January 24-27, 2008
Seventeen participants enjoyed a nice weekend of birding in Calhoun and Refugio Counties. We were greeted by nasty conditions (cold and drizzly) on Friday but ended under great conditions (sunny and around 65 degrees) on Sunday evening. We pretty much ran the gamut weather wise on the trip except for fortunately never getting poured on. We ran into some dense fog on Sunday morning but luckily it burned off fairly quickly and did not really hamper us at all. The one constant was always starting out in cold conditions. It was about 41 degrees when we started birding each morning. We were fortunate to have several well known locals who are terrific birders help us out during the trip. Brent Ortego showed us around the Guadalupe River, Hynes Bay and Mission Lake Units of the Guadalupe Delta Wildlife Management Area on Friday and graciously allowed us to visit his home and see his hummingbirds on Sunday afternoon. Diane Nunley took us around eastern Calhoun County on Saturday morning and showed us places like Coloma Creek and Magic Ridge and helped us find some great birds. Petra Hockey and Brush Freeman gave us a tour of the beach in Port O'Connor and Petra allowed us to check the hummingbird feeders in her yard in Port O'Connor on Sunday morning.
We started the trip off by meeting Brent early Friday morning in the Mission Lake Unit of the Guadalupe Delta Wildlife Management Area to listen for rails. The Guadalupe Delta WMA is not open to the public unless by prior arrangement. We were able to hear several Sora and a few of the participants heard the Virginia Rail. We would have better experiences with these rails later on during the trip. After listening to the rails and watching herons, egrets and ibis flying in from their roosts we went and scoped out a large wetland for ducks and shorebirds. There were some Long-billed Dowitchers working the far edge of the wetland and there were a few Black-necked Stilts found as well. The ducks were primarily shoveler and Blue-winged Teal but a few of the participants got a glimpse of a wigeon before it swam out of sight and could not be relocated. After that we went over to another wetland and found our only Tree Swallow of the trip. Then we went over to the public boat ramp to park the cars because we had too many vehicles for the next road we were going to be on. At the boat ramp we were greeted by four Couch's Kingbirds that all the participants got great looks at. This would be the only time we saw them during the trip. While watching the kingbirds some of us got to see Cave Swallows fly out from under the nearby bridge after a semi had passed over the bridge. While most of us were looking at the Couch's Kingbirds Sally, Jennifer and Karen found the first really good bird of the trip a Groove-billed Ani. Unfortunately, it could not be re-located and they were the only ones to see it. Never the less it was a great find. We then went over and walked along a road on the other side of the Mission Unit of the WMA. Here some of the participants decided to walk in the woods, which were not very dense and those that stayed close to Brent were rewarded by finding a Black-and-White Warbler. We meet back up on a road that lead to a series of levees separating wetlands. From there we found a male Vermilion Flycatcher and scoped out a large group of White-faced Ibis trying to find a Glossy but try as we might we couldn't find a Glossy. That took us up to lunch time.
After lunch we birded the Hynes Bay and Guadalupe River Units of the Guadalupe Delta WMA. We did not spend too much time birding the Hynes Bay Unit due to a heard of apparently starving cows thinking we were there to feed them. Needless to say they would not leave us alone and we spent most of our time in the unit developing a new age way to heard cattle by using automobiles instead of horses. After tip-toeing our way through the cattle were a few of the cows couldn't decide which side of the road they rather be on and kept ruining from side to side in between the cars and a few cows decided to walk in the middle of the road between the cars it was quite a site. I don't know if anybody was able to get a picture or not. I am happy to report that every vehicle made it through intact and unharmed. We then headed over to the Guadalupe River Unit of the WMA and parked our cars and walked along River Road, which is in Refugio County. So those keeping county lists could add to their Refugio County lists. We split into two groups, one group walked up the road while the other group walked down the road. Before we split up we got to watch two adult Bald Eagles soaring over the road. After we split up my group got into a hole of Lincoln's Sparrows were we kept flushing more and more of them. This is the densest I have seen them this winter. It was a nice sight. On our way back to the cars we walked through the woods and I heard a Golden-fronted Woodpecker, a good bird for this area. This area is about the furthest up the coast Golden-fronteds come. Brent's group found a Great Horned Owl near the cars that those in my group were able to get over and see just before it took flight. We ended the tough day at the boat ramp making a last ditch effort to re-locate the Grove-billed Ani, which proved unsuccessful. In spite of the cold and drizzly conditions, it hovered between 41 and 44 degrees all day long, we were able to locate 101 species on the day. A big thanks to Brent Ortego for showing us around the Guadalupe Delta WMA on a very tough day for birding. We really appreciated it.
The next two days were spent birding entirely in eastern Calhoun County. Saturday morning we meet Diane along SH 238 near our first birding location Coloma Creek. At Coloma Creek we were looking for the Seaside and Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrows. It was a calm morning but mostly cloudy, which is pretty good conditions to look for the salt marsh sparrows. We phished and phished and squeaked and squeaked but all we managed to get were two brief glimpses of a pair of Seaside Sparrows pretty far out in the Spartina. However, our efforts were not in vain because most of the participants got their best looks at several Marsh Wrens. After giving up on the sparrows we scanned the creek to see if we could find any ducks and we found a small raft of Redheads that I mistakenly called Lesser Scaup at first. They were pretty far out but everybody got pretty good scope views of them. We would get great looks at more later on during the trip. After that we stopped along FM 1289 to scope out a large water impoundment from the back of Diane's truck since the levy was so high that was the only way to see what was on the water. Here we added our only two Lesser Scaup for the trip as well as some Ruddy Ducks. After that we began heading towards Magic Ridge on our way we made a couple stops along SH 316 to scope out a large flock of geese in a field right of the side of the road and to scope out a large flooded field a little further down. In scanning the geese we were surprised to see that the majority of the geese were Ross's. We actually had to work to find Snow Geese. Ross's Geese are becoming increasingly common while Snow Geese are short-stopping and becoming less prevalent. At this stop we also got great scope views of a adult Bald Eagle perched on a fence post. On the flooded field we found our only Eared Grebes for the trip as well as our first pair of Common Goldeneyes and Hooded Mergansers. Also, along SH 316 we got great looks at a pair of White-tailed Hawks including a breif look at them copulating. It was an interesting spectacle for those that were watching them at that particular moment. I wont go into details as I want to keep this "G" rated. We then made it to Magic Ridge were we looking for the Black-throated Sparrow that had been found on the Guadalupe Delta Christmas Bird Count and had been seen on and off since then in with a flock of sparrows that contained mainly Savannahs but a few Clay-colored Sparrows as well. There have been a few records for Black-throated Sparrow in Calhoun County but no records recently.
Petra had given me some tips on where to focus our efforts to find this bird before the trip. Looking for the sparrow would provide us with another funny moment for the trip. We walked all around the cemetery and did some bushwhacking trying to find the sparrow and came up with nothing but a calling Long-billed Thrasher. Shortly, after arriving back at the cars Bernice spotted a bird flying down to the ground behind a Yucca and a Prickly Pear Cactus. I decided I would pull out the Black-throated Sparrow tape to try and get it to respond. Shortly after I began playing the tape the bird that Bernice had seen fly in popped up and perched on top of the Yucca. It had a clean white breast that gleaned in the sunlight and I knew instantly that that was our bird. We had to spend a little bit of time chasing it to get everybody great looks at it. After all that we found out that Odie who had stayed at the cars had been watching the sparrow the whole time we were tromping around looking for it. A few of us did also manage to get some decent looks at one Clay-colored Sparrow. After we had our fill of the sparrow we went to lunch in Port Lavaca.
After lunch Diane had to leave us and I took the group to Alamo Beach and on a drive along the beach from Magnolia Beach to Indianola along North Ocean Drive to finish off the day. The highlights for the rest of the day were scanning out over Lavaca Bay from Alamo Beach and finding our first Common Loons of the trip as well as 75-80 Common Goldenye spread out as far as we could see. Also of note was an American Pipit that had the facial and back markings like a normal American Pipit but the breast as it was described to me like a Horned Lark, which is what the bird was initially Ided as. I never got to see the breast to see how interesting the bird was. We wounded up seeing about 90 species on the day, which put us at about 130 birds for the trip. It was a much better day then Friday and we actually got to make a full day of it.
The next morning we were greeted by dense fog as we headed back to Magic Ridge this time to bird the wetlands in the tract of land the Texas Ornithological Society recently purchased with help from the Houston Audubon Society. On our way in the dense fog Bonnie and Bernice spotted our only Common Ground-Dove along side SH 316. A great find that unfortunately due to the fog we could not stop for. Our main target at the wetlands were Black Rails that Petra had informed me were resident in those wetlands. A couple of us did manage to get a glimpse of a Black Rail as it flushed from just off the side of the road. I went back into the marsh to try and flush it again but this time a Sora flushed from a group of reeds in the middle of the marsh towards the reeds at the edge of the road. I also heard a Virginia Rail call from near where the Sora had flown to. I played tape at an opening in the reeds at the edge of the road for both Sora and Virginia Rail. A few of the group got looks at both rails as they strolled through the opening about four feet from the tip of my boot. I got some great looks at them. However, I think most of the group got frustrated with them. But that is the nature of railing, especially with a large group. As we were leaving a Virginia Rail decided to cross the road right in front of Frank's car. Everybody in his car was able to have the experience that everybody hopes of having with rails. We wound up spending most of the morning here after we kept finding good birds. Other highlights from this location were at least five Long-billed Thrashers, a single Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrow that I think only a few of us got to see and Marie photographed a Grasshopper Sparrow. We then headed to Port O'Connor where we were warmly greeted by Petra, her husband and Brush Freeman.
Petra allowed the group to view the hummingbird feeders in her backyard were we saw the female Rufous and a juvenile male Rufous\Allen Hummingbird that Petra had informed me had been hanging around for several weeks. After everybody got their looks at the hummingbirds Petra and Brush took us to two locations were we could scope out the beach and showed us both Lesser Black-backed Gulls that have been around for most of the winter. Brush had seen a Franklin's Gull in the gull flock earlier in the day that we could not relocate. I thought I had it based on the extensive dark hood. However, as Petra pointed out a few of the Laughing Gulls were already molting into breeding plumage and had extensive dark hoods. This demonstrated the importance of the practice of not just using one field mark to id a bird. The only other really good bird we found here was a Piping Plover that I think I was the only one to see it. After that we went to grab a late lunch and due to the time after lunch had to head straight back to the motel to get the rest of the cars with out stopping to look for birds on the way. After getting every bodies cars we went to Brent Ortego's property to look at his hummingbirds to end off a great trip. At Brent's property we saw Buff-bellied and Rufous Hummingbirds. Brent informed us that he had banded four Allen's in the morning but we could not find them. Also, he said he had seen a Green Kingfisher along Coletta Creek in the morning that we also could not relocate.
This was an absolutely fantastic trip that would not have been possible with out every bodies help including our wonderful guides. I know a few people added some life birds on the this trip. Congratulations to those that did!! Overall we saw 148 birds on the trip two shy of the 150 mark I was hoping to reach. We probably would have gotten there if we had better weather on Friday. I hope everybody had a wonderful time and I hope to see some of you on future trips. A huge thanks goes to Brent Ortego, Diane Nunley, Petra Hockey, and Brush Freeman for assisting us during the trip. We really appreciated it and it helped make this trip really special. A special thanks goes to Brent and Petra for allowing us to visit and bird on their property.
Bird List
~ Adam Wood, OG Field Trip Coordinator, birdsondabrain@earthlink.net, 713-515-1692 |
