Stromboli's Rolling Log: Day 16 Tues April 17, 2018, Third day of guided birding .Broke 100 species!

Yes, although that is not the goal of these birding experiences, we did reach 104 birds identified today. Jim Stevenson was his usual "puny" self and was really focused as we attempted to find many warblers but they have just not come through yet, Still about a week away, but tomorrow if the wind shifts, we could see an improvement. (PHOTOS BELOW!!!)

Thanks too to the viewers in Netherlands, ,Korea, Bugaria, France, Portugal, Russia and USA.

Today took us to some areas we had been to by ourselves as these are good birding areas, but also took in a few that were new to us, that Jim knew about. A few houses away from the Lafitte's pond and Nature Reserve there are two ponds that the visitors to Lafitte's seldom see or look for birds. Those ponds did have some that we added today. We ended the day at Lafitte's and got home an hour earlier than yesterday. (6:00 PM). Lunch was at "Leo's Cajun Corner" where we all indulged in some good cajun food, From Chick legs , Shrimp Po Boy, to Catfish and plenty f Cajun sauces and jalapenos "Poppers" . Leo's is in downtown Galveston on Broadway.

I will do the same as I did yesterday in summing the birding locations and highlight a few birds , then post enough photos to give you the idea of what those areas were like.

One comment I want to pass on to you is what Jim and I talked about today, and that was that the lists of birds, the photos of birds are no longer the important portions of bird watching. The important focus today should be on CONSERVATION for the birds as well as wildlife. The reason being that we are losing our birds very quickly. There is not one cause, but many. The planet is in trouble and those factors that have created that trouble are also the cause of the decline in many bird species. We need to sound the alarm and support causes that educate, promote, support, and take action in order to change the move that the inhabitants of the earth have made that is destroying these creatures. Enough for now but you get the general idea. There will be more written on this as we travel

We covered also The East End Beach, Corps Woods (we had been to both of these before) and Texas city Dike, then headed north across the Bay to Armand Bayou, but Jim had not been there in 15 years and it now closes on Monday and Tuesday, so we missed that. We came back to Galveston and to Lafitte's Reserve then finished at 7 1/2 mile Rd. A few of the key birds today were;

Six Tern Species (Royal, Forest, Common, Sandwich, Gull Billed, and Caspian, the Common getting named as it is 'common' to both the New World and the Old World), Baird's Sandpiper, Boat Tailed Grackle (seldom seen on the Island at this time) , Purple Martin (just arrived) , Whimbrel, Rock Dove (now renamed Rock Pigeon), Spotted Sandpiper, Herring Gull, Ring Billed Gull (both seldom seen here) ,White eyed Vireo, Red Shouldered Hawk, Ruddy Duck, Lesser Scaup, Black Bellied Plover, Western Sandpiper (This is the most numerous shorebird in the World), Least Sandpiper, Franklin's Gull, Green Winged Teal, Common Crow (rare), American Widgeon, Marsh Wren, Ruby Throated Hummingbird, Brown Thrasher, Wood Thrush, Blue Winged Warbler, and the Black and White Warbler, This is a partial list , but are mostly those that we seldom see.

Here are some photos for you .