Estero Llano Grande State Park

I know... Another bird park. But we are in the best area for birding! And you never know what you'll see.

So Estero Llano is a great park. As you arrive, you are on a spacious deck over a very large pond that many ducks and shorebirds enjoy. You could just go there and not walk the trails and see plenty!

Northern Shoveler. Note the wide bill shaped like a shovel.

A beautiful pair of Northern Shovelers

Blue-winged Teal

Sora Rail

Notice the short upturned tail.

Line up by size.

Green-winged Teals

Ibis

All those birds above were seen in that pond. Then you just follow the well-marked trails and keep your eyes open as birds are everywhere.

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Vermillion Flycatcher seen from the back. Too bad I couldn't see his front
as they are gorgeous!

Glen captured him from a different angle letting see a bit of the red on his breast.

Couch's Kingbird

Louisiana Waterthrush? Not sure of this one.

There were boardwalks here and there.

Olive Sparrow

Short-tailed Hawk

Some of the trails were just beautiful

At one point, after having walked for miles, there was a trail that went straight up. Glen offered to go up and let me know if it was worth the effort for me to climb the hill.

He quickly signaled to me to come up and see. That trail led to the Estero Llano Grande river where many shorebirds could be seen and heard. It was fantastic to hear all the sounds coming from the Avocets. I had never seen these birds. How exciting!

There were also the Black-necked Stilts

American Avocet

From there it was a pretty easy walk to the alligator pond.

Yes there were some alligators which actually looked slightly different than the ones we had seen in Florida. These have very prominent "spikes" on their backs. Maybe it's like the plants in Texas which many are adorned by needles.

Look at the size of those spikes!

But the most exciting was to see three different species of Herons right there in front of us. So cool!

Black-crowned Night Heron

Photo credit Glen Harris

Great White Egret

Yellow-crowned Night Heron seen from the front

Yellow-crowned Night Heron seen from the back. Wow!
Photo credit Glen Harris

Then a little further, there was a small deck that was over the water and that is where we witnessed a Cormorant that had just caught a fish and was now perched in a tree. He repeatedly banged that fish on the tree trunk, I'm guessing to kill it, and after quite a while of manipulating and banging it, he finally swallowed it with great difficulty as the fish was quite large.

Cormorant swinging the fish and banging it on the tree.

Finally started eating it.

Glen on that deck over the alligator pond.

As we were leaving that area I noticed some people looking into the woods at the ground and pointing. Nosy as I am I went over and asked what they were looking at. The lady said: "There's a Pauraque there. Look, right there." Well, it took a while for me to spot it as it is so well camouflaged. These are nocturnal birds so they sleep during the day. It's surprising they chose to sleep right there by the trail. There were two of them. Maybe a pair?

Look closely. It's facing us.

This one is behind that branch. No one would ever spot them unless
 you were really looking for them. 

What a fruitful day! So many new species to add to my list and so many we had never seen before. We'll try to go back at least once before we leave.

Beautiful picture taken by Glen

Bye for now!

Dolphin Watch

Back in February, we signed up for a dolphin watch tour. The tour operator was located on South Padre Island just after the bridge.

On this very windy day, most operators were not sending boats out but ours were still in operation.

We got seats at the back on the second story deck. Great for picture taking but open to the elements. Needless to say that most sported a different hairstyle after a while!

And we're off!

The first part of the tour is an eco-tour where they drag a net on the bottom of the bay and then show us what they caught. We saw creatures we had never seen before like crabs that didn't look like crabs at all. We also got to see a puffer fish blow himself into a little round football when the handler held him in his hand. As they get bigger, their skin tightens on them which makes little spikes stand up which becomes uncomfortable for a fish trying to eat them so they'll get spitted out. Brilliant!

Bringing the net in.

Look at the blue eye!

All puffed up!

A starfish. If they lose a "leg" from being attacked, the leg regrows. Neat!

We then moved out of the bay to try to spot some dolphins. Some came quite close to the boat and we did see more at a distance but it's so hard to get a picture as they appear only briefly to then plunge back into the water. So my pictures are pityful.

A dolphin fin. That's all I've got!

It was interesting to see the shore from a different perspective. We discovered a few things.

This large zeppelin is actually a radar to watch over the border from Mexico.
It was too windy to fly it. It normally floats above tethered. 

A different view of the bridge.

South Padre Island.

Shrimp fishing boat.

Some gulls kept following the boat and they seem to just float for a while and then they would tilt their wings and let the wind sweep them away.

Beautiful shots of the gulls flying taken by Glen

After 3 hours at sea, we returned to shore.

Since we were on the island, we decided to go for a walk on the boardwalk by the convention center. This is open to the public and is free. It is right beside the bird center so we get to see many of the same birds but the bird center offers a much better view and longer walk.

Roseate Spoonbill resting

Black Skimmer. Their lower mandibule is longer than the top
and they catch fish by skimming the water with their beak open.

Northern Pintail looking cute.

Reddish Egret looking like a model on the runway.

A young Little Blue Heron not finished with the transistion of
colour from white (juvenile) to blue.

Black Skimmers

Lesser Yellowlegs

I always enjoy our time on the island. There is a different vibe there. I seem to relax.

On another visit to the island, we decided to go further than our usual beach stop and went right to the end of the road. There is so much sand there that the road has to be plowed regularly. We saw where you can actually drive on the beach (4 X 4 a must!). Some people even drive their travel trailer on there for a stay right by the ocean. It's a dream of mine but Glen is totally against it so I'm not going to push it. It would be my luck that we would get stuck and I would never hear the end of it!

Willet

Look at those sand banks!

That's our truck.

End of the road.

There is the zeppelin flying.