Birds, Birds, Birds!

As we settled in and explored our immediate surroundings, more than once I saw a roadside sign that read, “Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail”. Curious, I plugged it in to my iPad and voila….a whole new adventure has begun.

I highly recommend anyone who loves birding or watching birds and who might be planning a trip to Texas, to check out this site. It’s wonderful! It has interactive maps of where to see birds in the various parts of the state. It’s under a bigger title named “Great Texas Wildlife Trails.” I went to the “Upper Texas Coast” map and discovered all kinds of places to watch birds. But more than that, we discovered some really cool, out-of-the-way places which we never would have found otherwise.

The first map we chose (on the first day of our ‘new adventure’) was the one for the island we are on, San Luis Island. It was called, “The Blue Water Highway Loop.” The map took us all the way down the beach, driving on the sand, almost the full length of the island. We stopped often to watch the sea birds we saw. We developed a technique that worked well: we’d spot a bird(s). Up would come the binoculars for me, camera for Mike. If he could get a clear picture, it would be much easier to identify using Merlin Bird ID. Sometimes one of us would report the colours and size to the other who would enter the data into Merlin Bird ID. Then a lively discussion would ensue about the bird’s identity. We had so much fun!

The second map (on the second day of our ‘new adventure’) took us to Galveston Island. First stop…Dos Vacas Muertas Bird Sanctuary.

Later, when we went to Galveston Island State Park and commented to the ranger about the beautiful coyotes we’d seen, we were told that the coyotes here have ‘red wolf’ DNA which accounts for their colour.

Second stop, Galveston Island State Park, beachside.

Third Stop, Lafitte Cove:

At one of the places we stopped, we met a gal who said we should go to the waterfront in Galveston, right by Katie’s Seafood Restaurant to see the Brown Pelicans and overwintering White Pelicans. So we did.

On the third day, because it was the day before New Year’s Eve and we watched as things got busier and busier in Galveston, we decided to head in the opposite direction, doing the San Bernard Loop, starting across the Dow Barge Canal at Quintana, stopping at another spectacular bird sanctuary called ‘The Neotropical Bird Sanctuary’, before heading down the beach again watching for birds and having our lunch. We finished off the day with a drive around San Bernard NWR but didn’t see much except more hoards of mosquitoes.

Now, having found all of these great places, we revisit some of them on a daily basis to check out the birds visiting them. Often, we drive along the beach to see what we can see!