May 3 - 12 -- High Island Part 3 And A Rare Golden-Cheeked Warbler

A favorite saying that I like to use is "Tempus Fugit" -- Latin for "Time Flies".  And it certainly did at High Island, along with the birds, of course. Friends Lori and Mark, Martin and Eileen, and Jose left, and while I certainly would have seen more birds if they'd still be around, I managed to find more than a few on my own. Here are some more birds I saw both at High Island and Sabine Woods, a great spot near the Texas-Louisiana border -- 

Roseate Spoonbill at Smith Oaks Rookery

A "peenting" Common Nighthawk at Anahuac Nat'l Wildlife Refuge

Mr. and Mrs. Red-bellied Woodpecker check out a nest hole, Sabine Woods

Eastern Kingbird at Anahuac

Yellow-throated Vireo with a snack at Smith Oaks

Yellow-throated Vireo

Maybe he'll go away if we pretend as if it's not there...Black-bellied and a single Fulvous (in front) Whistling Ducks snooze next to a crocodile

Golden-winged Warbler, Smith Oaks

Young male Blackpoll Warbler, also at Smith Oaks

Bay-breasted Warbler, Smith Oaks (Smith was my favorite place, and where I saw the majority of my Life Birds)

Cape May Warbler -- in the same tree as the Bay-breasted, and at the same time!

I was having so much fun at High Island, and was seeing more new birds than I ever hoped for, that I decided to stay an extra 4 days. In that time I went to Sabine Woods twice -- once with my aforementioned friends, and then by myself. It's known as a place infested with mosquitoes, but I wasn't too bothered by them -- perhaps it had something to do with using the 98.1% DEET...And it was at Sabine Woods that I actually saw the difference between the Black-billed and Yellow-billed Cuckoo. And I didn't know what I had at the time, as the Black-billed was so far away; I just assumed that it was another Yellow-billed. But when I got back to the trailer, and checked that day's photos from Sabine Woods, I saw --

It had a red eye-ring. Yellow-billeds don't --

And while at Sabine Woods the second time, I saw a Black-throated Blue Warbler, which I found out was one of the handful of times that it's been seen there. Folks were on an "uncommon" Cape May Warbler, a species I'd previously seen at Smith Oaks, but once I told them about the Black-throated Blue, and shown them a photo that wasn't the best but at least showed its markings and color, they promptly forgot about the Cape May and helped me to re-find the bird. Alas, we never did...During the 11 days I stayed at High Island, I saw over 40 Life Birds, at least 17 of which were Warblers. I just may go back again next year...

On Friday May 6 I headed out to stay a few days with my friends Martin and Eileen. As with Lori and Mark (and myself), they were from the South Bay of Los Angeles, but got tired of the rat race and moved out of California -- Mark and Lori to become fellow Portalites, while Martin and Eileen moved to Sun City, a "Del Webb" community near Georgetown, north of Austin. Their back yard is amazing, full of centuries-old oaks that were preserved when the community was constructed, and birds are attracted to those oaks. Among birds they've seen in their yard are Mourning Warbler -- and Golden-cheeked, which will appear again at the end of this post. Just after I arrived, they took me to a nearby park; along the way we saw Scissor-tailed Flycatchers on fences -- 

As they only make appearances as occasional vagrants west of Texas, it's fun to see them to be almost as common as Western Kingbirds in southern California. I'd kept my list of birds I wanted to see while visiting with my friends simple -- Great Kiskadee and Painted Bunting. Now, I didn't know that the Kiskadee's usual territory is along the Texas coast, and that they're rarely seen further north than that. Well, Martin knew of a lone Kiskadee and the park where we were headed, and though he took a bit of finding, we did -- 

And he even graced us with a closeup look --

But I still wanted Painted Bunting... In the meantime, Martin got me a Swainson's Warbler, a bird that's very secretive as it's usually on the ground in dense growth. So it was a surprise to seen one on a branch at eye-level --

All during this time, and at visits to other parks, we'd seen Painted Buntings, but they were from a distance, brightly-colored specks that were a reach even for my telephoto lenses. Then we went to Balcones Nat'l Wildlife Refuge, in search of Black-capped Vireo, an endangered and rare bird that's being squeezed out due to habitat loss. Though it was raining on-and-off, he still managed to find me Painted Bunting -- and I finally got a decent shot of the male --

Against all odds, I got my 2 "target birds" that I wanted to see. But another endangered, and rare, bird that can be found in mid-Texas is Golden-cheeked Warbler. Its numbers are steadily declining once again due to habitat loss, and it's very site specific, preferring mixed cedar-oak woodland found on the Edwards Plateau in central Texas. I figured I'd have the proverbial snowball's chance in hell to see one. But if anything, Martin is persistent. While at Balcones, and in a known Golden-cheeked area, he found one, a single male, and while the photo I took wasn't up to my usual standards, hey, it was obviously a Golden-cheeked -- dark eye line, and unmarked yellow ear patches -- 

What an incredible time I had in Texas. I somewhat regretfully headed back home, but as it turned out it was a good thing I left when I did. I missed bad weather, i.e. golfball-sized hailstones, by a day, though it was still a challenge heading west. I hit a stiff headwind while on Interstate 10 in west Texas, and as I was pulling my trailer I sucked up gas as I'd never sucked it up before, and I nearly ran out on a desolate, gas station-less stretch of the interstate. Luckily, I made to to the only station within miles, aiding by my Garmin GPS navigation system which pinpoints gas stations nearby. After taking a loop around the mess called El Paso, with Mexico's shantytown visible across the Rio Grande, I raced back to Portal -- and have more memories, and photos, that will last a lifetime...