Birding in Galveston/Bolivar
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June 30, 2006:
I already touched on this in the map journal, but I took a weekend trip down to Galveston to go on a birding boat tour to North Deer Island that the Houston Audubon Society was sponsoring. In fact, HAS is part owner of the undeveloped island.
First of all, I want to say we saw lots and lots of Laughing Gulls and Brown Pelicans. They were everywhere along the coast. This was no exception on the island! I must of seen thousands of young Brown Pelicans and Laughing Gulls. Also while we were there, we saw Roseate Spoonbills, Royal Terns, Sandwich Terns, Tri-colored Night Herons, American Oystercatchers (which seemed to be one of the more popular ones with experienced birders), and Great Egrets. On the way back, we even saw a Magnificent Frigatebird, which was another bird the experienced birders were happy to see.
After we were done with commercial Galveston, we decided to head home via the Bolivar-Galveston Ferry. On the way there, we stopped at Great Texas Birding Trail UTC #061: "The Corps Woods at Galveston." This looks like an area owned by the Coast Guard Corps. Unfortunately, it wasn't very well maintained. I could hear the birds, but I couldn't see them because of all the overgrown trees. I did manage to spot and hear some Chimney Swifts. After this we went on the ferry, where we saw lots more Laughing Gulls (and a few Dolphins!)
Next and last stop was at the Great Texas Birding Trail UTC #061: Bolivar Flats Shorebird Sanctuary, also owned by the Houston Audubon Society. We saw a large group of birds which, after some time, we identified as being Willets. We also saw a couple of Black Skimmers trying to chill out on the beach. This was the first time we had seen them not in flight, so it was a little bit of a surprise for me. The heat got to us pretty quickly, so we didn't get very far. On our way back we saw what made the whole stop worth while: a feeding Reddish Egret. Not only is a reddish egret one of the harder (but not quite rare) birds to find, it was dancing around just for us. It ran up and down the shore, scooping up fish. Even when we were driving away, it was running parallel with us in the water. It was very cool.
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