I'd Rather B Birdin': STILT Sandpiper

Showing posts with label STILT Sandpiper. Show all posts

§ Archive Images...

...I'm finding no time to go birding...busy each day painting interior of all rooms in our house!!! Bud is rewiring the outlets and light switches. Kinda too busy to do much of anything else.

BLACK BELLIED WHISTLING DUCKS
Habitat map: Duck

BLACK TERN
Habitat map: Tern

DUNLIN
Habitat map: Dunlin

LONG BILLED DOWITCHER
Habitat map: Dowitcher

RED WINGED BLACKBIRD
Habitat map: Blackbird

STILT SANDPIPER
Habitat map: Sandpiper

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LINKING TOOL NOW CLOSED

I guess I'm making up for only have the one duck last week. This week, while on the islands, I saw very few birds. Even tho most of the birding hotspots had vacancy signs up. LOL. By that I mean, very little activity witnessed. I think most of the local year 'round birds are busy nesting or raising young. And the migrants have left our area until their return trip in the Fall. In Port Aransas I saw these among others...

STILT SANDPIPER
[I think! It had signs of yellow green legs, but very muddy, and the rufous crown and fading tell-tale rusty spot with the white eye line, and its larger size...if I am mistaken, please correct me!]
Habitat map: Sandpiper

REDDISH EGRET [white morph]
Habitat map: Egret

NEOTROPIC CORMORANT [left] & DOUBLE CRESTED CORMORANT [right]
Habitat map: N Cormorant - DC Cormorant

TRI COLORED HERON
Habitat map: Heron

GALLINULE [MOORHEN] and chick
Habitat map: Gallinule

BLACK NECKED STILT
Habitat map: Stilt

GREAT TAILED GRACKLE
Habitat map: Grackle

BROWN PELICAN
Habitat map: Pelican

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LINKING TOOL IS NOW CLOSED

§ Charlie's Pasture North...

Friday Morning, September 16th, I left for the islands around 6:30 a.m. By the time I reached Leonabelle Refuge [a favorite area on Mustang Island], the sun was just coming up and once again, promised to be a hot, sultry day. The Gulf's tide was extremely high...enough to send across my weather app, a Tidal Flood alert....That meant WATER seepage in the salt flats!! And perhaps a lot of salt water shorebirds. From Leonabelle's observation tower a person can take their scopes or binoculars and look far beyond the cat-tail pond and see Charlie's Pasture Nature Preserve [North AND South]. The North Pasture juts up against the Port of Corpus Christi's Ship Channel from the Gulf of Mexico. Another birder told me as I was leaving the first stop for the day that there was a lot of activity at Charlie's. I walked the parking lot's turn-around first, as he left the refuge. I met up with him again at Charlie's. The young man was originally from Houston [born and raised] and he told me of a few places I could perhaps see the Blue Jay and the Pileated Woodpecker within 100 miles from home - without having to drive to Austin OR Houston. So, come winter, Bud and I plan to travel for a day trip to the area he told me about. Anyway, I got sidetracked...When I got there, the water was shin deep and the bird population was astounding!! Multiple dozens of egrets, herons, spoonbills, sandpipers, ONE Virginia Rail, a Loggerhead Shrike, Mockingbirds, Blackbirds [red winged], Killdeer, ONE Horned Lark, a few Black Skimmers, Willets, Lesser Yellowlegs, Terns, Gulls, a single Long Billed Curlew, and literally 1000s of Black Necked Stilts. I was dumbfounded.

Here are just a few of the nearly 200 photos I took along the boardwalk in the salt flats...

One group of Black Necked Stilts

...and another

...yet, more

...still, more Stilts in another area

Along with the Stilts, a lone Little Blue Heron

Willets, Yellowlegs, and Black Necked Stilts

Willets, Yellowlegs and Stilts

Black Necked Stilts & a Snowy Egret

Caspian Tern

Stilt Sandpipers

Tri-colored Heron

Reddish Egrets

Horned Lark

Long Billed Curlew

Black Skimmer & Forster's Tern

Reddish Egret on the Chase!!

Loggerhead Shrike

Virginia Rail

ALL photos taken at Charlie's Pasture North - Port Aransas, Texas
habitat maps: Rail, Yellowlegs, Little Blue Heron, Willet, Forster's Tern, Tri-colored Heron, Stilt Sandpiper, Reddish Egret, Shrike, Lark, Curlew, Caspian Tern, Skimmer,

Now share your birding experiences:

For being there about an hour before the open flats got too warm for this gal, I 'hauled in a lot of neat birds'!!! I still had to stop and one more 'hot spot'....Paradise Pond.

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§ I Like Mine Rare....

For a couple of years now, we've been searching for the possibly becoming extinct [federally endangered] plover. The Piping Plover. This little tiny shore bird has been reported only spotted twice on Mustang Island's Mustang State Park along the Corpus Christi Pass [a hurricane flood basin]. Each time Bud and I have driven there, we've seen no Piping Plover. But, we'll keep watching for one to show itself for us. About a month ago, as we walked Indian Point Park's trail, I thought for sure I had seen the elusive shore bird. I was 99% sure of it all the while I was trying to focus for a photo, but, then, knew better because of the beak color.... Once I got home and took the photos off the camera's card, sure 'nough it was a plover. And sure 'nough it was a rare one. But the legs and beak were, as I noticed through the camera's viewfinder, were not of the Piping's yellow/orange coloring...they were black. Small in stature [I'm estimating about 5 to 5.5 inches -or 127mm- from beak to tip of tail], instead it was a SNOWY PLOVER. I was still thrilled to have spotted it tho difficult it was to get a decent photo with all its natural scurrying; typical of the plovers. My record charts show that in our area of Coastal Texas they are listed as "R" or "U" for each month of the year [rare or uncommon respectively]. In my way of thinking, I hit paydirt!!

SNOWY PLOVER
photo taken: Indian Point Park - Portland, Texas
habitat map: Snowy Plover

TRIVIA:
Young Snowy Plovers leave their nest within three hours of hatching. They flatten themselves on the ground when a parent signals the approach of people or potential predators.

---I knew this time of year, with temperatures soaring to very uncomfortable for birding excursions during the heat of the day[s] and, as y'all may know by visiting Hootin' Anni's this past week, I've been battling a bad case of Bronchitis and having to take antibiotics which makes me want to do nothing but sleep. So, I'm having to rely on photos of the past Spring months. I'll share another shorebird...this time it's a Stilt Sandpiper. It, too, on my charts, is listed as a rare sighting in my area except for the Fall Migration. I spotted it in May!!...

STILT SANDPIPER
photo taken: Port Aransas Birding Refuge - Port Aransas, Texas
habitat map: Stilt Sandpiper

TRIVIA:
The main southward migration route of the Stilt Sandpiper passes through the middle of the continent, west of the Mississippi River.

---and one more "R" listed on my area's charts is the Willow Flycatcher. Now, there are two IDENTICAL in marking flycatchers...the Willow [seen here] and the Alder Flycatcher. The only way to tell them apart is their song. The Willow's song is 'accented' on the last 'note' while the Alder is just the opposite to me...the accent being at the beginning; the first 'note'. Other than this, they are the same in size, wing-bar markings, eye ring, lower flesh colored mandible and black feet.

WILLOW FLYCATCHER
photo taken: Blucher Park - Corpus Christi, Texas
habitat map: Willow Flycatcher

TRIVIA:
Willow Flycatcher WAV SOUND
Alder Flycatcher MP3 SOUND

Now, share your birding experiences:

§ Archive Images...

§ Port Aransas Birding ....

§ Charlie's Pasture North...

§ I Like Mine Rare....

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