The 21st Century Matriarch

The second day of the Whooping Crane Festival started early; we got on a bus to head to the King Ranch at 6 AM! The King Ranch Visitor Center was a little over an hour from Port Aransas (and we did not take the ferry). By the time we got there the sun was up.

We had a ‘rest stop’ at the visitor center…plenty of time to look around for birds. There were curve-billed thrashers on some prickly pear cactus.

A rufous hummingbird was not bothered by the sudden influx of people. It stayed in place long enough for everyone to get a good look.

Mockingbirds were around too….they are the state bird of Texas.

A golden-fronted woodpecker was spotted. It moved around a lot but there always seemed to be twigs between me and the bird!

Then we did most of our viewing from the bus for a bit since the ranch is so big…and the trip has a limited amount of time. I managed some OK pictures through the windows: a roadrunner and crested caracara….

Longhorn cattle.

We made a stop and saw a group of sandhill cranes in the distance.

Back on the bus…we had been seeing American kestrels all morning and I eventually managed to get an image of one through the bus window…good enough for id but focus not sharp enough.

A group of female wild turkeys moved away as our bus got closer. Later we would see a group of male turkeys.

Another raptor through the bus window…a red-shouldered hawk.

The bus stopped at a water impoundment…and we all got an excellent view of an American Bittern.

There was a feeding station for birds at the next stop. We got good looks at red-winged blackbirds and gold-fronted woodpeckers…

And green jays!

There was a least grebe in the water a little ways down the road.

A snowy egret had caught breakfast.

Green-winged teal, pyrrhuloxia, and American Coots were also enjoying the water.

Alligator!

A Great Egret took off as the alligator headed toward it.

In the distance….Cinnamon teal with blue winged teal and a black necked stilt.

A black-crowned night heron is often hard to see in heavy vegetation. I always feel lucky when I finally see it and luckier still to get a photograph.

And the male turkeys were the last birds we saw as we headed back to the visitor center.

My husband and I both enjoyed this field trip…saw a lot of birds that we didn’t see during any of other field trips. It was interesting to learn a little history of the King Ranch as well. We had enough time for a quick lunch before showing up for trip out on a boat in the afternoon.

Our second stop was the South Padre Island Convention Center. There are boardwalks on one side of the building for birds (and other wildlife) viewing. My best pictures there were: black-necked stilt,

A Tri-colored Heron,

2017 11 IMG_5963.jpg — An alligator that was still at first but then headed toward the shore…stalking

A Common Gallinule that was making its way close to the shore (fortunately it wandered further upslope…no drama),

And a Green heron.

We walked to an area where there was a small area of planted vegetation. The small birds there were too hard to photography in the vegetation, but there were quite a few monarchs roosting…a little rest before continuing their migration.

We continued around the convention center buildings. There was a Little Blue Heron on an abutment,

A pelican almost too far out in the water (I didn’t notice the grebe until I looked at the image on the larger screen of my computer),

A Great Egret (not the black legs and feet),

And a Reddish Egret.

At the front of the convention center, I took some pictures of the facades. These must hold up to coastal storms.

There were mud flats on the other side of the convention center….mostly drying since the tide was out. There were White Pelicans,

Brown Pelicans,

Black Skimmers (in the foreground), and

A strutting Tricolor Heron.

As we walked back to the bus, there were some White Ibis walking across the parking lot with us. The underside of the bill was different than I expected!