§ In Search of a Vagrant...

On Wednesday of last week, when there was a break in the rainfall, I jumped in the car and took off in search of a special bird. I never found the bird I was looking for [that day...I did find it later in the week upon a return trip], but the drive, over wet highways, I watched the clouds as I made my way to the private property and then, later, on the way to Wright's Pond to check the egret rookery nearing the beginning of Texas Hill Country! This is what I encountered in part:

 

This is the private property where the vagrant bird was reported seen. The owner was gracious enough to let me go through the gate and into the back side of the house to scope out the landscape for the bird! He was a birder too, obviously, since he had at least a dozen hummingbird feeders and seed feeders throughout the open spaces! By the way, I was kinda skeptical to enter, they had a pit bull. All it did was slobber all over me in friendship. I'm sure it would've been different if the owner wasn't there. Then, it started to drizzle again, so I took off to the rookery. Along the highway you can see the beginning of the hill country which is quite a big deal to Texas Natives...

I arrived at the junction taking me toward San Patricio Texas and Wright's Pond. There, I pulled off on the shoulder of the busy highway and watched for baby egrets in the nest. Found 'em!! Photos taken before the rain began again and I headed back home about 40 miles away and lots of potential of more  highway flooding!

I will have better photos and close ups of the baby egrets in the nest on my Bird Photo Blog, opening publication on Saturday.

...and to continue showcasing my Trolls...

↓ My 22nd Troll Share ↓

TROLL DOLL COLLECTION Holiday Themed Pilgrim circa: 80s?

§ He Was Caught...Tweeting?

Saturday, all day, along the Coastal Bend of Texas, it was the annual Whooping Crane Festival. Of course, the biggest draw of the birding crowds is the Crane, but ALL birding hotspots were crowded. At Port Arnasas, it was a special spot this past weekend. There was another rare sighting [not the hawk previously mentioned in another post]. And, it was just 30 miles from home. After finishing my weekly laundry, I headed out. When I arrived at the refuge, it was like a scene from the popular movie, "The Big Year"!! No place to park, and people everywhere.

To make a long story short, the bird was spotted again by dozens of birders and the sound of camera shutter buttons echoed through the air. Altho, where it landed after a fly-over it wasn't a good spot for photographers. Too many objects obstructing its body. Oh well. But, I did enjoy watching the rounds of 'debates' with a pair of Snowy Egrets. I can't say there was a winner crowned champion.  I think it was legally called a draw, or perhaps we could honestly say only their hairdresser knows for sure...

What did you call my mama?



You can run, but you cannot hide!



I see you, behind the reed!  And you look as scared as Trump v Bloomberg



I'm here ... I can wait forever if need be...



Here I come, ready or not!



Now, onto the NEXT primary.  I think I won for now, as you can see the  "V" for victory in my hairdo...

§ Birding Texas 101

Y'all know by now, that when I take my day trippin' travels and share photos, my main purpose is to head to my destination to tally my steps for the day and to take in some birding. Well, over the last year, I have taken, literally, tens of thousands of photos of birds. Some, I have shared on my bird photo blog, while others,  saving them for record keeping. My record keeping is just that...each photo is dated, so when I go back into my archived folders, I know which birds are in my area in that month. Some migrate of course, while most are year 'round residents of South Texas. I thought I'd take one photo from each month's photo record and publish them on Day Trippin' for a change of pace. These frames were added before I changed the template, eliminating my blog's sidebar, and redesigned the frame to a simpler one. [I also have chosen twelve for 'nature' of each month in 2019 to be published at a later date]. Here goes. Birds for the month of:

January 2019 - Brown Pelican



February 2019 - Crested Caracara



March 2019 - White Winged Dove



April 2019 - Reddish Egret

[below, is a white morph, there is a dark morph also which is aptly named and more common.] This particular white morph is in breeding colors. Note the pink and blue on the face...just when breeding. Also, the open wing stance is called a canopy and is believed they do this when hunting for food to shade the water surface for better visibility.  Guide books and websites will tell you this is the only bird that will canopy when feeding, but I have seen egrets doing the very same, and have recorded it with photo proof.  Did the egrets evolve to this behavior also?

May 2019 - Chipping Sparrow



June 2019 - Fledging Northern Mockingbird



July 2019 - Northern Cardinal in molt.  Molting takes place after breeding and takes weeks to regrow new feathers.



August 2019 -Tri-colored Heron



September 2019 - Great Blue Heron



October 2019 - Summer Tanager

This is a female, the male is all red. Sometimes sighted are dappled yellow, orange and red...the dappled is anywhere from 1 year to adult plumage.

November 2019 - Green Jay

Interesting fact - I kinda secretly tend to call this the "mockingbird of the jay family". If not careful, you may think you hear a hawk [or several other bird calls, sometimes it sounds like a cat's meow] calling from the trees, then to discover it is the green jay!!  They are only seen in South Texas, rare sightings.  Mainly a bird of Old Mexico.

December 2018 - Herring Gull

Herring Gulls are one of few gulls that have yellow eyes. There are literally dozens of different gulls around Texas, and sometimes, if lucky, a rogue from another part of the States or Caribbean will visit. At first, they're difficult to ID at times unless you know specific anatomy and colors to associate.  For instance wing markings, eye color, leg color, size, breeding colors, bill shape and markings, like the ring billed gull.  Guess what?  It has a ring around its bill!

[Corpus Christi had a Bar-Tailed Godwit show up in our parks and bay area... from Britain, a few years back.  And birders were literally FLOCKING -pun intended- to our town with tripods, cameras and binoculars; from all over USA and close by foreign lands.  Of course, I was too]  Bud, at times, went with me to help locate it among the local godwits ... and once he made reference to the showing of so many 'crazy' bird watchers it was like the movie [based on a non-fiction book of the same title] The Big Year -starring Steve Martin and other well-known names.  It was, and oftentimes is just exactly like the movie.  If you've never seen the movie it's a good one.  Fun, funny, educational, well written and directed.  And if you do decide to watch it, you will see a bit of me in it too.  Not physically, but me as one of those fanatic birders.

§ More Doubles...

Not too much to say other than this is the continuation of all my 'double' takes from my PREVIOUS POST!!  The majority are birds...hmmmm, surprised?  lol


Teenaged Black Bellied Whistling Ducks - Brown Anoles


Great Egret & Cormorant - American White Pelicans


Little Blue Herons - Sandhill Cranes


Sanderlings - Bottle-nosed Dolphins


Roseate Spoonbills - Snowy Egrets


White Ibis - Scissortailed Flycatchers [male to left/female on right]


Reddish Egrets - Fence posts


Mexican Olive Tree - The Beginnings of Live Oak Acorns [photo of mature acorn HERE]


Raccoon Tracks - Two Non-functioning Oil Platforms

§ When it's Springtime in South Texas, it's 80° above....

Yesterday's high was 87 degrees [F]!

Along the seawall in the downtown area there are eight of these structures....spaced by several yards in between. The eight, if you decide to enter through the portals, have a bronze plaque that depicts a time line history of the city. I call them gazebos, but the technical term is MIRADOR del mar [or miradores]. Translated from Spanish, meaning "Watcher of the sea", or if you prefer, "sea watchers". They were constructed to hang over the wall and the views for the most part are very pretty, both during the day with the sparkling sea and the yachts and ship channel at the busy port entrance...also at night with the darkness of the gulf waters and the sound of the lapping sea against the wall. The Devary Durrill Foundation installed the Miradors along the Corpus Christi seawall and they were dedicated in October 1991. The structures are similar to those found in seaside resorts in Mexico, Morocco, and Spain. Against the turquoise gulf waters and the clean white against the backdrop, with gulls laughing and flying through the air, fish jumping, shrimp boats arriving with their daily catch, joggers, people walking in the early morning....they make for a beautiful seaside, a down-home, peaceful community scene.


In early Spring [ Springtime for the coastal area of Texas; being early to mid February ], walking in the parks downtown and around the city perimeters, the Acacia Blossoms are all abloom and the evergreen tree with golden yellow pompom like flowers and thorny branches perfume the air. Not only an attraction for the migrant birds such as the warblers and vireos, but the pollinators arrive along with the blossoms! The city parks, in April, host quite a few birding tours for those interested in seeing a new species or watching the return of the Fall Migrants. Each weekend in April, the tours run for a couple of hours every Sunday -except if Easter is in April. Giving us birders ample opportunities to connect with nature. One in particular, on the bluff downtown, is a hot spot for Spring Birds!! Egrets, tho rare inland, frequent the parks, purple martins and chimney swifts return in March like clockwork [reminiscent of the famed Capistrano Swallows], hundreds of different warblers, herons, orioles, and more show up. I was here just over the weekend, and the vireo songs made the morning trek delightful and refreshing....knowing all too soon, they'll head farther north, inland, to breed.

Sunday, before the temperature climbed to near record breaking temps, Bud and I drove to the bay north of town and watched thru the binoculars some of the courtship of a great blue heron on Rookery Island. Altho the island is about 1/2 mile from shore, thru the binoculars you can witness the gestures pretty well. I was too lazy to set up the tripod/camera. But, I did a few snaps of the shutter button; hand held. Why? It was way too early. The sunrise after we arrived was deterring the focus and we were facing the sunlight. But it was all too fascinating! The female, on the nest box wasn't paying too much attention to her potential mate...it was like "Come here, come here....no, go away, go away!" LOL The breeze picked up, and the clouds built up making the lighting on the island even more obscured. So, we left and walked the 2 mile trail from Bayview Road to Indian Point Pier [4 miles round trip - only a 2 mile round trip if you park in the park's parking lot] along Sunset Lakes/Indian Point Park.

Note: This Park Trail is an old abandoned Railway Route, the trestle as shown in the historical post cards crossed the bay and on the Portland, Texas side of the bay----today, the trail...

source

Seeing a whole slew of different birds; curlews, reddish egrets [both red AND the white morph], willets, harriers, tri-colors, snowy egrets, red-winged blackbirds, stilts, plovers, avocets, mergansers, bufflehead ducks, seagulls, pelicans, and a whole lot more. One in particular, the white morphed reddish egret was in breeding plumage....he was beautiful!!!


White Morph Reddish Egret & Snowy Egret  -  White Morphed Reddish Egret [breeding colors]


Reddish Egret [Dark Phase]  - Nueces Bay Causeway & Storm Clouds


Sunset Lakes  - Seagull on Piling Fence


Yucca Blossoms on  land between salt water lakes [bottom] and Gulf [behind yucca]