I’m at the Austin airport, having given a second talk on my new book at BookPeople, sponsored in conjunction with Travis Audubon Society. The picture below, taken by Joan Marshall, Exec. Dir. of Travis Audubon, is of Shelia Hargis and Frances Cerbins of the Travis Audubon Board and me in the middle.

My birding today was with Debra Corpora and was limited to a couple of spots in Rockport this morning, and fly-by birding as I drove from Rockport to Austin. The Rockport birding began at a new Aransas Pathways site, Tule Marsh West, where it turns out a couple of my photographs have been used in the signage (permission given of course).

 

After that we went to another relatively new spot, the Linda S. Castro Nature Sanctuary that we’d visited before. We did not have time to see many birds but we did see a splotchy Summer Tanager. And that’s it for Texas for a while. Now it’s back to Alaska big year birding.

TEXAS only, but back soon in Alaska

Today was a day of driving (about 330 miles) and rain, lots of it. If you have heard any news, you have probably heard about the flooding in the Houston area. It was again/still raining heavily as I passed through Houston on the way from Rockport to Beaumont. Although the rain stopped and gave me a few minutes to bird Sabine, Woods, one of my favorite Texas birding spots, it started up in earnest and I eventually raced to my car and drove to Beaumont (about 40 miles) where I’ve been removing shrink wrap from my books and signing them preparatory to my going to the Golden Triangle Audubon meeting tonight. There I will talk about Birds in Trouble (and maybe sell some books).

So my pictures today are just a few taken at Sabine Woods, including views of Lantana plants, a waterthrush (I’m thinking Northern, but my views were no better than my photos) and a female Ruby-throated Hummingbird at  coral bean flowers.

Tomorrow I’ll drive back to Rockport (maybe after a bit of birding at Sabine Woods if it’s not raining). Saturday morning I’ll head to Austin where I’m scheduled to give a talk at the Book People store at 3 pm.

TEXAS birding only; no new Alaska birds of course

Debra Corpora and I birded in Rockport, then Port Aransas and back to Rockpoert today. Many birds had apparently left so there were fewer birds around today. But there still were good birds (especially for a visiting Alaskan). At the quite new Linda S. Castro Nature Sanctuary visited first and then later in the day, the bird we saw included the Wood Duck that has been there a while as well as Tennessee and Blue-winged Warblers, a Redhead, Mottled Ducks, Blue-winged Teal, Indigo Bunting, Bronzed Cowbird, and Ruby-throated Hummingbird.

At Paradise Pond in Port Aransas, highlights included a Black-crowned Night-Heron, Solitary Sandpiper, a Baltimore Oriole,  Yell0w-headed Blackbird, and a Scarlet Tanager.

At the Birding Center we ran into the weekly bird walk being led by Nan Dietert and Lyndon Holcomb. Birds there included Sora and Canada, Nashville, Cerulean, Cape May and Yellow-rumped (Audubon’s) Warblers, as well as nearby Wilson’s Phalaropes, American Avocets and Stilt Sandpipers. There also were two alligators lying right next to the boardwalk.

After lunch, we added birder Jan Wimberly and later Lorrie Lowrie to our birding travels in the Rockport area. At Goose Island State Park were Black-and-White and Golden-winged  Warblers. At Holiday Beach Pond were Green Heron, Anhingas, a Dunlin, White-faced Ibis, Black-bellied Whistling Ducks, Couch’s Kingbird and Common Gallinule (Moorhen).

On a country road with adjacent wetlands were Summer Tanager, Great-crested Flycatcher, Greater Kiskadee, and Rose-breasted Grosbeak.

I have left out many of the birds seen but reading through the above and looking at the pictures, it is clear that birding was beautiful today.

Birding in TEXAS today, so no new Alaska birds

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I am going to be down in Texas for the rest of this week, selling books, giving talks and birding. I arrived in Austin at 5 am (Texas time) without having slept overnight on the plane. After duly noting all the Great-tailed Grackles at the airport, I got my rental car and slowly drove to College Station, home of Texas A&M University Press, the publisher of my books. I birded on the way so I would not get there too early for my meeting. On the way I saw many Scissor-tailed Flycatchers and an Upland Sandpiper among other things.

After my meeting and lunch, I drove to Goose Island State Park where my friend, Debra Corpora had been birding today (I plan to post a picture of her tomorrow, because we are going birding tomorrow to some of my favorite places down here). At Goose Island after I arrived we had 10 warbler species including Yellow, Blue-winged, Yellow-throated, Tennessee, American Redstart. Black[oll, Chestnut-sided, Hooded, Kentucky and Yell0w-breasted Chat. Other highlights for me included Warbling, White-eyed and Red-eyed Vireo, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Whimbel and Willet, a bunch of peeps (Least, Semipalmated), Ruddy Turnstones, and Black Skimmers. There were at least 41 species in a couple of hours.

 

No new birds for AK – this is TX!