Our goal today is to visit the Bogue Chitto National Wildlife Refuge located about 60 miles east of New Orleans. This is a new refuge for us.  We plugged the name into Google maps (a great resource – most of the time) and off we went.  This refuge, established in 1980, encompasses 36,500 acres of the “most undisturbed swamplands in the country”.  That being said, you really need a boat to see much of the refuge.  Since we don’t have one, we settled for driving a portion of the refuge to reach a 1.5 mile out-and-back trail – Holmes Bayou Trail.  The trail was wide and quite nice.  Fall has come to this part of the country and the leaves are turning color and falling from the trees.  I love fall.

Holmes Bayou Trail

Holmes Bayou itself

While this side of the butterfly is green, the other side is yellow

I guess the plastic captures and holds the heat for this green anole

After our hike we headed to our campground for the next two nights – Bayou Segnette State Park.  This park is located just west of New Orleans.  We decided to take the toll bridge across Lake Pontchartrain.  This bridge is over 23 miles long. Obviously, Lake Pontchartrain is a very expansive lake.

Bayou Segnette campground has 100 sites, but only about ¼ of them are occupied.  The site I was hoping to get (#17) was occupied.  I had checked on it a couple of days ago and it was not reserved.  I guess someone else liked it too.  We chose site #55, in part because it doesn’t have a close neighbor, but also because people in the first loop turn off right before our site to exit the campground.  They don’t drive past our site, thus it is much quieter.

After checking in and securing our site, we walked over to the day-use area, which has a number of ponds.  We had a great day of birding as we observed 34 different species here, including several Wood Ducks.  Jack just loves the Wood Ducks.  Also, I got a First of Year – the Vermillion Flycatcher.  According to eBird, this bird has not been recorded here – at least via eBird.

Surprisingly, despite being located close to New Orleans I only have one bar on my phone so cell and internet service are spotty at the campground.  Glad I got my Florida blog posted yesterday.

What to do tomorrow …

Campsite #55 – Bayou Segnette State Park

They don’t have humps or bumps, they have speed tables in the park – think wider than a hump or bump

Wood ducks – camera shy

Tricolored Heron

Our first Vermillion Flycatcher of the trip

We decided to visit the French Quarter in New Orleans, of course.  We caught the Algiers Ferry (about 12 miles from our campground) and debarked on the New Orleans waterfront near the Audubon Aquarium – on the edge of the French Quarter.  We then walked around checking out the homes, the businesses (my shopping trip of our trip – Christmas is coming), the street musicians, and the restaurants (had to have a coffee and a beignet).  New Orleans and the French Quarter has a certain magical quality about it – love the street scene and culture.

We spent around 4 hours just walking the streets and checking out the shops.  We even found the hotel we stayed in last time we were here (2014).   I got caught by a salesman who wanted to sell me a beauty regiment that he claimed would take years (wrinkles) off my face.  I think the only thing it would take is a lot of my money – $900 for the eye serum alone.  Of course he said it would last for 2.5 years, but after 6 months I wouldn’t need it.  Then why would I want to pay for two years of a product I shouldn’t need (or maybe he meant it expires in 2.5 years)?  Oh, but if I bought today it would be half price – the in-store price versus the on-line price.  He must think I am really gullible.  We walked out with a few free soap samples and some literature.  Poor Jonathan, with his French accent (not sure it was real or not), is left with hopes I will return to buy his company’s products.  We then walked down the street and came across two more stores with the same hype and selling the same skin care products.  They must sell something to gullible souls to be able to stay in business and have that many stores in the French Quarter.

In fact, there were a lot of stores here selling the same items – like NOLA T-shirts, and Mardi Gras masks, and Mardi Gras beads – authentic China-made.  No takers here, although they had some great sayings on some of the T-shirts.  They also have a lot of items with the words “Wine” and “Beer” on them.  Guess they like to drink in New Orleans.

We ate lunch at a restaurant that is a part of a non-profit organization that rescues dogs.  A portion of all proceeds from the restaurant go towards the dogs.  Maybe the food scraps too? We also made a donation of $20.00 to help our furry friends.

After getting our fill of the French Quarter (there are only so many shops you can frequent), we headed back to the ferry and subsequently to the campground.  Jack is off doing laundry (its free because they don’t want you putting up a clothes line at your campsite.  They have a lot of rules here.  But alas tomorrow we leave and head to Grand Isle State Park on the Gulf coast of Louisiana.  We’ve been to Grand Isle  before (February 2014) and there was some great birding so we want to check it out again.  I hope the next couple of days are warmer, because today in New Orleans it was only 54 degrees Fahrenheit, with winds to 10 mph.  Chilly.  I wore my lightweight down parka and wool hat.

Probably hard to bury people in the ground when the ground is wet and you don’t want them reappearing during a hurricane

Blue bikes you can rent in the french quarter

Ferry terminal building (inside)

I would have happily taken the dog off her hands, but I think she needs him more than I do.

That’s a lot of Christmas decorations

I love the balconies

Especially those balconies with a lot of plants

Yes, a baby grand piano.  I should have gone in and seen how much they wanted for the piano.

This house was actually in the Algiers area, not the French Quarter

For $20 you can ride in a carriage around the French Quarter for 1/2 hour or $40 for an hour.

Homeless man (yes, in a skirt) with all his belongings

We stayed at this hotel in 2014

The French Quarter is known for its courtyards

This was the “corn” house

You can always take a ride on a steam-wheeler on the Mighty Mississippi.

Plenty of street musicians

We awoke to a brisk morning with temperatures in the mid 40s, but it’s the wind that makes it so much colder – or at least feel colder.  We packed up the van, said goodbye to NOLA, and headed to Grand Isle State Park, approximately 100 miles away.  But first we made a stop at a Winn Dixie grocery store.  Not my favorite grocery store, but adjacent to the building were recycling bins.  Woohoo!!!  I think this is the first time we’ve seen any recycling effort in Louisiana. It’s a start.

We got to the park around 12:30 p.m., and proceeded to drive the campground loop looking for the perfect spot.  This isn’t the best campground.  It reminds me of a national park campground – one big long parking lot converted into camping sites with some green grass.  Of course we could camp on the beach, but since we don’t have a tent and we can’t drive on the beach… well we chose an electric site instead.  The winner – site #34.  This site at least has a little vegetation adjacent to it to screen out the camper on the east.  Of course not that there is one.  The campground isn’t even ¼ full tonight.

Campsite #34 – Grand Isle State Park

We saw a sign that indicated the Grand Isle residents are friendly.  Maybe the park staff person in the fee booth lives elsewhere.  She wasn’t a very happy person.

We set up camp and went out birding.  First we started at the beach to check out the shorebirds as the tide was coming in.  We had a total of nine different shorebirds:  Willet, Killdeer, Black-bellied Plover, Western Sandpiper, Least Sandpiper, Ruddy Turnstone, Semipalmated Plover and Sanderling.  One of the sanderlings was missing his toes.  And one of the Semipalmated Plover seemed to be missing a leg.  At least it was hoping around on only one leg for quite some time and distance – never did see another leg appear.  The majority of shorebirds on the beach were Sanderlings.

We also had a large flock of Black Skimmers flying by while we were on the beach.  We later climbed an observation tower and found them roosting on the beach near a breakwater.  Gotta love these birds with their strange bills for capturing food.

As for songbirds, despite all the trees surrounding the campground, there weren’t that many different birds, but what we did have were a lot of Yellow-rumped Warblers.  I estimate there must have been around 70-80.  They were everywhere.

Sanderling

Yes, missing his toes

Semiplamated Plover

Black-bellied Plover

Brown Pelican

Semipalmated Plover – we weren’t sure if this bird was missing a leg or just liked to hop along on the one???

Even bending over and searching for food this bird is only on one leg

Killdeer taking off

Yellow-rumped Warbler – they were everywhere

Roosting Black Skimmers – hundreds of them

Sanderling

Sanderling and Ruddy Turnstone

Least Sandpiper

Jack at the top of the observation tower

View of the fishing pier from the observation tower

We also hiked a portion of the park’s nature trail.  This area must have gotten a lot of rain recently because the a lot of the trail path was covered  in water – some places up to 50 feet in length.  This required that we walk on the adjacent vegetation.  At one point I miscalculated where to put my feet and stepped into a muddy area, covering most of my shoe.  Surprisingly the water and mud did not seep into my shoe.  My feet remained dry.  Yay!!!

This was a nature trail that went around two ponds. This was the driest part of the trail.

View from the observation tower – this area is protected. No entry.

Fishing and crabbing pond

Great Egret

Adult Black-crowned Night-Heron

Juvenile Black-crowned Night-Heron

When we got back to the campground and started to set up for dinner we noticed there were thousands of little red ants on top of the picnic table.  Well that won’t do – no fun cooking/eating with ants.  So we took the heavy picnic table from the adjacent campsite and moved (lugged) it onto our paved pad, and cooked and ate our meal there.  Will need to move it back tomorrow when we leave.  Luckily no one was next to us so we could take and use the table.

There aren’t many campers in the campground – maybe 10 in all, and half of them are from Missouri.  Guess it isn’t too far of a drive from the “Show Me” state.

A storm is a brewing and is expected to hit Friday night and Saturday.  Some places in Louisiana could get up to 4-5 inches of rain.  We were thinking of going to a state park this is expected to get up to 4-inches of rain so guess we will need to change our plans.

We left Grand Isle State Park (Jack really doesn’t like this campground, although I thought our site wasn’t too bad) after breakfast and a short bird walk on the beach where we rediscovered the Skimmers – a huge wave of them!  We planned to make two quick stops to bird before heading to our next campground for the night.  So much for good intentions.  The first stop – Elmer’s Island Wildlife Refuge (state managed) – captured our attention for about 2 hours.  We drove the road and birded, finding a total of 29 species, including two FOY: Seaside Sparrow (an unexpected find) and Clapper Rail.  While we saw the Clapper Rail in Cuba, I get to add the rail to my “North America” FOY list.  I keep a yearly list of all the birds I see (First of Years), when, and where.  Occasionally I go back to my list to find where I saw a particular bird and when (time of year).  So I guess keeping the list is somewhat useful.

White-winged Pigeon

Black Skimmers in flight

Black Skimmers

Great Egret

Our nephew Nate calls these birds “Florida Chickens”. Their formal name is “White Ibis”.  The ones with brown on them are the juveniles (hatch year birds)

The Elmer’s Island road – and this was the nicest section – relatively few potholes

Lots of Semipalmated Plover here

Clapper Rail

Clapper Rail

At the end of the road (about 1.5 miles from LA-1), we walked the beach a short distance.  The wind was blowing pretty good (about 10-15 mph) so we didn’t go far.  The only shorebirds we saw (beachside) were Sanderling, and not many of them.

The beach at Elmer’s Island is important breeding habitat for plover, terns (Least), and Black Skimmers.

After Elmer’s Island Wildlife Refuge, we continued on to our next stop, which really was a drive along the old LA-1 road.  There were a lot of waders (herons, egrets, spoonbills), raptors, and a few fisherman.  No rails, although we’ve seen them here in the past.

Red-tailed Hawk

Little Blue Heron

Probably a lot more waders in the tall grass that we couldn’t see

We left the campground around 8:00 a.m., and at noon finally headed to our next campground – four hours away.  But this trip is ‘All About Birding’, and we had some good birding today.

Tonight’s (and tomorrow’s) campground is at Palmetto Island State Park.  We chose this campground because it was located in the direction we are headed (west) and is expected to receive the least amount of rain from the upcoming winter storm.  I guess the real concern here is flooding – everything is flat here and water everywhere (lakes, ponds, channels, estuaries, etc).

Palmetto Island State Park has 96 campsites, and only about 15 are occupied or will be occupied this weekend (at least based on reservations).  But then again, it is supposed to rain here about 1.5-2.0 inches.  Not that much fun camping in the rain.  We don’t have much choice unless we want to go to a motel/hotel, but locals do have a choice.

This campground has lots of majestic oaks and smells like fall – a smell I love.   We are camped in site #39.  I wouldn’t pick this site again as the picnic table for the site next to us is right behind our site.  Of course most people don’t use their picnic tables unless they are tent camping.  If we revisit the park, I would chose site #40, which is located right across from the “comfort stations”.

One good thing I can say about Louisiana state park campgrounds is they have free laundry and internet.  As we head west, I’m going to miss the free laundry, and to have it right at the campsite is nice too.

After breakfast we headed west to the Cameron Prairie National Wildlife Refuge.  We’ve visited this refuge twice in the past – 2014 and 2017.  They have a nice 3-mile auto route and a short boardwalk trail.  The boardwalk trail is supposed to be a good place to find rails (Virginia, Sora, and King) and Marsh Wrens.  We heard the wrens, but they didn’t make an appearance.  Darn birds.  Don’t they know they are in my favorite genus???  I love wrens.

As we got to the end of the trail (back at the parking lot), Jack said “there’s a rail”.  Sure enough a large rail was stealthily walking in the vegetation.  We tracked it for about 10-15 minutes.  At first I thought it was a Clapper Rail, but it turned out to be a King Rail.  So much better.  I haven’t seen one since that last time we were in this neck of the woods.

We are now in “rice” country

The black cloud is a large swarm of blackbirds and grackles

Pintail Drive – Cameron Prairie National Wildlife Refuge

Boardwalk nature trail

This was the habitat along much of the boardwalk trail

King Rail

We drove the auto route and observed a number of species – 37 species for the refuge.  Not a bad day.  And there were several hundred Snow Geese (and at least one Ross’s Goose) loafing in the rice fields on the refuge.  We haven’t seen Snow Geese in these numbers – again since our last visit here.

Alligator

They always seem as though they are smiling

Snow goose

Our next stop was the Lacassine National Wildlife Refuge located about 40 miles away.  We got to the refuge around 1:00 pm and drove the wildlife route located in the Lacassine Pool Unit.  This wildlife drive provided us with excellent views and an incredible sight of tens of thousands of ducks – primarily Northern Shoveler, Ring-necked Duck, and Green-winged Teal.  I was truly in awe at the number of ducks.  We also saw Mallards and Blue-winged Teal, but in far, far, far fewer numbers.  In fact, I only saw two Blue-winged Teal.

In total, we had 35 different species here, including an Adult and a Sub Adult Bald Eagle.   And we got to see a Vermillion Flycatcher.  Always a great bird to see.

Great Blue Heron

Anhinga

Rosette Spoonbill

Female Belted Kingfisher. Note the red on the chest and flank.

A dreaded nutria – invasive species

These are birds – there were thousands and thousands and thousands of waterfowl

We made it back to the campground in time to fix and eat dinner before it got dark.  The sun sets around 5:00 p.m. now, so we eat early.  Guess we should buy a lantern for when it gets dark.  The only problem is, the mosquitoes come out in droves at dusk.  We hate mosquitoes so guess it means we continue to eat dinner early.

Tomorrow we head to Texas.  Hard to believe it is the second week of December already.

Until Texas …

It’s A Great Day to Bird

 

Florida Again …

Once we took off from Cuba it was only a 48-minute flight to Fort Lauderdale – I so love short flights.  I would like to have stayed in Cuba a few extra days birding.  I wish we could have stayed at least a day longer at three different places: Vinales, Zapata Wetlands (Playa Larga), and Cayo Coco.  It seems as though all birding trips to Cuba are generally 9 days in duration.  I haven’t learned of any longer trips.

Facing travel fatigue, we decided to stay the night in Fort Lauderdale instead of hopping in the van and driving to a campsite.  We got to catch up on emails and the like, and sleep in an air conditioned room.  Hot and muggy here in Ft. Lauderdale.

Being a dog person, I loved this. Yes, my dogs generally rescue me too.

Now I really want these for our van and pickup truck

First stop of the day –  Arthur Mitchell Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge.  To get to the refuge, which is about 39 miles from our hotel, we decided to take the Interstate (95) for a short way, then connect to Highway 585, and finally Highway 441.  Despite which road we took, the drivers in this state at manic.  They speed, cut in front of you with little or no warning and not much room, they run red lights (and some of those lights are very red), they tailgate, and one woman was driving down the road straddling two lanes.  Then she pulled into the crosswalk at a red light.  I was tempted to call the police and alert them to her erratic driving.  I know she upset a couple of drivers.  People like that are dangerous on the road.

The purpose of visiting Loxahatchee NWR again was to see if the Bobolink that had been seen earlier was still there.  If it was, it wasn’t presenting itself.  We did see 29 different species despite it being quiet bird-wise at the park.  When we first started out a woman was photographing a Great Blue Heron and I decided to get a few shots myself.  Then out of the grass an alligator erupts and goes after the Great Blue Heron and a Tricolored Heron that we hadn’t seen yet.  I suspect the herons were getting a little too close to some baby alligators, which a heron would eat.

Little Blue Heron – Juvenile. You can tell by the color of the bill.

Snail Kite (hatch year bird)

An unwelcomed visitor to the refuge – an Iguana (they are not native to Florida)

A portion of the Marsh Trail

Turtle – its shell reminded me of an army helmet

Snail Kite

Tricolored Heron

Swamp lily – so beautiful

Not sure what they were live trapping

I don’t think it was this alligator

We saw this Snail Kite with an apple snail – dinner

We actually saw it take the meat from the shell and eat it

Apple snail shell – they are good sized snails

This was the Great Blue Heron the alligator went after

Limpkin

There are actually two turtles in this photo. Can you spot both of them?

Purple Gallinule

Tricolored Heron

Alligator

We spent about two hours at the refuge and then headed to Ortano South Locks Campground for the night.  This campground is located along the Caloosahatchee River near Lake Okeechobee.  The campground is owned and operated by the Army Corp of Engineers so we get to stay here for half price – $15.00 per night (senior pass rate).   Once we arrived we decided to check out the birds.  There must have been over 200 Boat-tailed Grackles here.  Amazing.  Within two-hours, we had 27 species, including two Bald Eagles.  One woman said it was nice that this is one of the few places in the United States where eagles can exist in peace.  Hmmm.  She must not know about Alaska’s eagles or forgot Alaska is part of the U.S., but we understood her meaning of what we call the ‘lower 48’.

Lots of people were fishing at the locks

Our campground site

We had a beautiful sunset

We decided to spend the morning birding the Ortano South Locks Campground and it turned out to be quite productive with a total of 29 different species.  We had three Loggerhead Shrikes in the campground.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen more than one at a time.  They would fly into the trees and the birds in those trees would either fly out or go silent.  I also had about four blue-gray gnatcatchers in the tree at our campsite too.   This is a nice place to camp and bird.

Pair of Loggerhead Shrikes

Loggerhead Shrike

Red-shouldered Hawk

Score – finally got decent photos of a Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

A Wood Stork and a Snowy Egret – significant size difference between the two birds

Loggerhead Shrike

We will spend the holidays with family in Lithia, Florida (near Tampa), enjoying good food with our nephew Nathan and his wonderful family.  They are gracious enough to let us stay with them for several days to unwind, relax, and enjoy.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone

Friday, instead of ‘Black Friday’ shopping, we cleaned out the van, did laundry, and took a very pleasant walk with family in the Fishhawk Ranch Subdivision.  This is a really nice subdivision with lots of retention ponds and green space corridors.  We saw 21 different species on our walk, including two Sandhill Cranes (the “Florida” subspecies of Sandhill Cranes are non-migratory).  Not bad for 1.25 hour walk in a developed subdivision.

Florida Sandhill Crane

Wood Stork at one of the subdivision retention ponds

Wood Stork

Anhinga drying its wings

Killdeer

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Little Blue Heron (Adult)

Great Egret

The different neighborhoods in the subdivision have bird names

Here are a couple example of the houses in the subdivision

On Saturday we drove to nearby Hillsborough River State Park to hike and bird.  We saw 33 different species, although on one trail (a mile long) we didn’t have any birds.  Most of the birds we saw were near the parking lots – in the more developed areas.  This seems to be the case in many places.  We hiked both the Baynard and the Wetland Trails.  In all, we hiked about 6.0 miles during a 4-hour period of time.  This includes stopping to eat at a convenient café in the park.

Pileated Woodpecker

Boardwalk

Hillsborough River

Young alligator

This is actually a suspension bridge – very sturdy

Baynard Trail

Yes, more fungus

In the park store you can even buy flavored crickets. I didn’t see any takers, although the clerk kept trying to get young kids to buy some and try them.

Someone said Hispanic kids like these suckers. Jack said “no way”.  Again, no takers while we were in the store/cafe.

Now if people would only use them

A (Eastern) Phoebe a day, helps keep the blues away … have you seen a phoebe today

This is the wetland trail

… and the habitat adjacent to the trail

I finally got my Cuba blog completed – woohoo!!!  I had ‘published’ it earlier by mistake – I wasn’t finished with it yet.  Dang it.  From now on I will schedule a publication date about a month in advance and then go back in and change it when I’m ready to actually publish it to the world.

On Sunday, we said goodbye to our gracious hosts – The “Wonderful” Nathan Wiles family.  They are good people as the southern saying goes.  We already miss them and their precious dog Reese.  We headed north to Manatee Springs State Park, our campground for the night.  We stayed here in 2014 on our Big Adventure.  I went back and checked my journal from that trip and found that when we were here in early March it had been a very wet winter.  Today was actually quite pleasant.  We walked to the springs and spotted at least five Manatees in the pools fed by the warm spring water.  The Manatees migrate up the Suwanee River to winter in the spring-fed pool.  The park has a boardwalk, which leads out to the Suwannee River.  In the trees across from the boardwalk there must have been over 200 Black and Turkey Vultures roosting.  Every once in awhile the birds would flush – the birds erupting from the trees.

We did bird the park area and found several nice mixed flock of songbirds.  We even had an American Crow that made a very strange, whistling-like sound after its caw call.  At first I thought it might be a child making noises, but Jack pointed out it was the bird.  Sure enough.  I recorded the call.  Not sure how I can get it on the blog, but I will try.

Tomorrow we will visit the Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge just south of the park.  We’ve visited this refuge in 2014.  Not sure what birds we might see there, but it’s always a good day to bird.

Boardwalk at Manatee Springs

Suwannee River … the trees on the right were the roost trees for the vultures

The American Crow making the strange sounds

Green Heron

Swimming or snorkling anyone? Actually this pond is only for scuba diving and it leads to caves

Overcast, cool, windy, humid today.  I saw a ring around the sun yesterday, which means the weather will turn bad within 24 hours – rain.  And did it ever rain.  Luckily it held off while we were at the Lower Suwanee National Wildlife Refuge doing a short hike and checking out Shell Mound Unit.  It did rain during a portion of the 9-mile nature drive.  But the worst of the storm hit once we left the refuge and headed north towards our campground for the night.  At times it seemed as though even our windshield wipers at full strength weren’t good enough to keep the window clear so one could drive.  A little nerve-racking.  And we had thunder and lightning as well.

River trail boardwalk

Dead and eaten Nine-banded Armadillo.  We saw a Turkey Vulture near the animal when we arrived at the refuge.

Due to the weather, there were not a lot of birds at the refuge today, although there were several large flocks of Yellow-rumped Warblers.  They didn’t seem to mind the rain.  I wanted to get to Shell Mound during the rising tide, and high tide wasn’t until around 4:30 pm.  We got to the parking lot/boat launch around 12:30 pm and I’m glad we didn’t arrive much later.  There are several near-shore gravel/sand bars and the birds were concentrated on those.  As the tide came in, those areas were covered and the birds disappeared.  Timing is everything and we got to see a lot of shorebirds;  American Oystercatcher, Willet, Semipalmated Plover, Sanderling, Ruddy Turnstone, Dunlin, and Short-billed Dowitcher.   There were also a fair number of Black Skimmer, along with Forester’s, Royal, and Caspian Terns.  This area was my favorite birding spot today, and we spent less than an hour here because of the rising tide and the winds.  So glad we got here when we did.

The Nature Drive road

Boardwalk at Shell Mound Unit

Areas where the shorebirds and gulls/terns were congregated

We made it to our campground: Ochlockonee River State Park.  I really like the area (Pine Flatwood habitat), but not the campground.  There are 30 sites scattered over a small area.  The bathrooms are a little dated.  We only plan to stay one night and move westward.  We will bird the area in the morning to see what birds are around – there are white ringed trees indicating Red-cockaded Woodpecker nests.  There are several trails we thought we might check out.  The temperature tomorrow is supposed to be cool – in the mid 50s.  More than 20 degrees cooler than today.  And tonight it is supposed to get down to 37 degrees.  Brrrrrrrrr.  But we do prefer sleeping in the cooler weather than the hot, humid weather.

This morning was cold – 37 degrees Fahrenheit at 7:00 a.m.  I think my toes froze.  I told Jack that if I needed to grasp anything with my toes, it wouldn’t happen.  If something fell on my toes, they would probably break off.  I should have put on my fake Ugg boots to keep my toes warm.  Will do that tonight if it gets this cold again, which is supposed to happen.

We birded the campground hoping to see the Red-cockaded Woodpecker, instead we saw a Red-bellied Woodpecker, Red-headed Woodpecker, and Yellow-breasted Sapsucker, but alas no Red-cockaded, just the white rings on the trees marking their nest sites.  Several of their nest trees looked as though the tops were snapped off during Hurricane Michael this past October.  There was some evidence of storm surge material on the trails and in the campground and day-use areas.  We tried hiking the Pine Flatwoods Trail, but a portion of the trail was covered in water.  That might have been from yesterday’s rain.  It did come down pretty hard and for a long period of time.

Pine Hardwood Trail

Chipping Sparrow

Two Brown-headed Nuthatches clinging to the tree and each other to stay warm???

Brown-headed Nuthatch

Outdoor shower – cute use of an old canoe

Storm surge debris from Hurricane Michael (October 2018)

Tufted Titmouse

Tufted Titmouse

We left the park around 11:00 a.m., and headed west.  We decided to drive the Gulf Coast scenic route – Highway 98.  What we saw was not scenic, but rather a lot of debris piled up on the sides of the road from the Hurricane.  However, it wasn’t until we got to the towns of Port St. Joe, Mexico Beach, and Parker that we really saw the destructive force of the Hurricane.  Mexico Beach is where the Hurricane made landfall and it looked as if the entire town had been destroyed.  My heart just broke for all those people affected by the storm.  It was really hard to see all that destruction.  I took photos as we were driving through these towns.  Later I realized I should have rolled down my window despite the cool temperatures (re: better photos).  Tyndall Air Force Base was hit hard too.  And the stands of pine trees along the road looked like match sticks snapped in half.  Miles of trees destroyed.

We are on the Florida Panhandle, and after passing through Panama City Beach, it seemed like on long continuous strip – developed with resorts, hotels, businesses, and winter homes.  We are staying the night at Henderson Beach State Park, near Destin, Florida.  This is a nice campground, at least Loop D, Site #49.  Our site is heavily vegetated so you don’t see much of your neighbors, which is what we like.  And the site is long and level.  At some campgrounds the sites are so short we wonder why some of these big rigs even bother showing up.

Site #49 – Henderson Beach State Park (Florida)

We only wanted to stay here one night and when we drove up we saw the “Campground Full” sign.  I told Jack to ask anyway since the web site showed openings.  Come to find out they did have one site left.  So we snagged it.  So glad, as we didn’t feel like driving to another campground. There were actually several sites in our loop that weren’t filled when we arrived at our site.

We changed time zones today (now in Central) so the sun sets earlier – like 4:45 pm.  So we either eat an early dinner while it is still light or cook in the dark.  Not having to cook outside is one nice thing about having a fully-contained camper, but we still like our ‘tin tent’.

Another cold morning.  Since we are at Henderson “Beach” State Park we thought we would check out the beach before heading north.  There is a trail from the campground to the beach via a boardwalk.  Once we got to the beach we were nearly blinded by the white, white sandy beach.  Beautiful.  We walked the beach and birded.  I was hoping to see a Snowy Plover, but no go.  As for shorebirds, we only had Sanderlings.  But I so love these charismatic birds.  Run, run, run, stop.  Run, run, run, stop.  Up and down the beach they go darting in and out along the surf’s edge in search of food.

Trail from our campground loop – leads to the beach

Boardwalk trail – they don’t want people walking on the dunes and destroying the habitat (its against Florida law to walk on the dunes, or so the signs said)

Henderson Beach

Brown Pelican, Royal Tern, Sandwich Tern

Sanderling

The larger tern is a Royal Tern. The other terns are Sandwich Terns.

A sea cucumber – there were lots of them on the beach

Sea Cucumber

Lots of bird tracks

I think he was hoping we wouldn’t notice him sitting there quietly. I love how their tails fold over their backs.

There must be an air force base nearby as we had fighter jets flying overhead regularly.  Now that is a job I would love to have.  I know, sounds funny coming from someone who doesn’t like to fly commercial airlines.  But I think flying at high speed in something like an F-16 jet (or whatever the current version is now) and being at the controls would be a total mind rush or, very tense.  But, back to earth.

Military doing loop-de-loops

We decided to take a shower prior to leaving the campground.  Didn’t want to take one first thing in the morning as it was cold and we wanted to enjoy the beach.  After our showers, we headed north to the Gulf Islands National Seashore and our destination for the night – the Fort Pickens campground.  We didn’t have reservations, but looking online there were plenty of sites to choose from.  We are meeting our friends Pat and Bob (from Washington state) here.  We first met Pat and Bob in 2014 in Louisiana at the Big Branch Marsh National Wildlife Refuge.  They were looking for the Red-cockaded Woodpecker, as were we.  We’ve been friends ever since, connecting at various birding spots over the years.  They plan to stay here four nights, we only two.  Jack and I, well I anyway, always wants to be on the move.  Maybe if we had a big, humongous motor home, I too might want to stay put.  If for no other reason then the hassle of moving such a big rig and setting it up from one campground to another.   I could relax more in something large and luxurious; watch a little TV – ha!

I had thought about making reservations ahead of time and found two sites (C-13 and C-33) I thought might be good sites (based on the on-line photos for these sites).  Yeah right.  Always better to check out the sites first, if possible, and find one you want.  We ended up first in C-37 because we didn’t look close enough to see that it had a lot of standing water and the electric hookup was about a mile away.  So we went back to the campground registration office and successfully moved to C48.  Not the most ideal site, but then none of the sites in this campground are ideal – mostly open space.  Our friends Bob and Pat have a great semi-sheltered site in Loop A (site #34).  I would be more than happy to trade with them.

After getting settled in our campsite, we headed back to the beach.  And this time we scored with the Snowy Plover.  In fact, we had about 8 of them in all.  Not many other birds around however – a few Sanderlings, an Osprey and a Royal Tern that flew by occasionally – an individual we think liked to patrol the beach.  We did see some Brown Pelicans off in the distance and Common Loons.  This is our first sighting of loons in Florida.

Florida National Scenic Trail

A surprising number of wetlands on the island. This one near our campground.

Boardwalk from Loop A to the beach

Jack on the white sandy beach

My 8.5 size shoe next to the bird tracks

We suspect this was made by a Great Blue Heron (GBH). Lots of them on the island.

Snowy Plovers …

 

Moon (sea) Jelly

Part of the fort armory

This morning was much warmer than the past two mornings.  Nice.  Yes, I am climatically challenged.  I like temperatures for sleeping in the van between 40-50, and during the day between 60-70.  Kind of hard to find those temperatures year-round.  So I complain about both the heat and the cold.

Today was nice though, and after we birded an hour in the morning, we met our friends Bob and Pat for more birding.  This time we went to the actual “Fort” Pickens and birded a short section of the Florida National Scenic Trail and the beach.  No new birds, but then all birds are great birds.  The Northern Mockingbirds for some reason really like this area.  They seem to be everywhere.  We’ve also had a lot of Great Blue Herons and even found some roosting in the pine trees.  So strange to see such a large bird sitting in a tree.

Bay side of the island

Dead Needlefish or Ballyhoo

Dead American Shad – there were a lot of these fishes on the beach

Part of the fort

Great Blue Heron

Great Blue Heron

We went to lunch in Pensacola Beach, a short distance (6+ miles) from our campground at a place called Flounder’s Chowder House.  The chowder here has clams, shrimp, and flounder.  The chowder lived up to its award-winning claim – it was quite good.  After lunch we went to Shoreline Park, but saw very few birds, and this is an eBird hotspot too.  Oh well, just not today at this time of day.

We stopped at one of the National Seashore beach access points on the way back to the campground.  This area has really beautiful beaches with amazing white sand – so glad  there is a section protected.  It was getting late so not a lot of birds about, except for a few Sanderlings and Ruddy Turnstones.  While in the parking lot, there was a single Snowy Plover drinking water from the pooled water in the lot.  Bob and Pat were happy to see the bird – a First of Year for them.  We saw several yesterday and they were First of Year birds for us too.  Such cute little plovers.

Not sure what bird species this is

Pat, Bob, and Jack on the beach

Bob and Pat

The prize for today however was the Nine-banded Armadillo we saw on the Florida National Scenic Trail.  A friend told us they are essentially blind (can’t see too far) and so you can get close to them if you are quiet.  So I crept up to the armadillo and sure enough I was able to get within 6-8 feet while it continued to eat.  Such interesting creatures.  Its snout was always on the ground searching for and eating food so I couldn’t get a close-up shot of its snout.  And its back looked like an accordion as it moved.  Or course I was just happy to see one, let alone get so close and get a decent photo.  Hooray!!!  We also saw Bottle-nosed Dolphins in the bay.

Nine-banded Armadillo

Jack on the trail of the Armadillo

We decided to stay at Gulf Islands National Seashore another night as tomorrow’s weather is suppose to be decent and there is more yet to explore.  It’s not suppose to rain until tomorrow night.  And speaking of the Gulf Islands National Seashore, it was created in 1971, and it stretches 160 miles long making it the largest national seashore in the United States.  Surprisingly 82% of the seashore is submerged underwater.

We hiked and birded the bayside of the seashore near our campground.  I kept hearing this bird (have for the past several days) and could not find it among the vegetation.  Finally, today we saw the bird – an Eastern Towhee.  Hooray!!!  It’s always nice to put a song/call to a bird.  Now when I hear it again I know what to look for.

Morning has broken …

Brown Pelican – Adult

Stretchhhhhhhhhhhh

Hatch Year Brown Pelican (aka juvenile)

Willet

I’ve never seen a Willet resting on the beach

One of the fort’s structures

I climbed up and looked down on Jack. This would be a great place during spring migration as you could see the tops of the trees and you wouldn’t get warbler neck.

We met up with Pat and Bob around 10:00 am.  We walked over to the beach and birded the beach  – not much there.  Bob wanted to go inland to the road and back to the campground, so we bushwacked our way back.  When we were almost to the road I receive a text from my sister about the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that hit about 10 miles north of Anchorage.  Family and friends were safe and sound.  I guess there will be some major repair work to roads and bridges, and other structures.  The neighbor who looks after our house said all was well.  Some friends had to leave their homes and head to higher ground in case of a tsunami.  Luckily no tsunamis in the immediate area.  Awful to be away from home when something like this happens.  You really do feel helpless.

Pat – Bob – Jack – Shell

Ruddy Turnstone

Ruddy Turnstones

Snowy Plover

Sea Star

Ghost Crab – a very small one

What’s left of a fish

Pine Warbler

Pine Warbler

After we made it back to the campground we went to the local Subway for lunch, then back to the Fort.  Jack and Bob toured the fort, while Pat and I birded the area.  We found several ghost crabs during our walk, one very small – think smaller than a dime.  We also had a large flock of Sanderlings – around 40, with a few Willet and Ruddy Turnstone mixed in.  Up on the beach were five Snowy Plover.  There were also several Great Blue Heron roosting in the vegetation of the sand dunes.  I do like this area with its beautiful white sandy beaches. Tomorrow we head to Davies Bayou campground where we will spend several nights.  Unfortunately rain is in the forecast.  Not sure how much in terms of inches of precipitation.  Guess I should check it out.

Laughing Gull, Willet, Ruddy Turnstone

Brown Pelican – my favorite pelican

Great Blue Heron

There were lots of Common Loon on the bay – we counted 35

Great Blue Heron – they really like the island

The birds really like this structure – no public access

Wow, hard to believe it’s the last of November already.  We’ve been gone from home over 3 months.  We’ve been to several provinces in Canada (both east and west) and have visited or traveled through 15 states (from Montana to Florida).

The first day of December, and it definitely rained last night.  We had almost two inches of rain in the pan we left outside on the picnic table last night.  And there is a lot of standing water in our campground loop.  Now we know why everyone wants to stay in Loop A.  It was drier than our loop. 

We did find a recycle container so we wanted to take our last minute recycle items there before heading into Alabama.  When we were last in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana (especially Louisiana) recycling was practically non-existent.  Sadly.   Surprisingly the only recycle container at Fort Pickens was at the fort itself, not in the campground loops.  After depositing the recyclable materials, we birded the fort area.  I had to get a last minute glimpse of those Brown Pelicans that like to hang out at the piers.  After birding we went to say goodbye to our friends Bob and Pat, then make our way west into Alabama and Mississippi.

Our campsite

Lots of water after the rain

American Kestrel

The Osprey is back on his perch tree

Eastern Garter Snake

Pelicans everywhere

The ocean side did not have much litter, but the bay side — well that is where everyone fishes and they are not good about cleaning up after themselves.

The National Park Service should have their campground hosts clean the beaches. Park staff clean the bathrooms, so not sure what camp hosts do other than put “reserved” signs on campsite posts.

Our friends Bob and Pat’s camper (on Sunday, December 2nd) at Ft. Pickens campground. I’m glad we left yesterday.

Off to Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.  Until then …

IT’S A GREAT DAY TO BIRD

 

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