More offshore birding... :)

Not a new year bird, but too good not to share. I was offshore last week, traveling with Chevron to the deep-water Gulf of Mexico and their Tahiti spar production platform. I kept a keen eye peeled during the trip for any seabirds, but alas nothing noticeable passed the chopper on the way out... or the way back. However, while I was on the platform, I snapped this pic.

Stow away or tool pusher?

Yes. That is the tail of an American Redstart. He must have been taking a bit of break in his Trans-Gulf trip south. I asked the platform manager if they see a lot of migratory birds landing on the platform. He said not really, but occasionally one or two show up. So color me lucky to have been out there when this little guy decided to take a breather!

Chevron's Tahiti spar

We're eying a trip to the Valley in the coming weeks and plan on heading somewhere this weekend. If the Ruddy Ground-Dove hangs out north of San Antonio long enough, we'll likely try and get there.

Back from Cali...

Whew! What a trip! Holly and I returned from our northern California trek (mostly business, with a little pleasure thrown in for good measure) with over three dozen new year birds! The highlight of the journey was our very first pelagic trip. We set out with Debi Shearwater and her crew from Half Moon Bay on Sunday, 23 September and had a stellar day. First... we saw a ton of lifers! Second... no one got sick! That's a win-win in our book. While we dipped on any mega-rarities, like the recently seen Hawaiian Petrel, we had a wonderful assortment of seabirds. Now... I was fully aware that taking photos on a idling boat rolling in the swells of the Pacific Ocean would be challenging... but man - I have some new found respect for any one that takes his/her rig out on the ocean and gets good captures. I struggled... mightily. This fact, plus the fact that it was a gray day on the gray water looking for gray birds, and well... you get the idea. In the end, I only 'missed' three species seen on the trip. So while we saw Tufted Puffin, Red Pharalope and Ashy Storm-Petrel - no pic equals no tick on the year counter. Here are a few birds we DID get...

Black-footed Albatross

Sabine's Gull

South Polar Skua

We also had a chance to hit the beaches north of Santa Cruz for a few new shorebirds - Black Oystercatcher, Wandering Tattler, Black Turnstone, among others. A Bodega Bay pitstop also rewarded us with a few new birds. A late-week dash over to the Sacramento area netted us a Yellow-billed Magpie, Ring-necked Pheasant and a handful of others. In all, we return from the west coast with 37 new year birds, vaulting us past 400 for the year! Check out the Flickr stream for the complete haul. 
Now... we catch our breath and try to figure out if there is any good fall migrant traffic to look into in south-east Texas!

Pharaloped!

Hi ho everyone. We made a quick trip down to Quintana (near Freeport, TX) after a report of at least a pair of Red-necked Pharalopes carousing with a horde of Wilson's. We arrived at the spoils area just off the Intracoastal Waterway bridge and within about three minutes had our mark. It was not the best photo circumstances - early light, good distance and a ton of movement - but you can clearly see that one of these birds is not like the others!

Right in the middle... note the thick, dark eye stripe.

It was a good 'get' ahead of our West Coast trip next week. We also managed to snap pics of a Lesser Black-backed Gull, Merlin and a Boat-tailed Grackle... putting us ever closer to the 400 mark. We expect to reach that... and then some on the California trip. Stay tuned!

Booby irruption

Yes, yes... go ahead. Snicker at the headline. You know you want to... but there is no denying the fact that there has been an influx of Brown Booby sightings lately... East Texas, Arkansas, Canyon Lake in central Texas and coastal Florida. Now, you can add Baytown, Texas, to the list. As a sat home debating whether or not to chase the female Booby spotted at Canyon Lake tomorrow a text came in confirming a sighting near the north landing of the Lynchburg ferry in Baytown. Seeing as that is only a hour away opposed to three, we took the initiative and raced east.

One of these things is not like the others.

We arrived on site in a little under an hour. Cloudy skies, failing light and distance were the enemies, but we managed to get a photo that clearly shows the target bird hanging out with a group of Cormorants. Several other birders were on hand... a few with scopes. We were able to get good looks at the bird, both perched and in flight. In all, a very cool experience and a lifer for both Holly and me. Not to mention... a real time (and gas) saver! Kudos to master spotter Stephan for sending out the alert.

Hot, but birdy

A quick weekend jaunt to the LRGV netted our year count six new birds, with the potential for more as I work out identities of a handful of shorebirds. Our main target species for this trip included Groove-billed Ani, Gray Hawk, Green Parakeet and Botteri's Sparrow. We were able to get photos of the Ani and Hawk, but dipped on the others. The Green Parakeet was particularly frustrating, because we saw a small flock, but could not get a picture. 

Groovy!

East of Raymondville, we tried for the Botteri's, but could not get a cooperative subject to peak out of the shrubbery. The roadside was teeming with birds, however... Orioles, Vireos, a few flycatchers and hawks. Several White-tailed Hawks (a new year bird, too) and Harris's Hawks were around. We also got a pic of a Bronzed Cowbird here.

We stopped in Port Aransas to see if the Birding Center would graces us with a Lesser Bittern. It did. Several, in fact. Including one little guy that we tracked in flight from across the water and ended up landing on the boardwalk about eight feet from us! He quickly skittered into the reeds on the other side, but did a little fishing first giving us good looks at his 'clutch and grab' technique.

Good form!

Our next notable trip comes in late September when we head to San Francisco and try again for a Pacific pelagic. You might remember the weather cancelled our January trip out of Dana Point. Hopefully our Half Moon Bay excursion does not suffer the same fate.