David's Daily Bird Watching Blogs Along the Texas Gulf Coast "Central Flyway" Migration Trail.

Around the same time I had the pet Cockatiels, I also had a pet duck.  While the Cockatiels were a gift from my parents, the duck I won at the annual Easter Egg Hunt,  held at the city park where I was raised.  All the towns kids would gather to frolic in the woods and look for chocolate bunnies.  Sometimes there was a plastic egg, with a slip of paper inside saying that the prize was a live baby duck, chicken, or rabbit!  How cool is that?  My Mom said if any of us got that prize, she would flush it down the toilet!  But she did not do that to my pet duck, who I named Gus.  He was yellow as a duckling, but then grew up to be your basic domestic white colored feathers with orange bill and legs.  I bonded with this duck.  I would fill the plastic pool with water so Gus could take a bath, and swim around.  He would follow me all over the yard where ever I went, because he knew I gave him food.  I distinctly remember hugging Gus, and more than once.  Then one sad day in the fall I came home from school to find out that Gus was given away to some local farmer...

Sorry dear readers, but my ducks are not all in a row.  In order for me to do these blogs, 3 sources have to work in unison, and that is not happening.  I am contacting all the right places, and soon I hope my ducks will be all lined up in a row, and ready to go...

When I was 8 years old I owned a pair of "Cockatiels".  The males name was Charley, and the females name was Charlotte.  Charley had a darker yellow face than Charlotte, who had a lighter yellow face.  These were my first ever pets.  I remember I was mad at first because my older brother and sisters all got to have dogs and cats, and here I was stuck with some birds?  But I grew very attached to them and could watch them all day long!  I was a bird watcher then and did not even know it.  What was so cool is that I would let them out of their cage and let them fly around inside the house.  They would sit on the curtain rods and poop, upsetting my Mom.  I would hold out my pointer finger and they would fly from the rod to my finger, and sit there.  Or I would move my finger towards my shoulder, and they would hop on there and sit as I moved around.  She laid eggs, but nothing ever happened.  The main feature I recall about these birds is their crown head feathers.  They seemed to use those for communitcation, much like a cat uses its tail.  I could tell some how what the bird was saying, or at least pick up the mood just by looking at the crown.

The Green Heron isn't really that much green.  Sometimes I wonder about bird names.  It has burnt orange neck, orange legs, gray wings and bill.  There is some green on it's back.  All the other herons I have seen more than once.  I have only seen the Green Heron once in April 2005.  During my morning walk the dog, over by the RR tracks.  In summary on herons is that there are day time feeders and night time feeders.  Great Blue, Little Blue, Green and Tricolored Herons all feed during the day.  Night and Yellow-crowned Herons feed at night.  Although when I saw the Night and Yellow-crowned was during the day. 

Similiar in size and shape to the Little Blue Heron.  This heron can be distinguished by it's coloration.  White belly.  Dark gray and brown upperside.  Mostly seen alone. 

The Little Blue Heron looks like the Great Blue Heron, only it is little.  About half the size.  The juvenile is white and can be mistaken for a Snowy Egret.  The adults are gray blue.  Not very common, but I do see them around once in awhile. 

Another majestic bird to see, common and very easy to identify.  In fact the Great Blue Heron was one of the first birds to ID in my field guide.  They are even bigger than the Great Egret, measures 46" high.  As they name implies, the Great Blue Heron is blue.  Kind of a gray blue.  Very patience as it stands in the water looking for fish, frogs, and crabs.  They are capable of eating like snakes.  You can see the fishes outline in it's neck as it slowly consumes it's prey.  Their neck extends to eat, but coils whenever it flys.  The sound is an unmistakeable sound = very deep, hoarse, squak. 

This sea gull is huge.  According to my guide, it weighs 2.5 lbs.!  The Ring-billed Gull weighs 1.1 lb., and Laughing Gull weighs a mere 11 ozs.  Also, for the first two years, the Herring Gull is brown, which is another obvious indicator.  Then they change color, and look more like the other gulls.  All three gulls have the same thing in common = they all love garbage dumps!

The name says it all.  Sometimes bird names are confusing.  Not so with the "Ring-billed Gull".  Sure enough, yellow bill with a black ring around it.  These species of gulls are very common.  Probably our most widely seen gull.  It hangs out at all bodies of water, from lakes and rivers to oceans.  Another rat with wings as it also hangs out where the garbage is. It is one of the three species of gulls that I see around here where I live.

Laughing Gulls can be seen year round around here.  They have a very distinctive call that resembles that of laughing.  Ha Ha Ha!  During breeding season their head is black, otherwise it's grey.  Whenever I ride the ferry, I like to watch the Laughing Gulls follow.  The tourists like to throw bread for the gulls, and watch them catch it.  Sometimes one will actually eat the bread from somebodys hand, and I have gotten  a couple of good photos that way.  Some say that sea gulls are nothing more than 'rats with wings'!  I can see why.  They will eat just about anything.  But it just would not seem the same without them as they add a lot to the atmoshere of living by the beach.

The Mottled Duck is becoming extinct, all because of the Mallard Duck.  Mottled Ducks look like female Mallards, and have the same habits.  Mallards are plentyful and widespread, while Mottled are small in numbers, and just found along the Gulf Coast.  What is happening is called, "hybridization".  Which means that the male Mallards are having sex with the female Mottled's, and Mallards have the dominate genes.  The Mottled Ducks are turning into Mallard Ducks, and soon the Mottled Duck will be no more...

Common and widespread, this duck is the most frequently seen species of duck.  I can remember seeing the Mallard when I was a kid in Wisconsin.  In fact I believe the Mallard is the very first bird that I ever identified! The green head makes ID easy. So, when I was five, I could point at the Mallard and know it was a Mallard, but I was not an official birdwatcher then, so it was not checked off.  Now it is checked off.  In fact, one of my next door neighbors feeds familys of Mallard Ducks in his yard.  Bringing the Mallard even closer to home is the fact that the name of the street that I live on is "Mallard Street" !

When I first saw this bird, I thought it loosely resembeled a small Penguin.  Primative.  The bird is all black, so at first glance I did not notice any details.  The bird is beauitful!  Comorants have incredibly green eyes that seem to glow like emeralds, and each individual gray to black feather on his body looks as if it has been sculpted in metal.  Actually, the green eyes helps the Comorant see underwater when it is looking for fish.  These birds are not very popular with fishermen, because one bird eats up to a pound of fish per day.  I see the Comorants often when I walk my dog by the RR tracks, as they sit on the posts near the bridge.  During mating season, the male Comorant throws it's head back and 'gurgles' to ward off other males.  Comical to see.  There are actually two types of Comorants found in Galveston County.  The Neotropic and the Double-crested. 

The Snowy Egret is very similiar to the Great Egret.  The first thing I notice that is different is their feet.  The Great Egret  has black legs and feet, while the Snowy Egret has black legs and yellow feet. The yellow feet are that color because it attracts fish!  The feet act as bait, it can just stand there in the water and wait for the fish to swim by and notice it's yellow feet.  Both birds are common, and fairly widespread, in fact can be seen in my neighborhood.  While the Great Eget is slow and methodical as it hunts for fish, the Snowy Egret  first crouches, the actively runs towards it's prey.  The Snowy Egret is aprox. half as big as the Great Egret.

This majestic looking bird is seen both on the shore, and inland.  Seems to prefer fresh water over salt water.  But since I have seen it on the shore, I will include it in my blogs about shore birds, even though it is not listed as one in the guide.  It kind of resembles a small crane was the first thought I had when I saw one.  Common year round.  Yellow bill and long black legs and feet make a unique contrast.  It wades around in shallow water, standing tall, and moves slow and methodically as it searchs for fish.  They are nesting and roosting right now in High Island.  People come from all around to watch, and photograph, and paint.  Mostly Great and Snowy Egrets, with Commorants and  Herons roosting too.  During breeding period, the plummage on the Great Egret is just beauitful. 

When I first saw this bird, I thought it was a snake!  This bird was swimming in the same pond as all the others I saw at Brazos Bend State Park.  (Oops!  Forgot to mention this one earlier.)  It swims with it's body emerged under water, and all I could see was it's head and neck sticking up, looking for fish to spear with it's pointed bill.  It was very strange, and left me wondering what other tricks birds have to reveal... 

White Pelicans are almost as fun to watch as Brown Pelicans.  The Brown Pelican has pretty coloration, while the White one is just white with yellowish bill and legs.  The Brown Pelicans can be found on the Gulf side, the White Pelicans like to hang out on the Bay side.  Really do not see the two types together much, except maybe at the ferry landing.  Brown Pelicans dive for their food, while White Pelicans swim and look for food.  I would have to say that the Pelicans bill is it's most distinctive feature, with the bottom bill kind of 'U" shaped, and I have related to the Pelican since being a kid. 

One thing that can sometimes make bird watching frustrating is when  birds are in trees, and you can't see them because leaves and branches are obstucting the view.  Not so with Shore Birds!  Out in open and along the shore, with no trees at all.  This makes watching Shore Birds much easier than watching non-Shore Birds.  Also, a lot of the larger size ones have distinctive shapes, and that also makes for easier identification.  Most of my first birds that I checked off in my field guide were Shore Birds and birds by the shore.  For the next several days I shall be blogging about Shore Birds, and birds by the shore.

They say that the Red-winged black bird is the most wide spread bird in America.  This bird is plentyful.  Looks like a small black bird, only it has a bright red patch on each wing.  Of course, only the male bird looks like this, the female could be mistaken for a sparrow.  Brown with black stripes.  They are in the yard, and I think make one of the most distinctive calls.  I actually love their call, but it is hard to describe.  Goes something like, "kon-ka-reeeee"  With the 'e' lasting about a second.  I hear that pretty much year round, and know what kind of bird it is every time that I do.  I associate the call with 'being home."

"Listen to the Mockingbird, listen to the Mockingbird, the Mockingbird is singing in the tree..."  Anyone remember that song?  It is the song that goes through my head when ever I watch a Northeren Mockingbird, and they are plentyful in the back yard.  This is one of the first birds I studied when I took up bird watching back in December 2004.  The white patch on their wings is what gives them away.  Why do they call it the 'Northern' Mockingbird, when they are down here in the South, I wonder?  The Northern Mockingbird is the state bird of Texas.  Just like when I was growing up in Wisconsin I remember our yard was full of American Robins, which is the state bird of Wisconsin.  Now I live in Texas, and surrounded by the state bird again. They are able to mimick other birds calls, which makes them rather unique.  Usually they just sing during the day, but right now it is Spring, and they are singing all night too!  Looking for a mate. 

There three types of Grackles that are plentyful in the yard.  The Boat-tailed, Great-tailed, and Common.  The males are black and the females are brown.  They kind of look like a small crow.  I am not going to blog about the three individually, they do not deserve it!  They are easily identified by their tails. There are several Grackles who nest in the Oleander next to where my dogs dish is, and they love to eat his food.  They seem to only eat it during the day, so I am forced to feed the dog only at night.  What a hassle, thanks a lot Grackles.  My brother calls them 'trash' birds for good reason.  But, they are still birds, and I will give them as much respect and appreciation as I can. 

One of the great things about bird watching is that birds are practically everywhere!  Even in your own back yard.  I even do things to attract birds to the yard.  Bird houses, bird baths, and bird feeders attract birds.  During migration I hang a humming bird feeder, othewise I have set out one with seed.  My goal is to get a Purple Martin bird house put up to help with the annoying mosquitos.  In the sky from my back yard I often see shore birds flying by.  Mostly in the yard, and the most common, are three varieties of  Grackles, Red-winged Blackbirds, Northeren Mockingbirds, and quite often House Sparrows.  During migration I once in awhile will see a Ruby-throated Hummingbird.  Saves gas to watch birds in your own yard!

The day before yesturday I bought a fishing license so that I could go fishing with my sister, Pam.  I also wanted to try out my new pole that I had not used yet.  We went to the RR Bridge, where the fish are known to bite.  My goal is to one day catch a Flounder.  So, there we sat with our poles in the water waiting for some dumb ol' fish to come along and nibble on the dead shrimp.  Meanwhile, I noticed that there were birds everywhere!  Can I do two hobbies at once?  What if I am busy watching the birds, and a fish steals bait?  I chance it, and one particular bird really caught my attention.  That bird sure looks familiar.  I remembered checking it off my list, but not the name.  I did not have my binoculars or bird book with me, either.  So, I studied it while I waited for a fish to bite my line.  It was in the 'Tern' family, I could tell that by the looks, and actions. The tern looked like it had seagull mixed in.  Similiar coloration as a seagull, with whites, blacks, and grays.  It had a bright orange bill, and a long scissor like tail.  While it flew overhead, it made a weird call.  Beep like sound.  I burned the birds image in my mind until I got home to look it up in my "Sibley Guide."  Sure enough it was a tern, and I had last seen it  was February 2006, no wonder I could not remember it's name.  That plus my old age is why?  Good ol' Royal Tern, thanks for enhancing my fishing trip.

The last bird I watched at "Brazos Bend State Park" is called the Carolina Chickadee.  Sometime the smaller birds are hard to idenitfy.  This one was in that category.  I watched is as long as I could thru the binoculars to get the details as good as I could.  I ususally look at the markings of the face first, then the wings, and then the belly.  I also check the feet for color.  When I look in my guide, I see that it is almost identical to the Black-capped Chickadee.  The only way I can distinguish the two apart is by the "range map'  Each and every bird in the guide has a range map, which is just a map of North America with areas colored in where certain birds like to hang out, and when.  But "range maps" is a topic all by itself.  Without it I would not been able to tell which Chickadee I was watching.  Now I know.  They were entertaining to watch because of the acrobatics.  Carloina Chickadee's are excellent for bird feeders.

The rules (if you can call them that) are way flexible when it comes to bird watching.  Some bird watchers do not even check off birds in a field guide.  They just count them in their heads.  Some will not count the bird until they can identify it without use of the guide.  It varys from each individual how he or she wishs to program their hobby.  So, there are flexible rules, and then there are ethics. For example:  Let's say you see a bird and study it and then look it up in your guide.  While your looking in your guide, the bird flys away.  You try to remember exactly how it looked, so you think it may be a certain bird, but are not %100 certain.  There are other birds who look very similiar.  Do I count that bird if I am almost sure?  NO!  That would be like cheating at "Solitare".  There are personal ethics to consider, then there are enviromental ethics.  If you are in a public park that is designed for bird watchers, it is not a good idea to bring along your dog.  Dogs and bird watching don't mix well.  Also, just because I am a bird watcher does not mean I have a ticket to go tresspassing on private property. Or block traffic.  I avoid disturbing the birds I am watching, especially if I am at a nesting or roosting place.

There is nothing like the great outdoors!  Camping is awesome, especially waking up at the crack of dawn to the sound of lots and lots of chirping birds.  After we warmed water for making coffee, I sat there and looked around, and listened.  There was lots of movement in the trees, and I got out the binoculars.  Most of the time when looking at birds in the trees, there is just one.  Here was a small flock of Cedar Waxwings.  The first thing I noticed was their crest feathers, and how they lifted and went back down.  They seemed very social, and it was fun to watch a group interacting together like that.  About a dozen. A very beauitful bird and entertaining to watch.  Some even hang upside down to feed on berries.

Woodpeckers are a unique in that they cling vertically to tree trucks, and peck away for food.  The pecking makes a pecking sound, so even if you hear that sound, you will know it's a Woodpecker without even actually seeing the bird.  That is how I found the Downy Woodpecker.  It was very similiar to the Hairy Woodpecker, and the Ladder-backed Woodpecker in my field guide, so some careful studying was needed to find that there is a white patch on the wings of the Downy Woodpecker, not found on the other two. 

Tra-la-la we went after watching the Black-bellied Whistling Ducks on the path by the pond.  My brother was looking toward the sky for more ducks, and I was looking at an adolescent White Ibis fly by, paying attention to the brown feathers they have at that age.  Tim was slightly ahead of me when he almost ran over a 15 foot alligator that had just crawled out of the pond, and was sunning itself on the path.  He slammed on his brakes, then I slammed on mine, as the alligator moved over to the side, and just looked at us.  It sat just a few feet from us, and we had eye contact, not knowing what the alligator would do.  There was a moment of fear, knowing that alligators are able to move fast, and not knowing which direction it would go.  It finially went back into the pond much to our relief.  So, the moral of this blog is that there can be perils involved with birdwatching.

When we arrived at the park, my brother said that he would really like to see a Black-bellied Whistling Duck.  He said if we did see one, that we would have to watch it for awhile, because they are comical to watch.  So that was our quest.  Just when I thought things would not get any better because I had just added three new birds to my list in the past 10 minutes, they did!  In the same pond as the other birds was this dead tree.  Sitting on top was a Black-bellied Whistling Duck!  For one thing, I never thought I would see a duck sitting in a tree because of their webbed feet.  How could they?  I have only seen ducks swimming, or walking on land.  Then there were three more Black-bellied Whistling Ducks flying near the same tree the other was sitting.  Their wings are very pretty to look at, probably the most impressive I have seen since starting this hobby.  In fact the whole duck was very impressive with the coloration and patterns.  We sat and watched them for awhile before continuing on with our bicycle ride through the park.

In the same pond with the Yellow-crowned Night Heron and Blue-winged Teal, was another new bird.  This was unusual for me because I have gone camping before and not gotten a single new bird, and here I was getting three in a 10 minute period.  This new bird has a funny name, Pied-billed Grebe.  Whoever invented these names?  The bill was white on both ends and black in the middle, and that must be the pie.  Otherwise, it just looked like a brown duck, looking for food.

In the same pond as the Yellow-crowned Night Heron was  Blue-winged Teal.  In the duck family, and is small and slender.  With a blue hue to it's wings.  It was swimming around slowly in the shallow pond looking for seeds and plant material from the surface.  Actually, my brother asked if I had the Blue-winged Teal on my list is how this bird got identified.  He told me what it was and where it was.  I then looked at it with my binoculars and compared it with the drawing in my field guide to make a positive ID before checking it off on the list.  It is not cheating to have somebody else ID a bird for you, as long as you also ID it and agree.

When watching for birds, only the male birds count.  If you see a female bird and identiy her in your field guide, you can not check her off the list.  Only the male birds count.  In bird world, the male is always more colorful than the female, who is usually drab in appearance.  Only the male bird can be checked off, and counted.  I am not a male chauvinistic pig, and did not make up this rule.  Just FYI.

"Brazos Bend State Park" is massive!  It is so huge that it is able to include  a couple if different eco systems.  There are marshes and ponds, and there are woods.  The park has a wide variety of birds because of all the above.  As my brother Tim and I were bicycling around, we went by a pond, and there close by wading in the water was a Yellow-crownded Night Heron.  As I mentioned earlier, the Black-crowned Night Heron was my very first bird I checked off in my "Sibley's Field Guide".  There aren't really any Yellow-crowned ones in Galveston County, just Black-crowned.  I knew what it was the moment I looked at with my naked eye.  Very distinct profile.  Of course looking at the bird with my binoculars revealed the main difference in that it had a yellow crown instead of a black crown.  More subtle differences included a longer neck and legs, and a stouter bill.  Back in the 1940's, both Herons were hunted for their crown feather, which were used for women's hats!  They were almost hunted to extinction, but we wised up in time to save them from that.

Camping and Birdwatching make an excellent combination!  Camping usually means woods and trees, and that is where most birds like to hang out.  Last week I went camping with my brother at "Brazos Bend State Park", which is located aprox. 40 miles southwest of Houston.  In fact, it is listed as being in the top ten state parks in the nation!  We spent 24 hours in the park, and I was very lucky to add 8 new birds to my list.  That is more than usual from when I go camping, so I was quite happy.  I watched the Carlolina Chickadee,  Pied-billed Grebe,  Yellow -crowned Night Heron,  Blue-winged Teal,  Cedar Waxwing, Black-bellied Whistling Duck, Anhinga, and the Downy Woodpecker.  We plan to go back there again.  The only thing weird about the place is the alligators.

The two main things you need for birdwatching is a field guide, and a good pair of binoculars.  I already blogged about the "Sibley Guide", so now it's binoculars turn.  The pair I have was also a Christmas gift from my brother, Tim, along with the field guide made a perfect gift to get me started with my new hobby.  These binoculars are very powerful.  I brought them to a Neil Diamond concert, and the lady I was with looked through them at Neil and said, " You can see what he had for lunch! " (figuratively, not literally)  Indeed it is important to get good magnification, because most birds are very small, and do not just sit and pose for you.  Once you see a bird in the trees,  keep your eyes on it at all times as you place the binoculars in front of your eyes.  That way you do not loose the bird while doing so.  Lighting is quite important.  It is best if the sun is behind you, or else there may be too much glare, making identification difficult.  There is a dial for focus, and is different for everybody, because we all have different eye sight.  Remember your setting, in case you have to share your binoculars with someone else.  High power binoculars are not very good if the bird is close by, for those you would need a pair of 'close range' binoculars.  When not in use, I keep the glass ends covered with caps, to prevent scratching. 

To become an 'official' birdwatcher,  I joined the "National Audubon Society".  The cost is only what you want it to be, starting at $15 for a enitire year.  Once you make the donation, you receive a years subscription to "Audubon" magazine, and is published every other month.  Full of birdwatching information.  Plus, after I joined, I got a free back pack one year, and this year I got a free windbreaker.  I also got a membership card that I laminated, and carry with me in my wallet, to show anyone who is interested in birdwatching.  I like being an 'official' birdwatcher.

National Geographic has a field guide to birds, and it is quite popular.  But I like the one I have better, "The Sibley Field Guide".  It was a Christmas gift of 2004.  A lot of field guides have photographs of various birds.  Sibley has drawings.  In a way drawings are better than photographs for identifing birds.  Lighting in photos can be misleading.  Drawings remove doubt.  Also, this guide has drawings of juvenile birds because sometimes the feather coloration is different than the adults.  I just counted how many birds I have checked off since then = 85!  Still under 100, so I am no longer a novice, but far from being an expert.

This is the very first bird I checked off in my birdwatching book. Happened in December of 2004.  I walk my dog Midnight every morning over by the rail road tracks.  That way he can run loose to do his business.  It is about a mile hike altogether, and one of the highlights of the walk is the Black-crowned Night Heron hang out by the bayou.  They must nest and roost there, because they are always there it seems.  When I look at them with the binoculars, the most impressive feature is their red eyes.  Very cool  The red helps them see better at night as they go fishing.

The Gulf Coast is the bird trail of the south.  Among the many shore birds here is the Brown Pelican.  Whenever I see them fly together in a flock, I just watch in awe.  They certainly have a distinctive shape, you can tell what they are even from a great distance.  It is very cool how they dive for fish to eat.  Brown Pelicans are fun birds.  My brother told me about how the Brown Pelican (along with the American Eagle) almost became extinct back in the 70's.  Farmers used DDT to kill insects, and it got into the food chain.  The egg shells were very thin because of the DDT, and broke easily.  Then the government stepped in and out lawed the pesticide.

I would have to say that hummingbirds are my favorite birds to watch, or at least in the top three.  That is so cool how they can fly backwards.  They are so small, but make a big impact.  I have hummingbird feeders, and planted a Trumpet vine to attract them also.  They migrate in the Spring, but mostly in the Fall.  I get very excited whenever I see one.

My brother Tim was outside in the yard, and came inside to tell me that there was a woodpecker on the utility pole.  We are both bird watchers, so this was exciting news.  I grapped the binocs, and took a look.  Orange crest, grey wings with white spots, etc.  It was pecking away at a hole towards the top of the pole, that was obviously rotted and infested with termites.  I got out my bird watching book and checked off the red bellied woodpecker, with the date.