Yes, I know, I posted too many similar photos of the Green Jay this morning. After trying to decide which one I preferred, I ended up posting them all. They are such beautiful birds - the Northern Cardinals, too - and I will probably never see either species again after this holiday.
We had an early start as usual on Day 7 of our 13-day birding trip to South Texas, 19-31 March 2019. Leaving our hotel, La Quinta Inn & Suites in Mission, we drove to the Bentsen - Rio Grande Valley State Park / World Birding Centre.
"As part of the World Birding Center, Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park is a world-class destination for bird-watching. The Rio Grande Valley hosts one of the most spectacular convergences of birds on earth with more than 525 species documented in this unique place. Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park alone has an impressive list of 358 species recorded within the park’s boundaries. Birders have a chance to see migratory birds during their yearly migrations over the valley including flocks of thousands of hawks from the park’s Hawk Tower in the spring and fall.... Over seven miles of trails offer a variety of opportunities to encounter wildlife inside the park."
tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/bentsen-rio-grande-valley
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This morning, 6 April 2019, I posted 15 odds and ends of photos - The Big Tree, flowers, distant birds and so on. Fairly soon, I will come to better bird images! Thanks for your patience : )
Day 2 of our 13-day trip to southern Texas started off early in the morning. A glorious sunrise made this early start very worthwhile. It happened while we were driving north along highway 35 from our lodging at the Pelican Bay Resort in Rockport, and passing alongside the Aransas National Wildlife Reserve. We didn't drive all that far before turning round and coming back south, driving a few of the roads closer to the Copano Bay Causeway. There, we visited The Big Tree, 1,000 years old, and a beautiful tourist attraction. We saw so many oak trees in all sorts of places on this holiday, but The Big Tree was 'king' of them all. So magnificent, with its twisted limbs. I can't tell you how thankful I am to have a camera that has GPS. Without it, I would have no idea where we were!
In the same location, we saw a beautiful Crested Caracara perched along the edge of the road on a very ugly utility pole. The Caracara is one of my favourite birds. So different, so impressive.
In the evening of 31 March 2019, four friends and I arrived back in Calgary after an amazing 13-day birding trip (19-31 March 2019) to southern Texas! The following morning, I grabbed four photos to give an idea of what kinds of things we saw - four of my better photos, I should add : ) As usual, for me, it was not a trip to photograph just birds, but to capture anything else of interest, of beauty. This included flowers, insects, a few fungi, wild animals, and so on. As always, I missed quite a few of the birds that were seen by my friends. They are excellent birders and spend so much time birding and taking photos, and so are able to spot and capture the tiniest, fastest of birds. I am happy to have seen every bird that I did see! Everything from Whooping Cranes down to a small Yellow-throated Warbler, as well as three dolphins, and Bluebonnets (flowers). Unlike on our trip to Ontario and Quebec last year, we were thrilled to see Northern Cardinals close enough to photograph this holiday.
One of my biggest thrills was actually not a bird, but a tiny Horned Lizard that I suddenly spotted maybe a foot away from my feet. I had missed seeing one here in SE Alberta maybe four or so years ago, which was so disappointing, but this more than made up for it.
Right now, I can't remember names of places, and I have a huge amount of getting organized with where and when I saw most things. However, I just wanted to let you know I am home, feeling back to being motivated to take photos again, after totally losing interest the last few weeks before we left on this exciting trip.
I used both my old Canon SX60 and my less old Nikon P900 on this trip. The advantage of the P900 is that it has GPS and automatically loads on the map on Flickr. It may not always give an accurate location, but hopefully it will be close enough. Part way through the holiday, it looked like the Canon was taking somewhat better photos than the newer Nikon, so I was using the Canon more.
I have now downloaded all of my images to my computer. Such a mixed bag - some reasonable shots and others just about as bad as they could possibly be, but I will be posting some of them on Flickr for the record. Once again, I will post photos in very roughly the order in which they were taken, to help give me a much better idea of just where we went and what we saw and when. Usually, I try not to post more than one photo at a time of a certain bird or flower. However, that hasn't happened so far with my Texas photos! Just wait till I get to the Whooping Cranes - at one point, we got the chance to watch a family of three feeding, giving us the opportunity to take lots of images. Apologies for posting so many photos too often. It took me about 10 months to complete editing and posting from our trip last year, to Ontario and Quebec! I really don't want to take that long this time. I only finished a few weeks before going on this Texas trip.
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We had an early start as usual on Day 7 of our 13-day birding trip to South Texas, 19-31 March 2019. Leaving our hotel, La Quinta Inn & Suites in Mission, we drove to the Bentsen - Rio Grande Valley State Park and World Birding Centre.
"As part of the World Birding Center, Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park is a world-class destination for bird-watching. The Rio Grande Valley hosts one of the most spectacular convergences of birds on earth with more than 525 species documented in this unique place. Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park alone has an impressive list of 358 species recorded within the park’s boundaries. Birders have a chance to see migratory birds during their yearly migrations over the valley including flocks of thousands of hawks from the park’s Hawk Tower in the spring and fall.... Over seven miles of trails offer a variety of opportunities to encounter wildlife inside the park."
tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/bentsen-rio-grande-valley
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The next batch of photos that I will edit and post are of Wild Turkeys, and a pair of beautiful, tiny Ferruginous Pygmy-Owls that were very, very distant. Such a treat to have these found for us! After these, I can start on Day 6, which will have lots of colourful, closer bird shots, thank goodness : )
This was a really special full day, from 7:00 am to 4:00 pm, on 23 March 2019, Day 5 of our 13-day birding holiday in South Texas. Before we left Calgary, we had booked a tour at the 825,000 acre King Ranch and we were greatly looking forward to it.
The area we explored was way south on the ranch land, called the Norias Division. The driver of the van/mini-bus was Barb, who did a great job of finding 47 bird species for us, and also trying to find a tiny Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl. We also bumped into Barb's boss a couple of times and he went off in search of an owl. Almost at the end of our great day, he managed to find a pair of them! A man, originally from Holland, but now living in Houston, had travelled all the way to the King Ranch, hoping most of all to see one of these beautiful owls. The rest of us had actually seen one of these owls on our Trinidad & Tobago trip in 2017. He joined us for the day and, needless to say, he was delighted that his sought-after species was successful. The owls were far away, so photos (to be posted later) are very distant, but what a gorgeous pair of little owls they were. Everyone was thrilled to bits. Many thanks to Tom (?) for searching and searching!
"In 1853, Captain Richard King purchased a creek-fed oasis in the Wild Horse Desert of South Texas, sparking generations of integrity, preservation, and innovation.
King Ranch now covers 825,000 acres—more land than the state of Rhode Island. Over the course of over 160 years, King Ranch led some of the first cattle drives, developed the Santa Gertrudis and Santa Cruz breeds of cattle, bred the finest Quarter Horses, and produced champion Thoroughbreds—all under its iconic Running W® brand.
Today’s King Ranch is a major agribusiness with interests in cattle ranching, farming (citrus, cotton, grain, sugar cane, and turfgrass), luxury retail goods, and recreational hunting."
king-ranch.com/
Some of the species we were already familiar with, but new birds included the amazing Scissor-tailed flycatcher, Vermilion Flycatcher, Ladder-backed Woodpecker, and Bronzed Cowbird. I was really hoping that we might see a Green Jay, and I was in luck.
A variety of wildflowers, a mushroom (Ink-cap or similar), a beautiful moth, and several deer added to our enjoyment. We were also very lucky to see a Javelina/Collared Peccary travelling fast through the bushes. Another sighting that was as fleeting as could possibly be were half a dozen Nilgai Antelope.
"Texas is home to more free-range nilgai antelope than their native country of India. Originally stocked on the King Ranch in the 1930’s, these sporty game animals quickly took hold and are currently free- ranging on a handful of large private properties in lower South Texas." From link below.
www.wildlifesystems.com/nilgai-antelope.html
For me, I think the highlight of the day was when I happened to spot a tiny Texan Horned Lizard / Phrynosoma cornutum. A few years ago, I had been so disappointed to miss a trip to SE Alberta to see a Horned Lizard. At the King Ranch, we were standing still for some reason, when something caught my eye near my shoes. I thought a small piece of dead, faded plant had blown in. Then it moved again, still not far from my feet. Couldn't believe my eyes!! What an interesting creature - it actually can shoot blood from small protuberances by its eyes when it feels very threatened!
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_horned_lizard
We had lunch outside and were visited by a beautiful, curious White-tailed Deer. Several others were also seen while we were driving around the ranch land.
A good day, for sure, and we appreciated the effort that Barb and her boss put into searching for various species.
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