On this past Monday (06/27/16) my wife, Birgit, and I birded at Rockport
Beach Park (fee site), the loop road, Aransas County (ca. 2:00 â 6:30 PM),
and birded at the same location the following day Tuesday (06/28/16) from
8:00 â 9:20 AM. Our primary goals were to study and photograph the Sooty
Terns that have been seen at that location for some weeks this summer and
which we had seen (but been unable to photograph) on an initial visit to
this site on 06/21/16. Our sightings of that species on our return visit
(June 27-28) all occurred as we looked from the eastern edge of the loop
road, specifically, while we looked eastward from the roadside near the two
blue portable toilets that are roughly opposite cabanas 50 and 51. PLEASE
NOTE: The Sooty Terns seen by us were not close to those toilets, but were
well back in the sunflower field. The toilets are mentioned here simply to
indicate near where we stood in our search.
MONDAY (2:00 â 6:30 PM): We saw two Sooty Terns, usually as single-bird
sightings, but once we saw two in flight together. The first (single bird),
seen by me alone, was around 3:05 PM, and the flight of two together (seen
by both of us) was about 3:20 PM. At one point we both saw one dip downward
toward the Silverleaf sunflowers, which were in front of the taller species
of sunflower back behind them. Birgit soon thereafter saw, very briefly,
one sitting on one of the Silverleaf plants. I twice got ID-compatible
photos of a Sooty Tern in flight (5:29 PM). The two shots might both have
been of a single individual, rather than of two different ones, but I
cannot be sure. From the photographerâs perspective, one was to the right
of the pavilion cupola, the other to the left. I did not get a photo of the
two earlier seen flying fairly close together.
TUESDAY (8:00 â 9:20 AM): Our single success on that morning was when
Birgit spotted a Sooty Tern sitting on one of the Silverleaf sunflowers in
the same general location as where it had been seen by her the previous
day. The bird was seen on that sunflower for perhaps 5 minutes. At some
point she was able to get me onto it, and I got some good photos of it
sitting there (8:47 â 8:49 AM).
WORTHY OF NOTE: A variety of water-related birds often may be seen from
around the loop drive, but Laughing Gulls in huge numbers dominated the
scene, swarming over the sunflower field where the Sooty Terns often are
seen, creating copious visual and auditory noise for the tern seeker. They
also created a problem for loop drivers. The adult gulls on the loop were
more ready to move away as oneâs vehicle approached, but their young often
seemed oblivious to approaching vehicles. One of the best places to study
birds from the loop drive area is to use a scope to view the huge
aggregation of waders that can hang out on the large island in Little Bay.
It is viewable from a viewing platform at about the point where the loop
road swings northward. On June 27 we saw out on that island dozens of
Roseate Spoonbills, some splendidly colored, many Reddish Egrets, a few
White Ibis, and numerous Tricolored Herons (various ages).
Wishing everyone the best of birding,
Rex Stanford (Weslaco).
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