Saturday, June 23, 2018

2018 Spring Migration at High Island - Day 2

The second day of my birding at High Island turned out to be productive for Warblers. I just had half a day for birding since I had to head home early in the afternoon. Hence decided to cover the sites near the audubon centers.

In the morning I visited Boy Scouts wood Sanctuary to see if there were any new birds which flew overnight but I did not see anything new but I did get to see some birds which I missed on the previous day and at South Padre Island.

In the morning at the bird sanctuary we continued to see huge number of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, there were few Prothonotary Warblers and good number of Painted and Indigo Buntings. There were still lot of Tennesse Warblers, Northern Parula and Orioles(Orchard and Baltimore).

Blackburnian Warbler

Tennesse Warbler

Northern Parula

Orchard Oriole

Orchard Oriole

Chestnut-sided Warbler

Summer Tanager

And the Prothonotary pond White Ibis, Green Heron, Little-blue Heron and Yellow-crowned Night Heron. The other birds that i saw during the day were Eastern-wood Pewee, Cerulean Warbler and a lone Worm-eating Warbler.

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Painted Bunting

Baltimore Oriole

Easternwood Pewee

Hooded Warbler

After this I did a quick visit to Hooks Woods Sanctuary. It was good visit where I got to see my second Black-billed Cuckoo. There was a very co-operating Hooded Warbler and couple of Worm-eating warblers flying around. I did get to see Great-crested Flycatcher, Summer Tanagers and Black and White Warbler.

Summer Tanager

Blue-winged Warbler

Hooded Warbler

Black and White Warbler

Hooded Warbler

Great-crested Flycatcher

Worm-eating Warbler

Black-billed Cuckoo
In the afternoon before I left for the day I decided to spend sometime at Smith Oaks Sanctuary. The visit was good. I got to see Kentucky Warbler, I had seen this bird couple of years back but it was from very far. But this time it was a very good where the bird was very close trying to eat some food. Here we saw Blue Grosbeak, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Painted Bunting and Indigo Bunting. I also got to see Cerulean Warbler which was very good. Other Warblers I got to see were Worm-eating Warbler, Tennesse Warbler, Black-throated Green Warbler, Prothonotary Warbler and Tennesse Warblers.  We also got to see both Summer and Scarlet Tanagers. And in the Rookery I got see some alligators along with the breeding Egrets, Herons and Spoobills.

Blue Grosbeak


Roseatte Spoonbill

Blue Grosbeak

Black-throated Green Warbler

Veery

Kentucky Warbler

Prothonotary Warbler

Worm-eating Warbler

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Grey Catbird

Tennesse Warbler

Hermit Thrush

Black-billed Cuckoo

Summer Tanager

Easternwood Pewee

Summer Tanager

Cerulean Warbler

Scarlet Tanager

Blackburnian Warbler

After great couple of days of birding headed back home. Can't wait to come back to this place again :-)

ebird:
Boy Scout Wood Sanctuary : https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S44902478
Smith Oaks Sanctuary : https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S44902669

Birds seen during the day :

1 Acadian Flycatcher  
2 American Coot  
3 American Redstart  
4 Baltimore Oriole  
5 Barn Swallow  
6 Black Vulture  
7 Black-and-white Warbler  
8 Black-billed Cuckoo  
9 Blackburnian Warbler  
10 Blackpoll Warbler  
11 Black-throated Green Warbler  
12 Blue Grosbeak  
13 Blue Jay  
14 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  
15 Blue-headed Vireo  
16 Blue-winged Warbler  
17 Carolina Chickadee  
18 Carolina Wren  
19 Cedar Wawing  
20 Cerulean Warbler  
21 Chestnut-sided Warbler  
22 Common Gallinule  
23 Common Yellowthroat  
24 Eastern Wood-Pewee  
25 Eurasian Collared-Dove  
26 Gray Catbird  
27 Gray-cheeked Thrush  
28 Great Blue Heron  
29 Great Crested Flycatcher  
30 Great Egret  
31 Green Heron  
32 Hermit Thrush  
33 Hooded Warbler  
34 Indigo Bunting  
35 Kentucky Warbler  
36 Little Blue Heron  
37 Louisiana Waterthrush  
38 Nashville Warbler  
39 Northern Cardinal  
40 Northern Mockingbird  
41 Northern Parula  
42 Northern Waterthrush  
43 Orange-crowned Warbler  
44 Orchard Oriole  
45 Ovenbird  
46 Painted Bunting  
47 Prothonotary Warbler  
48 Purple Gallinule  
49 Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon)  
50 Roseate Spoonbill  
51 Rose-breasted Grosbeak  
52 Ruby-throated Hummingbird  
53 Scarlet Tanager  
54 Snowy Egret  
55 Summer Tanager  
56 Swainson's Thrush  
57 Tennessee Warbler  
58 Tricolored Heron  
59 Tufted Titmouse  
60 Turkey Vulture  
61 Veery  
62 Western Kingbird  
63 White Ibis  
64 White-eyed Vireo  
65 White-winged Dove  
66 Wood Thrush  
67 Worm-eating Warbler  
68 Yellow-billed Cuckoo  
69 Yellow-throated Vireo  

Wednesday, June 13, 2018

2018 Spring Migration at High Island - Day 1

For the third year in a row I visited High Island to see the spring migration(April 21 and 22). I had been following the ebird report which was showing some amazing birds being reported this year at some of the sites in High Island. I was very eager to visit the place this year.

I was at South Padre Island the week before and there was lot of buzz about the spring migration at High Island. There were lot of folks making a trip to High Island directly from SPI. My initial plan was to push my visit to the last week of April but because of these reported sightings I planned to prepone my trip.

On April 21 morning I reached Boy Scout Woods sanctuary at around 7AM. There were already people busy focusing their cameras and binoculars on the winged friends. We saw the usual Tennesse Warbler, Nashville Warbler, Northern Parula, Indigo Bunting, Painted Bunting and Blue Grosbeaks.  The number of Ruby-throated Humming birds was amazing. It looked they were every where. We also saw Scarlet and Summer Tanager here. Got to see my first Prothonotary Warbler and the bird looked like it just flew to the place overnight. The bird was exhausted to even fly and was just walking on the ground and trying to feed on whatever food it could find on the ground.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird


Indigo Bunting(Female)

Indigo Bunting

Northern Parula

Scarlet Tanager

Tennesse Warbler

Blackpoll Warbler

Indigo Bunting

Prothonotary Warbler
Inside the sanctuary near the Prothonotary pond we saw Green Heron, Yellow-crowned Night Heron, Little-Blue Heron and White Ibis. The Little-blue was pretty busy and was successful in catching crayfish more than once.  While other Herons were playing waiting game. We could see lot of Swainson's Thrush and Wood Thrush in the park. I did get to see couple of Worm-eating warblers and Grey-cheeked Thrush as well.

Near the pond at the entrance we saw an American redstart which was flying all over the place. There was also a Red-breasted Grosbeak, Baltimore Oriole and the Grey catbird.

White Ibis

Yellow-crowned Night Heron

Little Blue Heron

Swainson's Thrush

Wood Thrush

Summer Tanager

Prothonotary Warbler

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

American Redstart

White-eyed Vireo

At the parking lot got to see my first Black-billed Cuckoo along with Blue-headed Vireo. The mulberry trees had lot of birds in it. I saw Painted Bunting, Tanagers, Warblers and Viroes on these trees feasting on the fruits and some of them on insects.

Grey Catbird

Baltimore Oriole

Black-billed Cuckoo

Painted Bunting

Blue-headed Vireo

For the afternoon birding I headed towards Bolivar Flats Shorebird Sanctuary which is the best place to see the shorebirds. Here I could hundreds of American Avocets in the water and on the shores. I had never seen so many Avocets in my life, it was amazing. Along with the Avocets we could see different kind of Terns(Sandwich, Black, Royal, Common, Forster's and Caspian). And we also saw Dowitchers, Black-necked Stilt, Black-bellied and American Golden Plovers, Semi-palmated plover, Piping plover, Rudy Turnstone, Dunlin, Least Sandpiper, Stilt Sandpiper and others. And among the Gulls I got to see my first Galucous Gull. The bird was consistently seen at this place for past few days. There were some Mottled ducks and Scaups in the water too.

Piping Plover

Yellowlegs

American Avocet

Avocet and Dunlin


Sanderling


Willet


Royal Tern

Semi-palmated Plover




Piping Plover


Red Knot

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
After this I headed towards the Rollover pass to try my luck with shorebirds again. Here again we saw lot of Avocets and terns but we did get to see some Marbled Godwits along with Clapper Rail. We also saw few Whimbrel and lot of Black-skimmers. We did see some Brown Pelicans and American-white Pelicans. Both variants of Willets were seen here. I got to picture my first Boat-tailed Grackle identified by its black Iris.

Black Skimmer

Marbled Godwit

Willer

Skimmer and Laughing Gull

Forster's Tern

American Avocet

Ring-billed Gull

Tri-colored Heron

Royal, Caspian and Common Tern

Common, Black and Royal Tern

Common, Sandwich and Royal Tern

Great Blue Heron

Brown Pelican

Whimbrel

Willet

Black-bellied Plover

Semi-palmated Plover

Yellow Warbler
Black-necked Stilt


Dowitcher

Clapper Rail

Whimbrel

Boat-tailed Grackle

Yellowlegs


For the evening walk we visited Smith Oaks Sanctuary. In the rookery we saw all the 3 Egrets(Snowy, Cattle and Great) along with Roseatte Spoonbills. We also Purple and Common Gallinules. There were atleast 3 Alligators that we could find on the mud banks. We did see some Little Blue and Tri-colored Herons here. We saw the same warblers as we saw at Boy Scouts Woods Sanctuary. It was a great day filled with birds and I got to see 2 new birds.

Ruby-Throated Humminbird

Orchard Oriole


Rose-Breasted Grosbeak(Female)

Blue Grosbeak



ebird : 
Boy Scouts Woods Sanctuaryhttps://ebird.org/view/checklist/S44901435
Bolivar Flats Shorebird Sanctuaryhttps://ebird.org/view/checklist/S44901762
Rollover Passhttps://ebird.org/view/checklist/S44902081

List of birds seen during the day :

1 American Avocet  
2 American Golden-Plover  
3 American Redstart  
4 American White Pelican  
5 Baltimore Oriole  
6 Barn Swallow  
7 Black Skimmer  
8 Black Tern  
9 Black-and-white Warbler  
10 Black-bellied Plover  
11 Black-billed Cuckoo  
12 Blackburnian Warbler  
13 Black-necked Stilt  
14 Blackpoll Warbler  
15 Black-throated Green Warbler  
16 Blue Grosbeak  
17 Blue Jay  
18 Blue-headed Vireo  
19 Blue-winged Warbler  
20 Broad-winged Hawk  
21 Brown Pelican  
22 Carolina Wren  
23 Caspian Tern  
24 Cedar Wawing  
25 Clapper Rail  
26 Common Tern  
27 Common Yellowthroat  
28 Dunlin  
29 Eurasian Collared-Dove  
30 Forster's Tern  
31 Glaucous Gull
32 Gray Catbird  
33 Gray-cheeked Thrush  
34 Great Blue Heron  
35 Great Crested Flycatcher  
36 Great Egret  
37 Greater/Lesser Yellowlegs  
38 Great-tailed Grackle  
39 Green Heron  
40 Hooded Warbler  
41 Indigo Bunting  
42 Killdeer  
43 Laughing Gull  
44 Least Sandpiper  
45 Least Tern  
46 Lesser Scaup  
47 Little Blue Heron  
48 Louisiana Waterthrush  
49 Marbled Godwit  
50 Mottled Duck  
51 Mourning Dove  
52 Nashville Warbler  
53 Neotropic Cormorant  
54 Northern Cardinal  
55 Northern Mockingbird  
56 Northern Parula  
57 Northern Waterthrush  
58 Orange-crowned Warbler  
59 Orchard Oriole  
60 Painted Bunting  
61 Piping Plover  
62 Prothonotary Warbler  
63 Red Knot  
64 Reddish Egret  
65 Red-winged Blackbird  
66 Ring-billed Gull  
67 Rose-breasted Grosbeak  
68 Royal Tern  
69 Ruby-throated Hummingbird  
70 Ruddy Turnstone  
71 Sanderling  
72 Sandwich Tern  
73 Scarlet Tanager  
74 Semipalmated Plover  
75 Short-billed/Long-billed Dowitcher  
76 Stilt Sandpiper  
77 Summer Tanager  
78 Swainson's Thrush  
79 Tennessee Warbler  
80 Turkey Vulture  
81 Veery  
82 Whimbrel  
83 White Ibis  
84 White-eyed Vireo  
85 Willet  
86 Wood Thrush  
87 Worm-eating Warbler  
88 Yellow Warbler  
89 Yellow-billed Cuckoo  
90 Yellow-throated Vireo