Stromboli's Rolling Log: Corpus Christi, TX on Day 12

Perhaps when you think of Corpus Christi Texas, you think of what?... Oil, ships, gas, or maybe even agriculture. But as we had been led to believe, it is a wonderful birding mecca, with hundreds of birding sites within a few dozen miles of downtown. And Tomorrow we will attempt to visit some of the downtown ones. Comeback tomorrow.

So to day we got a bit earlier start and were across the Nueces Bay Causeway between Portland and Corpus Christi and headed for the end of the causeway where it connects with Padre Island National Seashore. There is a Park there we had visited in previous trips, and it usually gave good results on the Bay side where the tidal flats are. Birding the tidal flats after a low tide is a better time than any other for the bird activity, as the food is moving and exposed. By that time we had about 20 birds counted and looking for more.
The day was beautiful although last night was cool at 43 F , but it was warming quickly and got up to 79 F by mid afternoon. It was sunny all day.
Then came the search for "Redhead Pond" . That's a bird guys, not a gal! We did not find it but we were getting so many birds in the flats and ponds along the road there that we didn't bother. A stop at the South Texas Botanical gardens and Nature Center was next and was the place we ate our "packed" lunch. We almost always do that as Ruth has her special food she likes at noon. Once in a while we may do a "Subway".

A view of the Tule Lake Channel from the bridge at
Corpus Christi

Believe it may be a form of Kalonchoe. Quite tall however

One of the thousands of tribes that have been eliminated
by mankinds power, greed, and carelessness.

Then it was a puzzle to figure out where this "Suter Nature Preserve" was . It was not on the map I said, but had to be there somewhere. That's right, we do not use GPS as they too can be wrong sometimes and then you are without a paper map. After some backtracking and ...yes...I asked directions (without prompting), we got steered in the right direction and it was on the OTHER side of the causeway. UGH!

We finished the day there with a walk down to the Bay where the White Pelicans and other birds were, and headed home after that.

So a total of some 45 birds and many miles on that day. Some new birds we did add to the list were ; Common Ground Dove, Black Bellied Plover, White Winged Dove, an unidentified Hummingbird, and a Spotted Sandpiper. Ruth tells we we have a total of 107 species identified thus far.

Tomorrow Ruth wants to go to Mustang Island and take a Ferry ride to get there. (The only way!)We will do that.
Enjoy the pictures and I hope you are reading along as the days go by. We will be one more full day here and leave for McAllen TX on Saturday.