Herons and egrets are some of Eric's favorite birds, and for many years, he and I have both been eager to see two species in particular that are not at all common in California: Reddish Egret and Roseate Spoonbill.
Happily, the Gulf Coast of Texas is an excellent place to find both of these species (and many more), so it was with great excitement that we made our way out to South Padre Island, to spend the day birding the boardwalks and mudflats along the Laguna Madre.
In case you missed it, check out the birds that we saw in the woodlands along the Rio Grande, and out on the coastal prairie on our April birding trip to South Texas!
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| White Ibis, Roseate Spoonbill and Snowy Egret, living life along the edges of the Laguna Madre |
Tucked amongst the dune buggy rental shops, tacky tourist traps and high-rises that thickly cover most of the southern end of South Padre Island, the aptly-named South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center is a hidden gem for birders. While the Center offers tourists close-up looks at captive alligators, birders visit the center for its excellent birding opportunities: Landscaped gardens attract migrating songbirds during spring migration, and extensive boardwalks meander over saltmarshes, through mangroves and out onto the shallow waters of the Laguna Madre itself where the birds are plentiful!
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The magic of the Gulf Coast. How many species can you spot?
Left to right: White Ibis, Great Blue Heron, Tricolored Heron (3 pictured), Snowy Egret, Roseate Spoonbill, Black-necked Stilt (2 pictured), Double-crested Cormorant (barely in the frame) and a Mottled Duck flying over! |
At high tide, the boardwalk sits comfortably above the shallow waters of the Laguna, where Black Skimmers and terns swoop and dive. When the tide is out, exposed mudflats beneath the boardwalk draw wading birds out of the mangroves to hunt for invertebrate prey in the rich substrate. At both low and high tide, birding along the boardwalk is a rewarding experience!
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| The end of the boardwalk at the South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center |
However, just next door to the $10-per-person Nature Center and its boardwalk, is the free-to-park South Padre Island Convention Center, with its own landscaped grounds and boardwalk, running parallel to the Nature Center's boardwalk, through the same marsh and mangrove habitat to its terminus, also out over the Laguna. Yes, the boardwalk at the Nature Center is a little longer, and we certainly found paying the fee to be worth it, but when we returned to the Island the following evening, our experience on the free boardwalk was just as magical. (So now you know the secret!)
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| The South Padre Island Convention Center boardwalk on the left; the Birding and Nature Center boardwalk on the right. |
There aren't many birds in North America that are truly pink. Like, puffs of cotton candy on stilts kind of pink. Roseate Spoonbills are certainly one of our most unique looking birds, with ballerina-pink plumage, bald yellow-and-green faces, and flat, spoon-shaped bills. And I just love them! Still images are lovely, of course, but watching these birds feeding in the shallows, flying past over the water at eye level, and preening while perched in the mangroves was such a delight! I had been eager to see this species for years, so to be able to spend a couple of hours enjoying their antics along the edges of the sunny Laguna Madre was quite special.
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| Small flock of Roseate Spoonbills along the Laguna Madre |
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| Roseate Spoonbills in flight |
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| Preening Roseate Spoonbill |
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| Roseate Spoonbills in the mangroves, with a Snowy Egret below |
Another fantastic bird of the Gulf Coast I had been eager to see for a long time is the Reddish Egret. So-named for its shaggy reddish head and neck feathers, the Reddish Egret also has a less-common white morph, which exhibits pure white plumage. Both color morphs show a distinctly bi-colored bill, pink at its base and black at the tip. While their appearance alone is interesting, it is the behavior of the Reddish Egret that makes it so entertaining to watch. The foraging style of the Reddish Egret can only be described as frenetic. Running around the shallows on long, gangly legs, with wings partially raised or outstretched, Reddish Egrets dart to and froe, stirring up small fish and lunging at their prey with spear-like bills.
Check out this YouTube video to see the crazy hunting behavior of the Reddish Egret for yourself!
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| Hunting Reddish Egret |
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| White morph Reddish Egret |
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| Reddish Egret |
Quite the familiar face around wetlands across North America, the
Great Blue Heron is no less regal and beautiful for its common status! This bird sauntered by while I was admiring the spoonbills, and I couldn't resist this beautifully lit shot. Just look at the gorgeous colors and delicate breeding plumage coming in on this bird!
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| Great Blue Heron |
Our visit to South Padre Island during the first week of April coincided with the very beginning of spring migration. As the first land that migrating birds come to after an arduous flight across the Gulf of Mexico from the Yucatan Peninsula, this barrier island is a critical stopover site for many birds making their way north.
While we were a little ahead of the big influx of migrants, we did come across a few, including this American Golden-Plover. These incredible little shorebirds spend the winter months in Brazil and Argentina and the summer breeding season on arctic tundra, flying somewhere around 20,000 miles each year between the two destinations. As this species can live for more than ten years, the distance one bird flies in its lifetime may be close to the equivalent of flying from the earth to the moon!
During the spring migration, American Golden-Plovers tend to migrate north through the middle of the North American continent; come fall, they move south along the east coast and fly back across the Atlantic to return to the southern hemisphere. To see this individual, newly-arrived from South America and fueling up on mudflat invertebrates before continuing its journey northward, was a special treat.
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| American Golden-Plover |
Another plover of the Gulf Coast, the
Wilson's Plover, was also out foraging along the South Padre Island beaches. Similar in appearance to the more widespread Semipalmated Plover, the Wilson's Plover's thick, heavy bill makes it distinct.
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| Wilson's Plover. Tiny bird, big beach. |
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| Wilson's Plover |
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| Wilson's Plover |
Black Skimmers and no fewer than four species of terns were present on the beaches and mudflats of South Padre Island as well, putting on quite the show as they swooped, skimmed and dove over the shallow water at the end of the boardwalk and just off the beach. Tiny Least Terns are significantly smaller than any other species, and have bright yellow bills; Royal Terns sport mid-size orange bills and shaggy crests, and were by far the most numerous; Sandwich Terns are slightly smaller than Royals, with yellow-tipped black bills; and Caspian Terns, with their thick red bills, are the largest of the four, and are in fact the largest species of tern in the world! And all the terns are wonderfully vocal birds!
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| Least Terns |
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| Mostly Royal Terns, with a couple of smaller Sandwich Terns mixed in |
The hunting strategy employed by Black Skimmers is unlike that of any other North American bird. Flying low over the water on incredibly long, thin wings, skimmers dip their laterally-compressed lower mandible into the water, using it to slice through the water like a knife. The lower mandible (or bill) is longer than the upper by about a third, and is highly sensitive. When the bill comes in contact with a fish as it slices through the water, the bill snaps shut, so capturing the prey.
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| Black Skimmers, skimming |
To watch a flock of these amazing birds circling around and around the shallow inlet where we sat, returning again and again to skim across the surface of the water, one after another, was absolutely incredible!
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| Black Skimmer |
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| Black Skimmer |
And of course, no trip to the coast - any coast - is complete without its complement of gulls. I especially enjoy seeing Laughing Gulls every time I visit their range on the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts, as their call never fails to make me laugh!
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| Flock of Laughing Gulls |
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| Laughing Gull |
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