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| Cerulean Warbler |
With the last total eclipse in North America for many years and bird migration along the Gulf Coast both coming together in early April, we planned a trip to Texas. By starting the trip near Austin we could catch some great specialty birds in the Hill Country, see a presidential library and hopefully the eclipse, then move down to the coast to see the trans-gulf migrants as they arrived in North America. Planning is all well and good, but Mother Nature had different plans for us.
A complete bird trip list can be found at this link.
All of my many flower observations for the trip can be seen at this iNaturalist link.
We started by birding the hill country north of Austin with an eye out for two regional specialties - Golden-cheeked Warbler and Black-capped Vireo. We did well with both of these rare birds and saw many abundant spring wildflowers as well.
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| Birding the hill country |
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| Hill country with a mixture of grasslands and oak woodlands |
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| Golden-cheeked Warbler |
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| Black-capped Vireo |
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| Engelmann's Sage (Salvia engelmannii) endemic to the limestone outcrops in the hills |
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| Stiff Greenthread (Thelesperma filifolium) |
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| Texas Bluebonnet (Lupinus texensis) |
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| Blackfoot Daisy (Melampodium leucanthum) |
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| Texas Paintbrush (Castilleja indivisa) |
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| Cedar Sage (Salvia roemeriana) |
The following day was the eclipse, but not until the afternoon, so we started out with the Johnson Presidential Library.
By noon or so we knew our chances of seeing the eclipse were poor. Clouds rolled in and covered the sky. Ever hopeful we headed out to a nearby birding spot for a look. In birding parlance, a "heard only" bird is one identified solely by call or song. That's now what we're calling our eclipse - heard only. We did get a few glimpses of the partial, but when show time came for the total, we were blocked. But the birding was great!
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| A wishful eclipse watcher... |
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| It did get eerily dark |
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| So close... |
It was time to get serious about birding migration so we headed south toward the coast. Our first stop was Attwater Prairie Chicken NWR and then on to Brazoria and the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory.
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| Attwater Prairie |
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| Prairie Nymph (Herbertia lahue) |
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| Cutleaf Evening Primrose (Oenothera laciniata) |
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| Plains Coreopsis (Coreopsis tinctoria) |
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| Wild Blue Larkspur (Delphinium carolinianum) |
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| Spring Spiderlily (Hymenocallis liriosme) |
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| Sprague's Pipit |
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| Yellow-crowned Night-Heron |
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| Eastern Bluebird |
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| Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks |
The next week plus was spent on the coast between various birding sites from Freeport, across Galveston Island, and east just into Louisiana. Birding is best when the wind is out of the north as it forces migrants to land as soon as possible after crossing over 500 miles of open ocean. For most of our time we had southerly winds which is good for birds but bad for birders. We watched the reports of where birds were being seen and headed to spots that would give us the best chances. Overall numbers were very low but we had excellent diversity. Our favorite birding spots that gave us the most success were Quintana Neotropical Bird Sanctuary, Sabine Woods Sanctuary, and Preveto Woods Sanctuary in Louisiana.  |
| Sunrise on the coast, Freeport TX |
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| Quintana Sanctuary |
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| Lafitte's Cove, Galveston Island |
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| Cypress swamp, Anuhac NWR |
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| Anuhac NWR |
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| Bolivar Flats on Galveston Island. There are 10's of thousands of birds out there. |
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| Sabine Woods Sanctuary |
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| Black-throated Green Warbler |
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| Least Tern |
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| Nashville Warbler |
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| Painted Bunting |
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| Swamp Sparrow |
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| Sanderling |
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| Ruddy Turnstone |
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| Royal Terns |
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| Orchard Oriole |
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| Yellow-bellied Sapsucker |
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| Wilson's Plover |
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MacGillivray's Warbler, in Louisiana. Rare enough
that we had to write it up for the records committee |
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| Worm-eating Warbler |
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| Hooded Warbler |
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| Western Tanager, another bird "lost" in Louisiana |
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| Painted Bunting |
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| Scarlet Tanager |
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| Kentucky Warbler |
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| Veery |
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| Blue-headed Vireo |
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| Yellow-billed Cuckoo |
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| Wood Thrush |
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| Ovenbird |
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| Cerulean Warbler |
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| Blackburnian Warbler |
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| Rose-breasted Grosbeak |
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| Indigo Bunting |
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| Louisiana Waterthrush |
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| Chestnut-sided Warbler |
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| Summer Tanager |
While planning the trip months before, opera fan Susan found out we'd be in Houston for opening night of Don Giovani at the Houston Opera. It was excellent!
