Thrush Day

Thursday, April 30

This day we jumped to all the birding hotspots but enjoyed few sightings of new species. At Boy Scout Woods we picked up a beautiful Wood Thrush and then on 1st Street, Deb also photographed both a Swainson’s Thrush and a Veery. After lunch at the motel we decided to head back to Anahuac’s Woodlot to see if Deb could pick up a few more warblers. There was nothing there, but at the south end of the tract we found a bird box that honeybees had taken over. Too bad we do not have beeaters in the U.S.

Wood Thrush, c Deb Hirt

Leaving Anauhac Nat’l Wildlife Preserve, we headed for Houston Audubon’s Anahuac Visitor’s Center, north near Interstate 10. The hand-drawn map we were following, given to us by the owner of the Gulfway Motel was impossible, even for the people we asked, including two sheriff’s deputies. The sheriffs after puzzling a bit finally set us straight, and we found not the Houston Audubon’s Anahuac Visitor’s Center but the Texas Chenier Plains Refuge Complex, which was new and beautiful with a trail and boardwalk that must have set back the Texas government a gadzillion $$. It was closed, but the boardwalk was open so we walked it into a bayou that was almost frightening in its eerie silence and high water. Though still in the trees, the boardwalk extended into huge Lake Anahuac, and I felt for a moment as though I was in Waterworld.

Part of the Turtle Bayou

We saw virtually no birds in the swamp, but did see some enormous Red-eared Sliders and two Water Moccasins, a large one curled on a log and a smaller one that paid it a visit. Most of the water was covered with a layer of duckweed thick enough for some small, pawed animal to walk upon and leave tracks.

The swamp, so thick with duckweed that a small animal left tracks on it; cell phone pic

Very large Red-Eared Sliders, c Deb Hirt

Water moccasins; not very good photos as I'd left my camera in the car, so took them with my cell phone and the shadow was wrong on the bigger one

By this time it was nearly 5 pm, so we asked directions of a cleaning woman who appeared, and then set off for the Corps of Engineers Egret Rookery near the Trinity River. Again the map had it wrong and we never found it. So we gave up and returned to High Island, stopping briefly at the Skillern Tract on the way. There was nothing of interest at the ST either. Pretty much a bird-empty day.