Whistling Duck Day

Monday, April 27

Monday stormed off and on. In the am we ate a leisurely breakfast and then went to Boy Scout Woods, where we saw our first Black-and-White Warbler in the trees in the swamp above. Then we hiked back trails to the marsh platform where Deb photographed a pair of Cattle Egrets that were intently hunting alongside the marsh grasses. One of them caught and ate a lizard. She also photographed another Green Anole, this one along the boardwalk. There was still nothing much going on in BSW, so we drove down the peninsula to Rollover Pass State Park again, and then to Tuna Road, where we saw Black-bellied Plovers, Dunlins, Dowitchers, more Laughing Gulls and Oystercatchers, and picked up a Belted Kingfisher and several groups of American Avocets. 

Deb photographing a Green Anole on Boy Scout Woods boardwalk

We were searching for Bolivar Flats Shorebird Sanctuary but got ourselves turned around, so drove Loop 108, the south side of which was supposed to be Horseshoe Marsh. We didn't find the marsh but did come across a church on stilts. Only angels and others who can fly may attend services. Actually now that I see the pic, it is probably not a church but someone’s elaborate house. All are on stilts along the peninsula. What do you think? See below.

Leaving the park we finally found the Houston Bolivar Flats Shorebird Sanctuary down Rettilion Road—the sign for it a distance off and not visible from Hwy 87, the main peninsula road. At the Sanctuary we saw more of the “usual suspects,” including more Black-necked Stilts, and a White-phase Reddish Egret.

White phase of reddish Egret, c Denise Ippolito

We drove 108 Loop and continued west to the end of the peninsula and Fort Travis County Park. Here we found both Black-bellied Whistling Ducks and Fulvous-bellied Whistling Ducks, as well as Long-billed and Short-billed Dowitchers, Willets, Blue-winged Teal, Black-bellied Plovers, Ruddy Turnstones, and others on the flooded mowed lawns of the park.

Fulvous-bellied Whistling Duck  and Black-bellied Whistling Duck (Internet)

We stopped at a grocery for supplies and found—to our surprise—a fresh, honey-roasted peanut butter machine. Remember Day 1 when we stopped at Whole Foods for same?

After this we drove down Bob’s Road and found a very friendly Clapper Rail who came nearly alongside the car at the end of the road. Also at the end of the road was an enormous, double-hulled barge triplet being pushed along by a four-story tugboat on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, a 1050-mile inland waterway running from Carrabelle, Florida to Brownsville, Texas. (I looked it up on the Internet and found that it was built in 1949.) There were several of the enormous barge/tugboat teams, making for interesting backgrounds to our “wildlife” photos.

Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (Internet)

Four-story tugboat pushing barges on Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (Internet)