Hudsonian Godwits

 The Spring Migrant Crossing -- Waiting for Godwits

Gulf Coast of Texas - 23-29 April 2021

     Marbled Godwit pair

After the long covid winter and post-vax, it was time to get outside and hunt for beautiful migrant birds. I headed down to the coast of east Texas, which is the birdiest place in the USA in late April. My prime focus was shorebirds, mainly godwits, which I have been following the last few years. This was a good place to wait the arrival of Hudsonian Godwits crossing the Gulf of Mexico from their winter haunts in South  America and also encounter wintering/loafing Marbled Godwits, which are even more handsome than the Hudsonians.

     Whimbrel

The Hudsonian Godwits were passing thru in small numbers. We encountered them on 5 mornings, in parties of 1, 3, 5, 6, and 15+. The Marbled were found in ones and twos. The former liked flooded rice fields and the latter grassy expanses. They both use their recurved bill to probe the matrix for  mainly invertebrate goodies...

    Swainson's Hawk juvenile

The star of the show this week was, however, the Whimbrel, our most commonplace large wader. We encountered Whimbrels daily. Often 10-20 a day, sometimes 25 or more, and on our last day 105 Whimbrels foraged in a single rice field being flooded that morning. That is more Whimbrels that I had ever seen over a half-century of birding.

    Swainson's Hawk adult

The Gulf coast of Texas is all about abundance. On another early morning, we came upon 74 mostly young Swainson's Hawks all perched in a single large plowed field. Right on the ground!  

Another special bird of the fields that lie between Winnie, Texas, and Anahuac National Wildlife  Refuge, is a rarely seen migratory shorebird--the Buff-breasted Sandpiper. We saw them on five different days, in flocks from 8 to 81. Needless to say, the flock of 81 was a big surprise.

     Buff-breasted Sandpipers

These demure little birds are difficult to spot because they feed low to the ground and blend in

to the grassy (or plowed field) habitat, which is widespread. Early on, we spent a lot of time 

looking over fields with binoculars and telescope, finding Upland Sandpipers and Whimbrels, but no Buffies. Then we got the knack and saw them daily, which was gratifying.

     flock of Buff-breasted Sandpipers

Another of the grassland-loving shorebirds is the American Golden-Plover. This species was more elusive than the Buffies this spring. We encountered individuals in the plowed fields a couple of times, and also on the short grass of Fort Travis State Park down at the end of Bolivar Peninsula. That is a fun place to hunt for shorebirds.

     American Golden-Plover

At Fort Travis SP, which we visited twice, we counted 20+ Whimbrels, 25+ Black-bellied Plovers, 2 American Golden-Plovers, 20+ Ruddy Turnstones, 6 Marbled Godwits, 1 Long-billed Curlew, and several Pectoral Sandpipers. Most of these birds like to forage on short grass, though the turnstones were a bit of a surprise.

     Black-bellied Plover

For a mid-Atlantic birder, the Long-billed Curlew is always exciting to encounter. It is North                  America's largest shorebird, and its bill is the longest. At Fort Travis, this species can be quite                confiding, allowing close approach.

    Long-billed Curlew

Although my American Bird Conservancy-sponsored field project for the last few years has been to focus on shorebirds, especially godwits (a follow-on to my work on songbird spring migration), my hunt for shorebirds brings me in contact with lots of other gorgeous birds. Terns, for instance... Rollover Pass, about 8 miles south of High Island on the Bolivar Peninsula, is a great place to get up close and personal with terns, some of which were in the courtship stage, making things all the more interesting.

    Sandwich (Cabot's) Tern pair doing courtship feeding of a tiny silver fish. 

    A male Royal Tern stands atop of  a bowing female, preparing to mate, while another observes... Note Black Tern in back. 

    Reddish Egret

    

Rollover Pass is also a great spot to see a foraging Reddish Egret. These birds dance erratically              through the shallows in search of small fishes.

     Purple Gallinule

Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge is one of the birding hotspots in east Texas. It is best known for its marshland birds. There is a wildlife drive that gives ready access to many waterbird species.

    King Rail

    The King Rail prefers freshwater marshes and predominates at Anahuac NWR. 

     adult male Least Bittern

Least Bittern, North America's smallest heron, is one of the waterbirds birders hunt for at                  Anahuac NWR. This is perhaps the best place to see this handsome little waterbird that loves cattail marshes.

Another place to see waterbirds is at the heron rookery within Smith Oaks Sanctuary on High Island, about 10 miles east of Anahuac NWR. Houston Audubon Society constructed several artificial  islands in Clay Bottom Pond, and these predator-free sites quickly attracted various long-legged waders wanting a safe place to nest.  

     parent Great Egret preparing to feed hungry nestlings

     Tricolored Heron

    Roseate Spoonbill

On our last day of birding, strong southeasterly winds brought in a small group of Magnificent               Frigatebirds to Clay Bottom Pond--an unlikely spot to see this tropical seabird.

    female Magnificent Frigatebird

    

High Island is most famous for its migrant landbirds, that on certain spring afternoons, fill the                woodlands. The migrant songbirds drop into these wooded spots for a quick rest before continuing north into the interior. On the afternoon of Saturday 24 April, a mass arrival of orioles, tanagers, grosbeaks, vireos, warblers, and thrushes dropped into Smith Oaks. This was the time to be up on the newly-opened canopy walkway among the Live Oaks. Birds were everywhere, and the crowds of birders were enthralled. One group of birders reported seeing 10 Golden-winged Warblers from  their high perch. The birders stood in one shaded spot for two hours, riveted by the show. I counted  23 different species of warblers that day. A sampling of songbirds appear below....

      male Painted Bunting

      male Rose-breasted Grosbeak

      male Scarlet Tanager

      male Summer Tanager, in molt

     Red-eyed Vireo

      male Bay-breasted Warbler

      male Cerulean Warbler

      male Golden-winged Warbler

The final tally for the 6 days of birding was 180 species, but the pride of place was held by the                godwits, curlews, flocks of Buff-breasted Sandpipers, and aggregations of Swainson's Hawks. 

But one site, where we saw more than 200 American Avocets, seems to have been overlooked--that is Bolivar Flats. Any birder visiting the region in spring must make the pilgrimage to Bolivar Flats. That's where we saw our best gull--an Iceland, a bird of the arctic that seemed out of place on a Texas sandflat! There were also hundreds of dowitchers and a dozen other sandpiper species there. Also at Bolivar Flats we tallied six species of plovers: Killdeer, Semipalmated Plover, Snowy Plover,  Piping Plover, Wilson's Plover, and Black-bellied Plover--not a bad haul!  

      male Blue Grosbeak