Houston, we don't have a problem! (31Jan - 01Feb2026)

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!

Bad Pics of Good Birds and Good pics of Common Stuff (24-29Jan2026)

If you were doing a big year, this might be a good one to do it.  There has been a string of good birds and some snow storms or cold weather that always seem to bring some cool stuff.  I will be in Brazil for 3 weeks starting now, so although I have been birding a ton, I have no designs on the year for North Carolina.  That being said, I have had some good ones already!

A large flock of Vesper Sparrows continue at Blue Clay sparrow fields.  I went with Jacob to see if I could locate the Grasshopper Sparrow.  I think I got a glimpse of it, but alas no pics.

This red Fox Sparrow stayed hidden in the thickets.

Loggerhead Shrike is a good bird for this spot.

The treeline in the far back of the property is always good for a Hairy Woodpecker.

White-throated Sparrows abound.

Eastern Towhee

Brown Creeper!

A master of camouflage. 

Blue-headed Vireo

Another Vesper Sparrow

After lunch and a game of Wingspan with Melissa, I got a second wind and headed up to Cabin Lake SP.  A large group of Black-bellied Whistling Ducks have been hanging out on an island in the lake.

It didn't take long to find them, but I was a tad bit disappointed that no matter what angle I took, I only got some marginally decent shots through the heavily wooded shoreline of the island.   

It was only a little above freezing and they looked like they were annoyed that their leader took them to this inhospitable place.   They were constantly shifting weight on their fleshy feet trying to get warm and comfortable.  Poor babies...

On Sunday I headed to Airlie Gardens as someone had found a Black-headed Gull on the pier across the creek from Airlie the previous day.  I scoped the pier but there was no BHGU to be found so I headed down to the palm trees by the lake where a Western Tanager has been seen feeding on the palm fruits.

Black-and-white Warbler.

Great Blue Heron

While I was waiting on the Tanager, I saw Sam and Jacob shooting something in an oak.

Yellow-throated Warbler - usually I get one on my feeder in the winter but I haven't yet so it was nice to see one at Airlie.

Western Tanager

Eating palm fruits.

Then Sam and Jacob found the gull!  It was loafing on the big metal roof across the creek in the marina.  However, it flew before I could get a pic!  Jacob and Sam went looking for it and found it hunting in the marsh between Airlie and Wrightsville Avenue bridge.

Black-headed Gull - at this point the conditions were getting really challenging.  It was cold and foggy.  These pics were taken from a good distance.

Black-crowned Night Heron

I decided for one last hurrah for the weekend and hoofed it out to the north end of WB at Mason Inlet.

Glaucous Gull!  I am on fire with the white-winged gulls.

The comparison pic next to a Great Black-backed Gull - Glaucous Gulls are bruisers!

During the week I was able to sneak away for some birding at Fort Fisher in the afternoon.

Marbled Godwit

American Oystercatcher

The light was really nice at this point so I headed to Carolina Beach Lake.

American Black Duck female.

The male.

A beauty of a drake Blue-winged Teal.

Mallard

Killdeer

White Ibis

Little Blue Heron

European Starling

Eurasian Collared-Dove 

On Tuesday I wanted another crack at the Black-headed Gull so I headed to Airlie just before closing.  It was sunny this time but it stayed way off.  I suppose I could have gotten in the car and driven over to the Marina but I didn't.......

Black-headed Gull

Northern Shoveler drake!

Ring-necked Duck!  You can kind of see the ring on its neck.

The Tanager was still hanging out gorging on palm fruits.

BC Night Heron

Anhinga flyby.

Rusty Blackbird!  A good bird for Airlie.

Meanwhile at Airlie - I continued on my drake duck steak and found this beauty of a White-winged Scoter.  Unfortunately it stayed on the sunny side and didn't offer a proper crushing.

Most winters I get a Painted Bunting at my feeder, this time a female.

With the winter storm coming I was getting very nervous that my flight out of Raleigh on Sunday would get canceled so I spent hours on the phone trying to get my flight pushed up a couple days.  I have a three week trip scheduled for Brazil and I wasn't about to be stuck in Wilmington for 3 days waiting for flights to open up again.  Luckily they got me on an earlier flight on Friday before the storm started and I was able to fly out to Houston and wait there for a couple days for my next flight to Sao Paulo.  The good part of that was that I was able to rent a car and do some birding in the Houston area.  I will include those pics in the next post.

I snapped this pic of Melissa and Louie just before leaving.  I feel terrible about leaving them for three weeks but I need to get some new material for my rabid hordes of blogspot fans.