Texas Times: Anahuac and High Island

At South Padre Island while I watched that lifer Kentucky Warbler of mine, I thought it was indeed my fiftieth warbler for the United States.  Ryan had asked me if I included Olive Warbler and Yellow-breasted Chat on there, and I said no.  Later on when checking my list, I realized the number I was counting my total from had Yellow-breasted Chat on there.  I couldn't believe it, and I was right back under fifty warblers, and I knew that we still had chances to potentially get that fiftieth warbler of mine on the trip (the one that for sure wasn't to be doubted for the number fifty).

After heading off from seeing the Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl, our team headed northeast and made a stop at a place called Sarita Rest Area.  The location is known for having Tropical Parula, and it's habitat surroundings harbor a perfect scenario for the bird.  Josh, David, and I got to the rest stop first as Caleb and Liam were still making their way over from a longer distance than we were.  Josh and I scanned a section of trees at a spot that we thought looked really good.  We weren't having any luck, but a car pulled up to us and there was a family in it and a little girl rolled down the window.  She had to have been seven or eight years old.

"Hi, are you guys birding", she asked.

"Yes", I answered.

"Awesome, I just wanted to let you know that there are a few Great Kiskadees over in those trees over there", she said back.

"That's really cool", I said, "You must like birding a lot".  (she nodded).  "I'm Tommy and this is Josh, what's your name?"

"I'm Emily" she said, "I love birds and it's awesome you guys do too.  Have fun birding!"

She rolled her window back up and I could see two parents who seemed proud of their daughter as the family drove off.  They should be proud!  Josh and I were impressed and said "If a young birder named Emily surfaces in the young birders world and is from Texas, it's gotta be her".

Ryan and Leah had found a Tropical Parula at this location a few hours before we made our stop, and they called us to let us know.  It was good to know one was around, and as Josh and I searched for the first few minutes we weren't able to turn one up.  David went elsewhere within the stop for awhile, and he came up to us to say that he had the Parula.  It was a life bird for David, and one that I knew was good for him to get, as he was approaching fifty warbler species for the United States too, just like I was.  Not only did David detect the bird singing, but he showed Josh and I an awesome picture that he was able to capture.  Josh and I followed David to the spot and it wasn't long before we heard the bird singing, and we had a hard time locating it in midst of the thick and tall trees it was frequenting.  Our quarry moved around a lot, and it was hard to get views.  It became a life bird for Josh, and while we waited for Caleb and Liam, I went off to myself briefly where I could hear the Parula.  After some scanning, I had a brief but good binocular look at the bird and it didn't give me a chance for photographs.  Luckily, I did photograph a Tropical Parula last year in Arizona and photographing this Texas bird could've taken a drastic amount of time before any photographs could happen.  When Caleb and Liam caught up to us, they were content with a heard only bird after trying for a few minutes, and we continued on our way with a long drive ahead of us for the night.

From Sarita, Texas, we would be driving for close to five hours nonstop before we would go right through Houston to stay near Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge between Houston and Beaumont, Texas, well after midnight.  Caleb and Liam still rode in one car, Josh, David, and I rode in the other.  Along the way we stopped along some agricultural fields to search for shorebirds in Robstown, Texas, in Nueces County.  Our primary target was Buff-breasted Sandpiper.  A day or two prior to our drive through, a birder had reported double-digit numbers of the shorebird.  When we got to the fields, we dipped on Buff-breasted Sandpipers but had fun with scanning a big field and then finding nine Upland Sandpipers strolling around.  The birds were out of any cameras reach, but the scope views were decent.  We also had Pectoral and Baird's Sandpipers.  Daylight hours faded as we searched for shorebirds, and we had about a two hour drive to a Subway we were going to eat out at, and that would be followed by another two hour drive that would go through and east of Houston, where we would crash for the night.  It would be after 1 AM before we would crash, and it was a marathon.  I took over the driving for the remainder of the night, and I was about dead before we got to Subway.  The restaurant helped, and on the side of the meal I got two Starbucks frappuccino drinks to give me some of the energy I needed for the next two hours.  A twenty-three song Amaranthe playlist provided the rest of the energy.  David went out, but Josh and I rocked out to my favorite band for the next hour-and-a-half that the playlist lasted for.  It woke me up, and it was great to see Josh enjoying the music too.  Houston was interesting to drive through, and once getting past Houston and 1 A.M. as May 5th rolled in, sleep was more than welcome.

The first seven songs out of many...

May 5th's agenda was one of the biggest ones for the entire trip, if not the biggest.  The itinerary routed to Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge to start the day, followed by the migrant traps of the famous High Island, then the Bolivar Flats Shorebird sanctuary of the Gulf Coast, and the day was planned to close out along the eastern reaches of Texas's long-needled pine forests and deciduous woodlands.  Once it got light out, the five of us got our stuff ready and would venture down to Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge.  Our placement in southeastern Texas in Chambers County was a lot different than anywhere else we had been previously on the trip.  I could see lots of open fields and stands of southeastern pine trees.  Liam said, "This is Swallow-tailed Kite country, let's keep our eyes out".  I told a few people before the trip started that out of all the birds I could potentially get on the trip, that Swallow-tailed Kite was the one I was anticipating the most.  As we made our way to Anahuac, the first half of that route did pass through good habitat, and my eyes were peeled.

The time was 7:20 A.M. when we arrived at Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge to start up our gigantic birding day.  From the start, it was clear to see that Anahuac is a location that is high with bird abundance.  Size wise, the Refuge is about 34,000 acres and it's dominant habitat consists of coastal marshes and prairies.  We were just north of the Texas Coast while we were at Anahuac, and were just west of the town of High Island, which would be our next stop to follow.  Pulling up to our first stop was productive immediately, and we had plenty of Boat-tailed Grackles.  For Josh, Caleb, and I, it was a life bird.

Like the common-in-Arizona Great-tailed Grackle, the Boat-tailed Grackle is a large blackbird that is highly vocal and gregarious.  Boat-tailed Grackles are slightly smaller than Great-tailed's, and in the Texas/Gulf Coast part of their range they have dark eyes whereas Great-tailed Grackles have yellow eyes.  Yellow eyes are found on Boat-tailed's in the eastern part of their range.

Boat-tailed Grackles are highly coastal with the exception of being found inland in Florida, where they inhabit saltwater marshes and beaches along the coast.  They are recognizable by voice from Great-tailed Grackle, but the two cousins are equally loud and variable in their voice.  These birds also have highly omnivorous diets and will eat a plethora of different animals, fruit, and seeds.

We drove around a loop through the Refuge that circled around marshes and wetlands.  When the habitat would open up, arrays of different birds could be seen at such openings.  And it was awesome.

Fulvous Whistling-Ducks were very common and were one of the most regular sights at Anahuac.  These ducks were very active all morning and provided some very close views.  They are distinctive among all North American waterfowl, both on the water and in flight.  I really enjoyed seeing this bird, as it was only the second time I had seen one, and it was also Josh's first time ever for the species.

Throughout the trip, Caleb would tell us about Plegadis ibis a lot, which would fall in conversations of pure White-faced Ibis, pure Glossy Ibis, and the hybrids of both that are out there.  Hybridization between Glossy and White-faced Ibis is common, and sometimes hybrids can appear to be pure Glossy Ibis.  Caleb told us a lot, but at Anahuac, it was satisfying to see a pure adult Glossy Ibis alone and close to the road.

This was the first time I was able to photograph and document a Glossy Ibis.  Along the east Texas Coast to Florida, throughout most of Florida, and north along the Atlantic Coast to the northeast is the primary range of the Glossy Ibis.

One of the birds that we were really hoping to see at Anahuac was the Anhinga.  It was said to be a good location for the odd bird, and when we missed it at Anahuac we figured we'd have other chances at it further east into Texas and some of Louisiana.  At one point we got a new life bird when a King Rail called away a few times.  Despite hearing the bird, it was a long way off in the marshes to vanish any hopes of a sighting.  In the loop we drove we tallied 70 species.  Among those birds, our observations included Black-bellied Whistling-Duck, 124 Fulvous Whistling-Duck, Mottled Duck, Common Nighthawk, King Rail, Sora, the striking Purple Gallinule, Stilt Sandpiper, White-rumped Sandpiper, Gull-billed Tern, Royal Tern, Least Bittern, Little Blue and Tricolored Herons, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, White, Glossy, and White-faced Ibises; Roseate Spoonbill, Eastern Kingbird, Bobolink, Orchard Oriole, 65 Boat-tailed Grackles to 4 Great-tailed Grackles, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, and Dickcissel.  Here is a selection of different photographs of birds I captured.

Purple Gallinule

Roseate Spoonbill

Killdeer on eggs

Gull-billed Tern

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron (Above and below)

White-rumped Sandpiper

Little Blue Herons (adult on left, immature on right)

Eastern Kingbird

Fulvous Whistling-Duck

Cattle Egret

L-R:  David, Liam, Caleb, Josh

Another bird that I really enjoyed at Anahuac was the White Ibis.  After seeing a chased vagrant in Arizona years back that was a quick and distant flight look as well as another quick flight look on this trip at Santa Ana, it was good to see these striking birds in high numbers and for extended amounts of time up close.

The White Ibis is found in almost any wetland habitat in the southeast from Texas through Florida and up a large portion of the Atlantic Coast.  It feeds heavily on crabs in marshes and on insects in fields.

The sexes of the White Ibis are similar, and adults are a distinctive white overall, with red facial skin, a mostly orange bill with a black tip, reddish-orange legs, and appearing almost all white in flight with the exception of black primary tips on the wings.  Younger birds have a mottled and messy brown and white appearance.

For many birds such as White Ibis, Anahuac is probably a safe refuge for the most part.

They can probably forage away without too much to worry about.



But there is one animal at the Refuge that larger wading birds need to be wary of.

Luckily for these two White Ibis, they've learned the drill by now, and it was interesting to watch them back away.

Alligators are popular for wildlife viewers at Anahuac.  They are extremely common within the Refuge and their loud, bellowing, grunting calls could be heard everywhere.  I was glad that they were a distance away from me because they freak me out.  If I went on an oding trip to this area, I would not go into the water, even if there were epic odes further out and far from the main shore.  Alligators certainly own the top spot of the food chain out of all the wildlife within Anahuac.  We saw plenty of them, from big to small in size.

From the loop we drove on, Liam, who had birded the Refuge before, took us out to a place that is known for the Seaside Sparrow.  This was a lifer for all of the rest of us, one we really wanted to get.  We took a dirt road that led to the habitat that is preferred by the sparrow in tidal marsh that has tall grass and scattered shrubs.

Along the way we found this Common Nighthawk perched right out in the open.  This was the first time I had ever seen the species perched.  These scenarios with Common Nighthawks seem to be much more prevalent in the East rather than the West.

We stopped at a pond where we heard a King Rail calling from.  After waiting for a few minutes, we saw the King Rail run across a small clearing before vanishing back into the reeds that surrounded the pond.  Josh somehow managed to get a good picture of it.  A Gull-billed Tern flying by near this point and time was nice.

Like the Common Nighthawk, this Eastern Willet also perched on a post right out in the open.

While driving along some grassy salt marsh areas, we got out to try for Yellow and Black Rails.  They didn't respond, but Liam pointed out a singing Seaside Sparrow.  After waiting for awhile, we had a few Seaside Sparrows pop up with some decent views before we got to the spot that Liam was going to show us.  This sparrow was a fun one for me!

Seaside Sparrows are shy birds and they truly hug the marshes that they reside in.  While we were at Anahuac, these birds were singing quite a bit and we were able to get great scope views of perched birds several times.  The song of the Seaside Sparrow sounds a lot more like a blackbird's song than it does a sparrow.

There is a lot of geographic variation within Seaside Sparrows, as there are four different "groups" within the species.  The ones that we were looking at belong to the "Gulf of Mexico" group.  Within the four groups, this bird's range starts in the West at south Texas and extends east along Gulf Coast to western Florida.  A population is found at south Florida in the coastal marshes there, and the Atlantic Coast population continues along the Atlantic Coast, starting in the south at northern Florida and extending along the Atlantic Coast to the far northeast.  Seaside Sparrows are mostly residents in their range in the United States, and are mainly non-migratory with the exception of some of the northernmost birds within the Atlantic population, who winter along the Florida Coast.

While Seaside Sparrows will appear bland to many at a first glance, I will say otherwise.  The flat-headed and long-billed look with standout yellow lores among the brown and gray body make this bird the mighty bad ass in the sparrow world.  Birding in different regions across the United States and seeing different habitats lead to more birds, and this was a fun example and a good note to leave Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge on.  

"You know who I am"-Seaside Sparrow

We were on our way to the town of High Island, Texas (in Galveston County), after finishing up with Anahuac.  Remember when I was talking about spectacular days of migration that sometimes lead to "fall out" on my South Padre Island post?  Well, that is what High Island is more famous for.  In those days of bad weather during high abundance of bird migration, High Island has it's enormous potential for the incredible as migrating birds see their first stretch of land after the haul across the ocean.  Anywhere on the Island could be good for birding, even someone's random yard.  What is really cool about High Island is that there are four bird sanctuaries that are open year round and are sponsored by the Houston Audubon Society.  These locations harbor great habitat for migrating birds that include woodlands, planted trees and shrubs, ponds and mini-wetlands, and bird feeders.  We did have some limited time in these sanctuaries because of our big itinerary, but we gave it our best effort.  The weather was mild and sunny at the point in time of our visit, and although we had some migrants to look through, the numbers weren't crazy.  Smith Oaks Bird Sanctuary and Boy Scout Woods Bird Sanctuary were our opted places that we visited on High Island, and it was great to see these famous birding locations.

Smith Oaks Bird Sanctuary was our first stop.  We each payed an eight dollar entrance fee to get in on the action.  It felt like a maze through a thick jungle of awesome habitat, it pretty much was.  I was hoping for a Cape May or Worm-eating Warbler.  Some spots teemed with migrants here and there.  Other spots were dead.

Caleb entering Smith Oaks

Liam photobombing Caleb entering Smith Oaks

A Wood Thrush gave it's pit volley calls a few times as we walked into the woods.  A few Yellow-billed Cuckoos called.  Migrants we had in an hour spent at Smith Oaks included Acadian Flycatcher, Olive-sided Flycatcher, Great-crested Flycatcher, Philadelphia and Red-eyed Vireos, Swainson's Thrush, Ovenbird, Golden-winged Warbler, Black-and-white Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, Blackburnian Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Black-throated Green Warbler, Scarlet Tanager and Rose-breasted Grosbeak.  My biggest take from it all was us seeing a push of eight Bay-breasted Warblers.  This included the first adult males of the species that I got to see and photograph.

male Bay-breasted Warbler

Scarlet Tanager

Boy Scout Woods Sanctuary was next.  It was cool, but I liked Smith Oaks Sanctuary better.

Our stop was much shorter, and the bird activity was much lower than our previous location that we birded.  We tallied 21 species in a half-hour, and some highlights included Ovenbird, Black-and-white Warbler, Prothonotary Warbler, Hooded Warbler, Black-throated Green Warbler, and hey, more of those Bay-breasted Warblers!

After High Island, we had another major birding stop to make nearby.  This one would be another big stop, and one that is worthy of it's own post...