Perspectives

Bullock’s Oriole - Oasis State Park, Portales, NM

The theme for today was wind and I am afraid it is going to continue for the next few days. Fortunately, the morning was fairly calm though birds weren’t very cooperative. I did manage to finally chase this Bullock’s Oriole down as it was checking these old seedpods for food. Truly a spectacular bird.

By midday, I headed down to Milnesand, a small town, more of a crossroads, where I will be based for the next few days. I met up with Tish McDaniel from The Nature Conservancy who heads up the local Lesser Prairie Chicken program. We spent the next couple hours touring the property and then I headed off on my own to photograph. By this point, winds were sustained probably around 30 mph with gusts around 40mph. Needless to say, setting up a blind was a bit of a joke. I ended up shooting from my car and had a bit of luck but for the most part was disappointed. Unfortunately, the wind is supposed to continue for the next few days so photographing is going to be quite difficult but I have a few ideas on how to make it work. Hopefully tomorrow I will have a good prairie chicken shot to post.

Today was another extremely long day that started with a 10 hour drive pretty much all the way across Texas.  I knew it was a big state but driving it in a day is no small feet and I didn’t even go the full way to El Paso!  It was nice to see more of the state even if it was at 75 mph.  My overall impression was hot, flat, and very dry.  My biggest surprise was the hundreds upon hundreds of windmills near Abilene.  Quite an impressive couple wind farms!

I am staying at Oasis State Park just outside of Portales, New Mexico (Home to 12,000 friendly people and 3 or 4 old grouches, according to the sign when you enter town).  The park is named for a waterhole that is in an otherwise very dry landscape.  At the moment the waterhole is nothing but a big dusty pit which is a bit ironic.  It’s nice to once again be in a different area with different birds.  Last night I had to rush out and buy a field guide for the western US which was sort of exciting.  I picked up another four new birds today, Lark Bunting, Lark Sparrow, Ash-throated Flycatcher, and the stunning Bullock’s Oriole.  None would cooperate for a photograph but hopefully the morning will be better.

I am leaving as soon as I finish posting this to head to eastern New Mexico and western Texas for about two weeks of photographing, birding, and traveling.  My primary target is Lesser Prairie Chicken and I will be photographing them all this week.  Tuesday of next week, Carrie will be joining me and we will be headed to Carlsbad Caverns National Park and Guadalupe Mountains National Park for a few days before heading back to College Station on the 12th with a stop in Austin that last weekend.  Don’t know what my internet access will look like but I will try and blog when I can.

Attwater’s Prairie Chicken less than 48 hours old - Houston Zoo, Houston, TX

I spent the morning working on the Attwater Prairie Chicken photo essay and had some pretty good results.  The morning started with an early trip to the Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge where I was looking for some simple prairie habitat shots and walked away with what I wanted after about half an hour.  From there I headed into the Houston Zoo where I met with Mollie who works in the APC captive breeding program.  She gave me a tour of the facilities, showed me the eggs, the recently hatched birds, as well as the zoo display.  She was very helpful and I walked away with a few images I like very much.

They currently have three chicks that hatched Saturday night so they were less than 48 hours old.  If they survive the first 10 days, the most difficult part, they will likely make it to 6 weeks when they can then be released out into the prairies at one of three sites.  They are adorable little things and thought you might enjoy this image of a chick sitting in his water bowl.

Eastern Kingbird - Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge, TX

If you put together a top 5 list of the greatest American birding experiences, a fallout on the Texas coast in spring would have to be one of them.  Saturday, while not technically a fallout, was one of the best spring birding days I have ever had.  Carrie and I headed down to Houston for the weekend and decided to spend Saturday birding at Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge, High Island, and the Bolivar Peninsula.  It turned out to be a great decision.

Saturday we started at Anahuac and moved on to an afternoon at High Island.  Our morning was filled with exploring marshes picking up water birds and a large number of Orchard Orioles and other migrants that had arrived in the night.  Several warblers made an appearance behind the visitor center, but the highlight was watching a King Rail wander around in the open about 10 meters off a board walk and catch a huge insect that resembled an aquatic roach about 3 inches long.  Definitely an experience that few can claim to have seen.  By our late morning departure, we had tallied over 50 species and were quite excited about our prospects.

Neither of us had ever been to High Island before but I have read about it numerous times though I didn’t quite imagine the crowds.  I have never seen so many birders so excited in such a small space.  The free 3:00 birdwalk had close to 50 people when it left the information center at Boy Scout Woods.  However, the excitement and the crowds were well deserved.   Carrie and I saw 16 species of wood warbler on Saturday along with 5 species of vireo, 2 orioles, 2 tanagers, and numerous other grosebeaks, buntings, thrushes and more.  My highlight was finding a female Blue-winged Warbler, a nemesis bird of mine, among a flock of Blackburnian, Black-throated Green, Chestnut-sided, Bay-breasted, and Magnolia Warblers.  The rarest bird we saw was definitely the male Cerulean Warbler though a Yellow-green Vireo was reported that we missed.

In addition to the colorful flocks of tiny feathered jewels, the Smith Oaks Rookery was simply a delight.  Home to hundreds of Great, Snowy, and Cattle Egrets, Little Blue and Tricolored Herons, Black-crowned Night Herons, Roseate Spoonbills, Neotropic Cormorants, a few Anhingas, and much more, the rookery is a site to see.  Each of these species nest in the rookery, most in plain site and some number in the hundreds.  Seeing young Roseate Spoonbills and Great Egrets is a treat that can be enjoyed by anybody, birder or not, and a great attraction in the area.

Sunday was a bit slower which probably was good as Carrie and I were both exhuasted.  We started at Boy Scout Woods and moved to Smith Oaks before heading out for a shorebird tour at Bolivar Flats on the Bolivar Peninsula.  Here we picked up another great bunch of birds despite the driving rain and had some help from the guide pointing out the various species of sandpipers.  Highlights included nearly 50 Red Knots (a species is rapid decline), a flock of 50+ American Avocets feeding synchronously, and the always entertaining antics of Reddish Egrets as the fish.  

Over the weekend, we tallied over 120 species of birds.  Of those, at least 5 were new species for me and that happens very rarely for me anymore while birding in the east.  We haven’t tallied Carrie’s new species yet but she rapidly is building quite an impressive list if not in quantity, definitely in quality birds.  How many people do you know that the first bird they put on their official lifelist is a Bananquit seen in Ft. Lauderale, Florida?

It was a wonderful weekend, relaxing as a break from our busy lives but we are physically exhuasted.  I don’t stop here though as I head back down to Houston tomorrow morning to photograph again at the Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge and then the captive breeding program at the Houston Zoo.  

The above photo was taken today, the only time I got my camera out and only for about 10 minutes but couldn’t resist as this nice Eastern Kingbird perched in the open right next to the car.