Avian Adventures in Texas

Our recent visit to Texas was Peter’s eleventh Avian Adventures tour in the Lone Star State and June’s third but for both of us it was the first there for several years.

We travelled from Manchester to Houston with Singapore Airlines, which was still a 10-hour flight but better than most transatlantic crossings we have experienced with a variety of other airlines and, of course, it avoided what for us is the tiresome journey down to Heathrow.

Unfortunately, we arrived in Texas to find that it was cold, windy and raining – not at all what we had hoped for!  It wasn’t heavy rain but persistent drizzle and it continued through the following morning.  It was a miserable start, horrible conditions for birding and we struggled to find many birds in W Goodrich Jones State Forest.  A lone Pileated Woodpecker made our excursion there worthwhile but only just! 

When we moved to the Gulf Coast, the rain had stopped but the wind was even stronger and it was really cold.  Rockport and Fulton had been severely damaged by last year’s Hurricane Harvey and we began to imagine how awful that must have been.  It was no surprise that our boat trip from Fulton was cancelled – it simply wouldn’t have been safe to go out. 

Instead we had a day birding around Rockport and Goose Island State Park, mostly from our minibus.  We counted more than 30 Common Loons (Great Northern Divers) off Rockport beach and in the town’s Beach Park there were a few terns and waders taking shelter.  Herons and egrets were everywhere, we saw a variety of duck species and there were Turkey & Black Vultures, Osprey, Northern Harrier, Cooper’s & Red-tailed Hawks, American Kestrel and Crested Caracara.  However, there were precious few small birds in evidence anywhere.  Our total for the day barely reached 60 species.

 Long-billed Curlew

 Turkey Vulture

Common Loon

Things improved when we moved to the Rio Grande Valley – the weather was better and during our several days there we visited five out of the nine sites in the area that have rather irritatingly branded themselves as the ‘World Birding Center’: Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park, Edinburg Scenic Wetlands, Estero Llano Grande State Park, Roma Bluffs and South Padre Island Birding & Nature Center.  We also travelled west to Falcon State Park and on the way popped into Salineño for the feeders and the trail alongside the Rio Grande.  In addition, we went to Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, now it seems safe from the threat of having a Border Wall built through it, and to Frontera Audubon Thicket, where a rare Golden-crowned Warbler had been seen recently.  There are quite a few other sites that we could have gone to if time had allowed and one has to admire the effort that has been made in recent years to promote birding tourism in this area and to develop some excellent sites and facilities.

 Yellow-rumped Warbler

 Least Grebe

White-tailed Kite

On South Padre Island, as well as the Birding & Nature Center we went to Sheepshead Street and to the Pier 19 Restaurant.  Sheepshead Street is an unlikely birding area at first sight but one that has a record of attracting unusual migrant and wintering birds.  Land on either side of the street was acquired about 15 years ago by a local conservation group and has since revegetated, providing resting and feeding habitat for birds that have few other options in this mainly built-up area. 

At the Pier 19 Restaurant, a Masked Booby had been hanging around for several weeks and was being fed with fish by restaurant staff who are now well used to showing it off to visiting birders.  When we turned up there with binoculars we were quickly walked through the dining area out to the back where this bird was standing behind a slatted gate looking through to see whether we were bringing food.  Masked Booby is a species of the tropical oceans that is rarely seen from the mainland and it’s certainly a rarity in North America so it was fun to see it even if the circumstances were a bit bizarre.

Masked Booby

Each site we visited had something to offer and, of course, the Rio Grande Valley is home to a number of birds that are not easy to see elsewhere in the USA, which is why we were there.  We should also mention that we saw a good selection of butterflies, including a great many Monarchs that were on their migration to Mexico.  Conditions were not always good for photography but here are a few images taken during the tour.

 Monarch

 Black-bellied Whistling Ducks

 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

 Green Jay

 Plain Chachalaca

 Osprey

 Anhinga

 Alligator

 Eastern Collared Lizard

 Great Kiskadee

 Solitary Sandpiper

 Yellow-crowned Night Heron

 Clay-colored Thrush

 American White Pelicans

 Greater Roadrunner

Altamira Oriole

Lagoa dos Salgados

This morning we set out early for Lagoa dos Salgados located about an hour’s drive from Tavira. We had received a message late last night from Ray Tipper that a Spotted Crake and a Pectoral Sandpiper had been found there, two species that are rare in Portugal. Ray had already seen them and that was encouragement enough for us to set an early alarm and visit what is in any case one of the best birding sites in the Algarve.

We had been disappointed only a few days ago to hear that Salgados had been drained again and it currently makes a bit of a sorry sight. The ongoing story of the battle to save Salgados, involving SPEA and the RSPB, has been detailed elsewhere but in spite of all the efforts that are supposedly being made to protect the site, seeing it today did nothing to cause us any optimism about its future.

Having said that, it has not yet completely dried out and there is quite an extensive area of wet mud that is proving attractive to Ringed Plovers and Dunlin and a few Common Snipe, Grey Plovers and Little Stints. And because the suitable habitat is limited, finding the Spotted Crake and the Pectoral Sandpiper didn’t prove too difficult. Also seen were one Purple Swamp-hen, four Caspian Terns, 17 Spoonbills, 24 Grey Herons, a Peregrine Falcon, countless Black-headed Gulls, several Northern Wheatears, a Whinchat and at least four Bluethroats.

From Salgados we headed back east, calling on the way at Vilamoura, a hive of activity ahead of a major golf tournament that starts there on 16th October. We had a walk in the Parque Ambientale, visiting both of the hides and then having a look at the lagoons at the adjacent water treatment plant. We had several sightings of Kingfishers, a Common Buzzard and a Marsh Harrier provided the raptor interest, Cetti’s Warblers were calling loudly everywhere, Willow Warblers were numerous and there was a flock of about 50 Yellow Wagtails. From one hide we had a brief up-close view of a Purple Swamp-hen, from the other just Eurasian Coots and Little Grebes. The lagoons held a few ducks (Gadwall, Common Pochard and Shoveler) and hundreds of Lesser Black-backed and Yellow-legged Gulls. Butterflies included a couple of Monarchs.

Monarch (Danaus plexippus)

Brief stops at a couple of other sites on the way home produced Blue Rock Thrush, Green Woodpecker, Grey Wagtail, Sandwich Tern and Whimbrel.