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Date: Jan 15-19th, 2007 Camera Equipment: Canon Digital Rebel, 100-400mm, 28-105mm Pages: 1 2
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Birding the Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail. The Birding Trail that started it all. I haven't been back to South Texas to exclusively photograph bird January 2005. |
Pyrrhuloxia In the same genus as the Northern Cardinal. Can be found in South & West Texas. |
Canvasback We stopped at this pond on the side of Highway 281. There were around 20 or so Canvasbacks.
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Snow Geese Hundreds of Snow Geese roosting on this field when an airplane flying over spooked the flock. There were a couple of blue morphs in the flock. |
Snow Geese Notice the black wing tips on these guys. Scienctists feel that melanins helps to strengthen the flight feathers. They are "synthesized by the bird through the oxidation of the amino acid tyrosine" (Proctor & Lynch 1993). Aldo Leoplold once said: "For us of the minority, the opportunity to see geese is more important than television." |
Brownsville, TX So much agriculture land in South Texas. 95% of the lower Rio Grande Valley's habitat has been turned into agriculture land or housing. The federal government is planning to take more of that away with a border fence. |
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Monica's subdivision On our way to Boca Chica Tract, we saw Monica's subdivision. Had to stop on our way back for a picture.
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The Dogs Louie and Ashley. Louie is definately a bird dog. |
Plain Chachalaca So plain so ancestral. Makes me think of Archaeopteryx lithographica. Cracids have been around for 50 million years. Picture taken at Sabal Palm Audubon Center & Santuary. |
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Green Jay This bird and the Monk Parrot are on the same page of the green bird section in National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American birds Eastern Region (1st edition). Always wanted to see one, didn't get my chance until November 2003.
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Plain Chachalaca All of a sudden apeared from the forest. First saw them walking in the underbrush then all appeared under the feeder. Picture taken at Sabal Palm Audubon Center & Santuary. |
Feeder Ecology This time, the Golden-fronted Woodpecker provides the bird seed to the Plain Chachalacas and White-tipped Doves. Picture taken at Sabal Palm Audubon Center & Santuary.
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Long-billed Thrasher Ornithologists feel that many species in the family Mimidae are on the decline. The Long-billed Thrasher are on the Audubon WatchList (Dunning, Elphick & Sibley 2001). A few birds benefits from habitat loss in South Texas, most are on the decline.
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Olive Sparrow Another species that is suffering from habitat loss in the valley. Fragmentation of forests have created the Edge Effects. Many birds perfer to nest along edges, this creates easy brood parasitism by Cowbirds (Carroll & Meffe 1997). |
Olive Sparrow According to John B. Dunning Jr, "the Olive Sparrow has one of the highest rates of parasitsm by Bronzed Cowbirds recorded for any host speceis in southern Texas" (Dunning, Elphick & Sibley 2001).
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Green Jay Waiting for its turn at the feeders.
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Sabal Palm Forest I got a chance to talke to Sanctuary Director Jimmy Paz, a real nice man. Hopefully, someday I'll be able to survey New World rodents there. You can read more about what he does here. |
Sabal Palm Forest As tropical as it gets in Texas. Feels strange to see mesquite trees and cactus next to Palm Trees.
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White-tipped Dove A forest dove, unlike the White-winged Dove and Mourning Dove that enjoy the open county (Bull & Farrand 2002).
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Monica Birding Searching and hoping for Groove-billed Ani. |
Sabal Palm Forest
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Cactus Someday, I'll buy a field guide to plants.
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Sabal Palm Forest |
Gadwall The most widely distributed duck in North America (Bull & Farrand 2002).
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Upending Upending to reach aquatic plants.
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Least Grebe The only Grebe found in North America that is in the genus Tachybaptus. |
Pied-billed Grebe Grebes are fish eaters. I've seen many down large sunfishes. They pluck and swallow their own feathers to protect their "stomach from puncture by indigestible parts of the grebe's prey and prevent hard items from entering the intestines" (Dunning, Elphick & Sibley 2001).
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Least Grebe Birds with short wings need to gain air speed before taking off. They run great on water, but on land they have a hard time moving around because their legs are "set far back on their bodies" for "efficient underwater propulsion" (Dunning, Elphick & Sibley 2001).
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Lesser Scaup Male Lesser Scaup. Identified by range map, the Greater Scaups do not winter in the lower Rio Grande Valley. |
Lesser Scaup Female Lesser Scaup. Lesser Scaups are only found in the New World, Greater Scaups can be found in the old world (Bull & Farrand 2002).
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Northern Shoveler Unmistakable bill of the Northern Shoveler.
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Red-eared Slider One of two reptiles species we saw during the trip. |
Golden-fronted Woodpecker Male Golden-fronted Woodpeckers have the red cap.
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Sabal Palm Pond
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Sabal Palm Pond |
Old House
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