Day 8 At Galveston, Texas (RV Park)

This Park is brand new as I mentioned earlier. The man has invested millions in deveoping what appears to be a well organized and designed Park. At present there are 60 sites ready to go and he is finishing another 120 , with plans to add on another 120 in the coming year.  Quite an endeavor,

Today, for us, was a lot of fun and of course when the birding is good and we see many, that adds to the enjoyment. There are many birds along the coast and even though some of them, like the Great Tailed Grackle are numerous, other fill in the "gaps" to add variety and surprises as the day goes along.

Today we headed over the San Luis Pass Bridge (SW of Galveston Island)  to three communities that had many birding sites and opportunities. (In 1830 the community of San Luis was 2,000 people. It never developed due to storms, an economic disaster that hit it just before the Civil War. Today 6 families inhabit the site.. It does not exist today.) We visited; Seaside, Free Port and Quintana. That included the rural part of all three of those communities. In Quintana we saw the first indication of the migration of warblers with five species spotted in a few minutes in a small neighborhood thicket run by the local birding group. An Orchard Oriole surprised us, as did a Yellow Throated Warlbler , a Bue Gray Gnatcatcher, a Ruby Throated Hummingbird, and a White Crowned Sparrow.  With just seeing those we would have been happy.  But...

The Reddish  Egret Using its wings to shield the sun,

The day was just beginning. By noon, again we had over 30 species, many seen along the roadsides where we could easily stop and observe. (One disadvantage of the Freeways is that you CANNOT  stop to observe birds safely. Hence the "back roads " are a favorite way to travel. Besides the Birds are usually a long ways from the freeways.

This area contains the estuary for the San Bernard River and the any twists and turns of the drainage allows many places in which to observe the water birds especially.

A Great Blue Heron doing sone sunbathing at the Ocean.

That is a Cattle Egret with the Skimmers n the Beach. What is he doing there?

Indian Paint Brush growing for miles along TX 3005 on both sides of the road.

Some less known birds we saw that might be of interest not previously mentioned were: Sandwich Tern, Cattle Egret (It was actually on the beach at the Ocean!), Gull Billed Tern and two Scoters the Black and the White Winged. Total count today was 57 species.

                                                                              

The treat of the day was wonderful "dance" while watching a Reddish Egret looking for prey in the shallow waters of the West Bay (Galveston) .  (See above picture) They have a peculiar, but practical  habit of stretching their massive wings when persuing the prey which allows the sun to be blocked and they can see the fish much better. . Then they run as fast as they can chasing the prey in a 'helter skelter' manner.  Those long legs can reall scoot! Very entertaining. I did get a good video of that . I might try to insert that. (It was too long. I'll have to edit it!) N.B. OT was seen tat the bird always moved away from the sun. Smart!

A WW2 Coastal gun (Howitzer?) stll in place 

Ruth loves "Her " Pellies (Brown Pelican) This is a 'wingback' formation I believe.

This crew was protected from the sun, sand flies, mosquitoes and were digging clams we believe.
Love the bonnets!

Ruth using the scope to get those birds on the far side ofthe lagoon.

One of the many refineries in the Freeport area.

A close up of the Indian Paintbrush (It has other names) 

Also today was the eighth day on the road and when you are not home that means "LAUNDRY"! So this evening we were fortunate after supper to locate a laudramat just 7 miles from our trailer and were almost alone there doing the laundry before the 7:00 closing. The manager was tolerant of our 5 minute overtime .              



Got it all finished from 6:00 PM to 7:16 PM. (We hire out!) NOT!













Tomorrow we head across the San Luis Bridge again, ($2.00 toll each way) to return to that 'warbler thicket' and then to San Bernard NWR which has a variety of habitats .  See you tomorrow we hope, Thanks for following along.