Galveston State Park to Port Lavaca, Texas

   The sea breezes from the Gulf warmed things up appreciably. We still bundled against the wind, but the weather is really much more pleasant. There is a huge observation tower inside Galveston State Park. We walked to the ocean, then installed ourselves in this tower to watch the action below. We saw a Loggerhead Shrike perched in a thorny bush.

   Berry stopped in another parking lot and we feasted on a long line of shorebirds dozing on the beach. There were several Long Billed Dowitchers plodding around in the marsh. We always enjoy seeing the Long Billed Curlew with it's very long, deeply curved beak. We compared the handsome, colorful Royal Terns with the tiny Forster's Tern and the gigantic Caspian Tern. Great fun.

Sandhill Crane

   Our theater of operations in the afternoon moved to Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge. Here we got the Roseate Spoonbill (Platalea ajaja), an amazing bird with a spoon shaped bill, a pair of Sandhill Cranes (Grus canadensis) (we had seen them in Nebraska), and Lincoln's Sparrow (Melospiza lincolnii), a life bird for us.

Roseate Spoonbill

• Golden Plover
  
• Piping Plover
  
• Snowy Plover
  
• Willett
  
• Sanderling
  
• Brown Pelican
  
• Broad Winged Hawk
  
• Osprey
  
• Long Billed Dowitcher
  
• Loggerhead Shrike
  
• American White
  
• Great Blue Heron
  
• Northern Mockingbird
  
• Great Egret
  
• White Tailed Kite
  
• American Kestrel
  
• Belted Kingfisher
  
• Reddish Egret
  
• Long Billed Curlew
  
• Little Blue Heron
  
• Herring Gull
  
• Royal Tern
  
• Forster's Tern
  
• Caspian Tern
  
• Double Crested Cormorant
  
• Laughing Gull
  
• Red Breasted Merganser
  
• Sandhill Crane
  
• Roseate Spoonbill
  
• Ring Necked Ducks
  
• Rock Dove
  
• Northern Harrier
  
• Turkey Vulture
  
• Anhinga
  
• Common Grackle
  
• Ground Dove
  
• Western Meadowlark
  
• Pied Billed Grebe
  
• Ring Necked Duck
  
• Red Bellied Woodpecker
  
• Lincoln's Sparrow
  
• Red Tail Hawk
  
• Ruddy Turnstone
  
• Killdeer
  
• Baird's Sandpiper
  
• White Ibis
  
• Green Wing Teal
  
• Hooded Merganser
  
• Northern Shoveler
  
• Crested Caracara
  

   You have to imagine what we are doing. We are dressed warmly, standing next to our car on a levee in a watery marsh, staring into our spotting scope and debating the identification and behavior of birds using a bird guide. The sign in the park indicated the presence of alligators, but it is late autumn/early winter and the alligators are hiding. We never saw one.

Lincoln's Sparrow

   Please note that we have added new birds to our Life List on the right. This has been a terrific vacation so far.

Robert

photo courtesy of tunderhill, mmacpherson, platurrett