[tn-bird] Re: Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail
- From: Winston Walden <wwalden@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 17 Oct 2002 08:45:20 -0500
Robert
What were the dates of this trip.
Winston A. Walden
Cookeville, TN
wwalden@xxxxxxxxxx
----- Original Message -----
From: "Robert" <rwf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, October 16, 2002 3:57 PM
Subject: [tn-bird] Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail
>
> Hi TnBirders,
>
> I went to the Texas coast for vacation this year. We took a train
> to New Orleans, then rented a car. We followed the Great Texas
> Coastal Birding Trail from the Sabine River near Louisiana to
> Padre Island, Texas.
>
> It would be impossible to list all the incredible birds that
> we saw. We saw several large flocks of Roseate Spoonbills.
> They hang out with the White Ibis and their brown young.
> Anahuac NWR is well maintained and very busy with birds.
>
> Brown Pelicans like to crash-dive dramatically into the ocean
> from a height of some thirty feet off the water, but the
> American White Pelicans like to float calmly on the water and
> troll carefully for fish, together in a line.
>
> In the swamp behind the Port Aransas Water Treatment Plant,
> we saw flocks of Black-bellied Whistling Ducks dabbling
> dangerously near a giant alligator the size of a horse.
>
> We saw lots of birds that we also see here in Memphis, like
> Great Blue Heron, White Egrets, and DC Cormorants. But there
> were also flocks and flocks of Little Blue Herons and Tri-colored
> Herons. And lots of Snowy Egrets and Wood Storks.
>
> Along the coast there were always the Laughing Gulls, but we
> also saw Royal Terns and the Black Skimmer with his strange
> looking bill.
>
> Ride the Galveston Ferry and look up. There we saw Magnificent
> Frigatebirds, male and female. Look down and you'll see lots
> of Dolphins playing in the wake of the ferry. My favorites were
> the amazing looking Long-billed Curlew and the American
> Oystercatchers.
>
> The best places we visited along the trail were:
> Sabine Marais on the Louisiana side of Sabine River
> Smith Point on Galveston Bay
> the Galveston Ferry
> Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge
> Port Aransas Water Treatment Plant
>
> Brazoria NWR was closed, when we went by, due to flooding.
> Texas Point WMA was disappointing. Redhead Pond WMA south
> of Corpus Christi was overgrown, not well maintained and
> the brown trail sign had been knocked down; there were actually
> more birds across the street.
>
> We left the coast at Corpus Christi and drove across the Brush
> Country of south Texas, heading to Laredo. If you've never seen a
> Crested Caracara, you need to go to see them. They were perched
> atop every other telephone pole along the highway. One radio tower
> near San Antonio had fifty-two Turkey Vultures on it!
>
> Scissor-tailed Flycatchers were everywhere. We saw one Fork
> Tailed Flycatcher. Before this vacation,I had never seen a White
> Tailed Hawk, nor a Ferruginous Hawk. Along the road to Laredo,
> we saw a Greater Roadrunner cross the road quickly in front of us.
> Beep! Beep!
>
> We drove into Mexico, at Nuevo Laredo, but quickly returned to
> this country. Four mexican soldiers made signals that they wanted
> a bribe to let us re-enter the US. I just held on to one end of
> my Spotting Scope and kept saying "No comprendo"... they finally
> let us go.
>
> We drove our rental car to a place near the Rio Grande River to
> scan the waterline. Just as I was setting up my spotting scope,
> the US Border Patrol swooped in to check for illegals. When I
> scanned the mexican side of the Rio Grande, I spotted the Great
> Kiskadee! It's a small yellow bird with a distintive black and
> white head. Being new to birding, I had not known this one even
> existed, till I looked it up in my Sibley's.
>
> We went back to New Orleans and found a family of Monk Parakeets
> nesting in a Palm Tree near my sister's house. That is the
> only Parakeet that builds a nest with sticks.
>
> It would be impossible to describe how fun our vacation was.
> My birding Life List doubled in size. My Nikon Spotting Scope
> was invaluable. Compared to the fine cuisine we ate in Louisiana,
> the food in Texas and Mexico were rough. We dodged two hurricanes
> during our vacation, but saw impressive wind damage after the
> storms blew over, as we drove thru.
>
> If anyone is thinking of doing the Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail,
> I say go, but talk to someone who has been before. Take several cans
> of Off and a wearable mosquito net with you when you go. We did not
> have any problems.
>
> What a great vacation!
>
> Robert Fowler
> Memphis, TN
>
>
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=================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER=====================
The TN-Bird Net requires you to sign your messages with
first and last name, city (town) and state abbreviation.
-----------------------------------------------------
To post to this mailing list, simply send email to:
tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
-----------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, send email to:
tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society
web site at http://www.tnbirds.org
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
TN-Bird Net Owner: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN
jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx (423) 764-3958
=========================================================
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