Birding TX

Thu, January 12, 2012, 8:00 am
Port Aransas

Trip Report

This Snowy Owl was most cooperative.

Port Aransas, TX is an interesting birding area. It is located on the northern end of Mustang Island just north up the Gulf coast from Corpus Christi, TX. The town caters to anglers, beach goers, tourists, and it makes an effort to accommidate birders. The town has some quality birding location, and Port Aransas is expanding those locations with "Nature Preserve At Charlie's Pasture". They have in last couple years added trails, boardwalks, and observation decks to the Preserve. And they have plans to expand the Perserve even further.

On Wednesday, the 12th of January, Elyse, Tom, and I made a trip to Port Aransas. Our first stop was Charlie's Pasture. Now I have to admit this stop was very short! We got out of the car, and we were greeted with wind. The wind was blowing steady at 30 or so mph with gusts up into the 40's. Charlie's Pasture is an open marsh area, there is nothing to block the wind. We walked to the covered observation area next to the parking lot. Standing there at a slight angle against the wind, we made a tactical judgement to bird Charlie's Pasture another day. Now we did get a few birds, American Wigeon, Northern Pintail, American White Pelican, and a nice view of a Peregine Falcone zipping by with a tail wind.
Note in a furture report I will go into detail about wind in Southern Texas.

Our next stop was Paradise Pond. This location is one of my favorite birding spots in the area. It is a small, only about 2 1/2 acres, sheltered pond. Well at this time Paradise Pond is reduced to two man made drips. The present drought that s hurting Texas has took its revenge on Paradise Pond. Under normal conditions the pond would be full of freash water at this time of the year, and you would find ducks, grebes, egrets, and herons. But not now with the drought you find a few birds around the drips looking for a drink. We did get White-eyed Vireo, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, and Hermit Thrush to name a few.

The third stop of the day was more productive. The Birding Center is located next to Port Aransas's sewage treatment plant. Did you ever notice how many birding locations are next to tratment plants? Anyway back to the Birding Center. This location is always good for water birds. And this time was no exception. We had 10 different ducks species, including all three of the Teals. The Cinnamon Teal in its breeding plumage is one of my favorites. The Center has a boardwalk that extends out into the water. And the ducks along with the grebes and noisy coots are not affraid of people. They swim and forage next to, and under the boardwalk. We also found herons, egrets, cormorants, gulls, and terns. Also patrolling the thick cattail beds that surround the Center were Northern Hairrers. One note we were there during the middle part of the day. In the past we have made it a point to stop by the Center at sunset. At that time we were trated to dozens of squawking Black-crowned Herons raising out of the cattails going to feed.
Also the entrance to the Center is a short walk through a garden that is planted for wildlife. And we got the common Yellow-rumped and a nice Wilson's Warblers, plus a Orange-crowned Warbler hanging on for all it worth in the top of a wind swept shrub.

The last location of the day was the beach area. We drove 10 miles of the beach, and I did get two new life birds at the beach, Horned Lark and Savannah Sparrow. The Savannah Sparrow is the most common natural sparrow in this part of Texas. And yes the wind was still blowing. It was a good thing we were in Tom and Elyse's rental car, with blowing sand.

The next report will be about our day trip to the Rio Grande Valley. The Valley always proves to be an adventure.

Tom Glover