I was scheduled to fly out of North Carolina for my trip to Brazil on the first Sunday in February, but a historic snowstorm was threatening my flight. After hours on the phone, I was able to push up my first segment of the trip to Houston on a Friday to avoid the snow. They wouldn't push up the Houston to Brazil portion because of some codeshare nonsense, but I was happy to spend a couple of days in Houston waiting for my next segment. I have birded the Houston areas many times back when I used to travel for work but I was a novice back then and I didn't have a decent camera. The bird I wanted most was several hours away near Aransas, TX. The iconic Whooping Crane! After a nights stay near the airport in Houston, I rented a car and beelined my way south west to Aransas National Wildlife Refuge which is where I saw my lifer Whoopers over 15 years ago. It turned out to be very blustery and cold on the gulf coast and all the overlooks in Aransas were coming up empty. I was on my way out of the park to try some of the nearby agricultural fields when I saw a sign for a lake overlook on the west side of the park road. I am so glad I checked it. Literally minutes after I walked to the overlook a family of three Whoopers landed to get a drink out of the small pond.
They each took turns drinking while the other two were on lookout duty.
As of 1941, only 21 birds of this flagship species were left. Conservation efforts have increased this to about 830 birds as of 2025 but it is still Endangered per IUCN and deserves all the protection it can get.
After getting hydrated the adults took off.
And the young one followed....
With my primary target in the bag, I decided to try for a bird I had never made a good effort for in the past, the Sprague's Pipit! There were several recent eBird reports in some nearby farm fields so I headed to one of them and it didn't take long to find some!
Sprague's Pipit!! They look a lot like American Pipits but have a streaky back and head which makes them almost sparrow-like. This one was out in the open only because I flushed it, but they prefer the short grass on the edges of the farm fields whereas the American Pipits are normally out in the open turned soil.
There were also plenty of Savannah Sparrows trying to throw me off.
Sprague's Pipit in its natural habitat, shortgrass prairie. Unfortunately this type of habitat is threatened by all the agriculture of this area.
On my way out I saw some more Pipits which turned out to be American Pipits which offered me a chance to study the differences including a more "blank" looking facial expression and less streaks on the back.
Long-billed Curlews were seemingly everywhere in the freshly turned fields.
Burrowing Owls are always fun to find.
Crested Caracaras are the most common raptor in these parts.
It was getting late, so I headed back to Houston with one more stop at the Attwater Prairie Chicken Preserve to see if I could luck into some chickens. That was not in the cards but as the sun set, I did get a great show from the Short-eared Owls!
A great day ended with an Orange Sherbet sky and Short-eared Owls barking at the moon.
In the morning I decided to visit the Houston Botanical Garden to look for the Red-vented Bulbuls which somehow I still did not have on my lifelist. I think I had previously confused them with the Red-whiskered Bulbuls of Los Angeles and so didn't make the connection. Red-vented Bulbuls are a completely different species of exotics that have been established in Houston as a countable species on the ABA list.
Ring-necked Ducks abounded in the small pond.
Red-vented Bulbul!
Hunting Bulbuls is hard work so I googled the best sandwich shop nearby which happened to be Kenny and Ziggy's New York Deli.
This triple-decker was a heart attack waiting to happen but it was worth it!I still had some time before my red-eye to Sao Paulo so I headed out to the Katy Prairie.
Red-tailed Hawk
Loggerhead Shrike
A very pale Krider's Red-tailed Hawk
The prairie was beautiful but I neglected to take any scenery shots. My flight to Sao Paulo was painful, literally... I had some pretty bad calf pain when I landed and I was sure I had a DVT in my leg based on my medical history. More on that in my next blogpost starting in Brazil!
No comments:
Post a Comment