Day 9, Last Day at Galveston Island

Blue Flag in a  ditch by the National Wildlife Refuge
(San Bernard NWR)

How about a few pictures then the days activities?

Some of the thicket for birds in the Quintana
Neotropical Preserve.

The trail around the Preserve.

The entry to the NWR. Yucca plant!

A beautiful azalea in Jones creek , TX

A pair of Live Oak trees that tower over the truck,
where we stopped for a "stretch".

With the first full week of our trip passed, we now will move westward to Rockport ,TX and a slightly different venue on the Ocean.  Rockport is considered the "middle Coast" as it is about halfway betweem Louisiana and the Mexican border.

Today was, however , another great birding day for us. Even though the warblers are not coming through yet in any kind of number, they are staring to make themselves known. Today we did see a Yellow Throated Warbler, and a Parula, both very beautiful birds in their own right showing that striking yellhow color.  Today we did see 53 birds wit a great variety and added 7 new species to the trip list. {We count all birds seen each day and post the ones that are new as we go along each day.} Some notables were: Black Skimmers (100's of them), Parula, Purple Martin, Common Yellowthroat, Vesper Sparrow, Cave Swallow, Eastern Kingbird, Moorhen, Fulvous Whistling Duck,   Little Blue Heron  (Six of them and a white phase young one) , Wood Thrush (taking a bath) and a  Rose Breasted Grosbeak (female).

These birds were seen on the beach, Fying, in bushes, on ponds, in the weeds, at the side of the road, in trees and taking a bath.

The oustanding thing that we witnessed today was a large bird that I stopped at the side of the road  for, and turnd the truck around to see if it was an Eagle over the Gulf. (They are rare and seldon seen here). We stopped and it was a large  Osprey circling at about 200 feet. It came down to about 100 feet and dove straight down into the water. It come up with a quite large ( 7-8 inches?) fish, and got up into the air again and flew inland  to where iIcould get a few quick shots of it carrying the prey. What a show!  Seeing the Fuvous Whistling Duck was also a treat.

Temperature held at 77 F today and sunny, with a nice 66 F at night. The stars are beautiful each night and a sliver of a moon has not deterred the star gazing.  Here are some more pictures.

Moorhen

 Two immature White Ibis  (note difference)

A Neotropic Cormorant (not seen in the north) 

Note face is white not yellow.

The Osprey with the fish he caught with that 100 foot dive.