While the Texas drought has cut back the number of birds, there is still a wide variety here and down at Salineno. Here are some photos I’ve taken in the last week.

Altimira Oriole

Long-billed Thrasher across the street sounding like a Northern Mockingbird

Golden-fronted Woodpecker

Great Kiskadee

Green Jays are hard to beat for color and personality

Hooded Oriole

Since December, a Brown Jay has been regularly visiting the feeders at the Salenino, Texas bird sanctuary where Cheryl Longton and other volunteers continue a long tradition of taking care of the birds of the area.  The site is famous for the three orioles (Audobon’s, Altimira, and Hooded) as well as Green Jays and Greater Kiskadees.

So, as we planned our trip last winter, I watched the listserve and saw steady sightings of the Brown Jay, a Mexican bird that rarely strays north these days.   We were delayed at Goose Island for several weeks with our dog’s operation but the reports continued.

We arrived at Falcon State Park Thursday night and Friday morning, loaded up and made the short drive down to Salenino — to learn that the jay had not been seen there for three days.  The story of my birding life but not the end of the world — the orioles were there and it was a great to once again see the wonderful variety of birds there.

A large birding group from Austin came in and I learned from their tour leader that a Brown Jay had been seen just upriver at an old RV park at Chapena.  They were going up to check it out but we decided, since the dog’s foot was bothering her, to head back and try the following day.  (I read that night that all 14 of the group had seen the Jay at the RV park.)

So, Saturday morning, we drove the 15 minutes down to the park by the river.  It is pretty rundown and sort-of third world looking with stray dogs here and there, hand-lettered signs, a modest entrance fee, and no Brown Jay.  We did have a nice outing down by the Rio Grande and went back to Falcon figuring this quest was over … until I heard from a birding friend that the Jay had returned to Salenino.

This morning, with modest expectations, we drove down to Salenino again and walking in, learned that the Brown Jay had come in about 8:30 but had left.  We sat around, watched Greater Kiskadees and Altimira Orioles along with all the other visitors when suddenly Cheryl said, “There he is, over by that feeder.”  Well, once it showed it was hard to miss — nearly the size of a crow and perched there, munching on an orange, to the accompaniment of camera shutters and birders oohing and aahing.  The Jay left after 10 minutes or so but likely was back later in the morning for some chicken leftovers put out for him.

We didn’t come to Falcon for this bird — we’ve been here three years in a row — however, it makes it nice to have a life bird so close (10 to 20 minutes away) and to finally get to see it.  Given the fact that Brown Jays, once fairly reliable here, have not been seen for a couple of years — and that this year there was only one steady one — make this feel like a solid lifer.

On a breezy Saturday morning, we took a birding walk in the shrubby woods here at Goose Island State Park starting off with a Red-shouldered Hawk perched in a tree right over our meeting spot. During the walk, We saw Yellow-rumped and Orange-crowned Warblers, seven or eight types of sparrows, four species of doves, and other winter birds. For me, the highlight was a young Rufous Hummingbird at one of the feeders.

In any case, it’s wonderful to see hummers in early February. I love their flying, their colors, and their feistiness.

Goose Island State Park in Rockport, Texas is a great birding spot – even in a drought year like the present one. Between shorebirds and woods birds, there’s a great diversity of species and some years (although not this one) a rarity or two. Here are some captures of a few of the interesting feathered friends I’ve encountered in the last week.

One of our favorite birding spots is the Gulf Coast region of Texas – we have visited there the last two winters. The long drought has not only parched crops and resulted in horrific wildfires, it as also threatened the winter habitat of the endangered Whooping Crane. It’s a classic western water rights fight with big oil on one side and environmentalists on the other.

From the species’ nadir of 16 adults in the early 1940s, the crane flock that annually migrates between Texas and Northwest Canada rebounded to a high of 270 in 2008. Then came the searing drought of last year, and the Guadalupe River that supplies vital freshwater flow to the cranes’ Aransas nesting grounds fell precipitously. With blue crabs and other marsh food in short supply because of high salinity levels, the crane population was weakened by malnutrition. Fifty-seven birds, nearly a quarter of the flock, died in 2008-09, 23 of them in Texas.

Due to Texas’ historic drought, the Guadalupe’s flow is down by more than 60 percent at Victoria, roughly 20 miles upstream from the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, the cranes’ winter range. In September the refuge’s marshes were three times saltier than normal. The birds migrate from Canada each year to spend the winter feeding on crabs and berries along the Texas coast. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service counted 571 wild and captive whooping cranes in July 2010. The Aransas group makes up half that number and is the world’s last migrating flock that can sustain itself in the wild. The coastline from just east of the cranes’ refuge to the Louisiana border bristles with the world’s largest concentration of petrochemical and refining complexes, many of which rely on river water.

The Aransas Project, a conservation group, is pointing an accusing legal finger at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, which grants permits for commercial usage of river water. The group filed a federal lawsuit earlier this month charging that the agency is violating the federal Endangered Species Act by allowing the diversion of too much water from the Guadalupe and San Antonio rivers that flow into the crane refuge. It seeks an injunction to stop TCEQ from approving water rights permits until a court oversees a habitat conservation plan for the cranes.

An association including owners of five petrochemical plants near the refuge, including Dow, DuPont (DD) and Lyondell Basell (LYB), several power plants, and a nearby steel mill, have sided with TCEQ to defend the allocation system, while some coastal towns and businesses that rely on healthy bays and estuaries support the environmentalists. A TCEQ spokesman disputed the charge, saying the effect of lowered water flows on the crane habitat “is far from certain.”

This is not a simple conflict between birds and big oil. There are residents upstream who need drinking water, and there are fishermen downstream whose livelihoods depend on healthy estuaries. Ecotourism provides an additional economic incentive to maintain the estuaries. The endangered status of the Whooping Cranes may be the legal tool used to save the marshes, but if the suit succeeds, they are unlikely to be the only beneficiaries of a change in water rights.

It’s obvious that the birds and their wetlands food chain depend on fresh water to survive. It would be a tragedy if the effort to save the whooping crane flock dried up along with the life-sustaining flow of Lone Star waterways.

Rockport, Texas has many great birding areas and one always cited is the Beach Park.  It’s  long sandy beach with lots of grassy picnic areas.  It also is the protected nesting site of hundreds of Black Skimmers — that graceful bird known for flying low over the water, lower mandible skimming for small fish and other goodies. 

Black Skimmers on the go

I’ve not been to the park since dogs are not allowed and every time I’m in Rockport, I have Penny with me.  Today, I brought my bike and left the dog in the truck and pedaled in for a little birding.  Hundreds of Laughing Gulls filled the air with their raucous calls as I passed by and up ahead, I saw a gaggle of Black Skimmers circling and landing.  There’s a nice observation area near the roped-off nesting site and I took a bunch of photos of the birds whirling by.  It was quite a spectacle.

They’ll start nesting next month and I’m sure it is quite a sight to see the chicks and their parents up close.  Perhaps next year we’ll stick around a little later.

Laughing Gulls

I saw a Long-Billed Curlew, a Pied-Bill Grebe, a Willet, a bunch of American Avocets, Herring/Laughing/Ringed-Billed Gulls, and a number of other birds during the short bike ride.  It’s a place I will get back to another time.

The Laughing Gulls, now in their plumage, just are characters.  Here’s a lineup from the walkway to the observation platform.  They laugh — and tend to make you chuckle as you see and hear them.