I'd Rather B Birdin': Sanderling

Showing posts with label Sanderling. Show all posts

§ National Seashore Birds

For a couple of days this past week, we had a dry air mass come in! With less humidity. And it was half-way comfortable. Still warm temperatures, but not suffocating with a heat index at the century mark. It's warming up again, but the mornings are comfortable for now. I'm sure the humidity will begin to build up again before Summer's over.

I drove one morning to Padre Island National Seashore [Federal Park], mostly to walk along the beach. I really didn't expect to see many birds other than the usual seagulls. I saw a few of them, and a few others:

SANDERLING
photo taken: Padre Island NationalSeashore
habitat map: Sanderling

One of my favorite birds to see, always, is the Semi-Palmated Plover. They are so cute!!!

PIPING PLOVER
photos taken: Padre Island National Seashore
habitat map: Plover

WILLET
photo taken: Padre Island National Seashore
habitat map: Willet

LAUGHING GULL
photo taken: Padre Island National Seashore
habitat map: Gull

I finished walking my 4.5 miles and drove off the beach, back onto the park highway...I decided to turn off the main road and direct the car to Bird Basin in the Laguna Madre area of the reserve. In the Spring this can be a hot spot for two plovers that are uncommon...the snowy plover and piping plover. [All Plovers are a protected species - I'm not sure if it's a national protection law or just this parkland] I parked, got out and began walking the mudflats [dried out from lack of rain]. I saw three plovers on the flats, flitting along the ground to escape my invasion...two adults and what I believe to be an immature. These plovers are uncommon in our area also. The tell-tale ID mark is the dull gray-pink legs and feet, and thick, black bill. The Wilson's Plover:

The last photo of this series, I'm thinking this smaller is the immature. The photo really doesn't show the size difference. And the lighter, larger one is the female. Perhaps the mama? The male is in the 2nd to last image in the series...front

WILSON'S PLOVER
photos taken: Bird Basin PINS
habitat map: Plover

Other birds seen nearby and across the Lagoon that morning:

LONG BILLED CURLEW
photos taken: Bird Basin PINS
habitat map: Curlew

REDDISH EGRET [white morph]
photo taken: Bird Basin PINS
habitat map: Egret

ROYAL TERN
photo taken: Bird Basin PINS
habitat map: Tern

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§ Channel Birds

A walk along Packery Channel [aerial photo above courtesy of Google Search - Texas A&M Corpus Christi] resulted in a few shorebirds/waders such as these:

A cormorant with the catch of the day!

A Sanderling

A Young Grackle along the boulder strewn fishing pier

A Great Blue Heron

Least Sandpiper

A Willet

A Snowy Egret

A Solitary Sandpiper

From close by ...taking off to fly to the other side ... away from me!
A Great Blue Heron

Ruddy Turnstone

Common Tern

Sandwich Tern

All photos taken along Packery Channel - Channel separates NORTH Padre Island and Mustang Island [Corpus Christi, Texas]
habitat range: Sandwich Tern, Common Tern, Ruddy Turnstone, Great Blue Heron, Solitary Sandpiper, Snowy Egret, Willet, Least Sandpiper, Common Grackle, Cormorant, and Sanderling

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§ LOON-y Tunes...

This is gonna be a busy post with a lot of photos, I'll try to not be too chatty...

The day was warm, damp and a dismal gray one. Not good lighting for photos. I spotted a new species that has been on my list for a few years! One species I never expected to see, but always hoped for luck. We were at Indian Point Park on the North Bay, between Corpus Christi and Portland, Texas. After walking on the boardwalk to the observation deck that is on the Corpus Christi side of the park, heading back to the car to leave, I decided to walk from the other side of the parking lot to a small jetty for fishermen. Here, there are usually oystercatchers on the rocks. This day, no oystercatchers. I only spotted a willet [shown above] foraging in the rock crevices for food. Then.......I saw some movement!! It surfaced in the waves!! A FIRST for me!

In its winter plumage, a Common Loon!!

After taking this above image, in all my excitement, the loon dived underwater to not re-surface for the longest time. Bud, then, spotted it way out in the bay. It was leaving the area where first seen. To really see it clearly now, we needed a scope. All too soon it completely disappeared from our eyesight/lens distance. I understand the guide books that the common loon is in our area only during the migrations passage to/from their breeding grounds in Canada/Alaska...

COMMON LOON
Photo taken: Indian Point Park - Corpus Christi, Texas
habitat map: Common Loon

We then got back in the car and drove to the Portland side of the park. Here it changes its name from Indian Point to Sunset Lakes Park. Lots of pools and bay views! We walked the trail to the first observation platform and scouted the tidal pools. The first bird here was a stoic one...the great blue heron...

...still on the observation deck and our use of binoculars, I spotted another first. Well, not a first in species, but TWO of the same, together. And by the looks of the leg coloring and beak brightness, they were a couple. Perhaps coming into breeding plumage: one with vivid hot pink on the beak and bluer legs than normal.

...they kept busy! And the crown feathers and actions on this day were an added bonus for me...

As we continued to scout the area from the platform, we spotted another willet, a couple of black necked stilts, yellowlegs, long billed curlew, several sanderlings, plovers, amercian avocets, and snowy egrets.

All other Photos taken: Indian Point Park/Sunset Lakes Park - Corpus Christi/Portland, Texas

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§ National Seashore Birds

§ Channel Birds

§ LOON-y Tunes...

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