§ 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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§ Ward Island and Mustang Island...

Seems one month we are inundated with flood waters from continual rain. Then, it stops. Within a few days, some of the flat land dries quickly, becoming mudflats that some birds will casually habitat for a few days. One particular area in town, Ward Island, [this is where the NAS -Naval Air Station is located for pilot training. And, if interested, where President George H W Bush trained during WWII]

... on June 12, 1942, Bush had graduated from high school and joined the Navy as a seaman, second class. But, in less than a year, he completed flight training at NAS Corpus Christi, Texas, was commissioned an ensign, and went on to fly TBM Avengers with VT-51. For a time, he was the youngest pilot in Naval Aviation.
source

One day I found myself driving along Ocean Drive and ended up just outside the entrance gates of the Army-Navy Air Station. I walked the flats as you see in the photo above.

I didn't see too many birds as I walked, keeping an eye on the ground more so for snakes [I hate snakes]. In the distance where Oso Bay surrounds the island and meanderes around the Corpus Christi Texas A&M island campus, I could see some herons and skimmers, and spoonbills. Overhead gulls and brown pelicans flew. The few birds I saw on the mudflats were mostly willets and a couple of plovers. Around the bend were about a dozen terns...

WILLET
Habitat map: Willet


WILSON'S PLOVER
Habitat map: Plover


LEAST TERN
Habitat map: Tern



I left that area and headed to another island, Mustang Island along the barrier reef. I walked a short distance and stopped for the day. In south Texas, in the summer, the heat indices will force you to enjoy the great outdoors for a brief outing and then head back to where there is an A C in the car, and back home with the same cooling comfort...


WHITE TAILED HAWK
Habitat map: Hawk


BLACK TERN
Habitat map: Tern


ROSEATE SPOONBILL
Habitat map: Spoonbill

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§ A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood....

On another outing, on the islands, at the beach, the terns were gathered in large groups in the sun...
My favorite of all terns seen here along the Gulf Coast as they pass thru is the:


BLACK TERN
photos taken: Magee Beach
habitat map: Tern

The Starling is an 'introduced' bird in USA.  Some view them as a hindrance, I love to see them...they are beautiful!!



EUROPEAN STARLING [immature]
photos taken: Bazemore Park
habitat map: Starling



Most birding trips total about 60 miles round trip [96.5606 km]. I always enjoy the drive to and from, the scenery and the parks. During Spring and Fall Migration, the trip total can go as far as 200 miles [321.869 km] round trip, depending on the 'near-by hotspot reports' in the neighboring counties along the Coastal Bend. But when I leave the last and pack up the car, I usually put the camera, binoculars, scopes in the trunk in case I stop at the store for groceries on the way home. After one trip a few weeks back, I made my last turn off the freeway, nearing our subdivision, and what is up on a power pole just on the side of the road? Of course!! A beautiful specimen of a hawk!!! Lighting was perfect...it was feeding on its kill, and there was a goodly chance of getting a great photo since it wasn't about to leave soon. I stopped, made a U turn, parked in a vacant parking lot, got out and retrieved my camera and went snap happy on the shutter button. I was close enough to the hawk, I didn't need to use a zoom lens!!!

HARRIS'S HAWK
photos taken:  Neighborhood
habitat map:  Hawk







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§ Birding Vistas...

Just panoramic exposures this week:




SNOWY EGRETS
photo taken:  Port Aransas [unharmed area of Charlie's Pasture]
habitat map:  Egrets


BROWN PELICANS
photo taken:  Padre Island National Seashore
habitat map:  Pelicans


BLACK TERNS [and others]
photo taken:  Port Aransas Jetty
habitat map: Terns


BLACK SKIMMERS
photo taken:  Leonabelle Refuge [during reconstruction]
habitat map:  Skimmers


BLACK NECKED STILTS
photo taken:  Bazemore Park
habitat map:  Stilts


FULVOUS WHISTLING DUCKS
photo taken:  Botanical Gardens Pond [the larger pond]
habitat map:  Ducks


LADDER-BACKED WOODPECKER
photo taken:  Paradise Pond
habitat map: Woodpecker


AMERICAN AVOCETS
photo taken:  Sunset Lakes
habitat map: Avocets





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§ Terns & Captive Birds of Prey...

This time of year along the coast the black terns [my favorite of the tern family] come to shore in their breeding plumage...a beautiful black and silver, tipped in white [male]!!

...in flight they are just as pretty!


BLACK TERN
photos taken: Port Aransas Beach [south jetty]
habitat map: Tern

- - -

While at the botanical gardens in search of birds on the two lakes and on the trails, at the rose pavilion, there was a learning program for school aged children on a field trip. About birds of prey. From eagles, owls, hawks and falcons, I happened to walk by the program and saw one bird I have been searching for in the wild [on Mustang Island/North Padre Island] for nearly a decade. No dice!! I thought I'd get a good look at this falcon as it perched!!! It closely resembles the Peregrine Falcon in some ways, when I DO SEE a falcon in the wild, I'm in hopes it's this rare one...but, dozens of sightings turn out to be no highly sought after falcon, but only a peregrine. I stopped and listened to the lecture; the bird's name is Zorro..

APLOMADO FALCON
photos taken: Botanical Gardens
habitat map: Aplomado Falcon

The man had several captive birds; I took a couple more photos, three owls...






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