Birding Along the Central Texas Coast on the Great Texas Wildlife Trails

So how was your outing? my friend Cindy asked.

A disappointment. And a delight.

Two friends and I made plans months ago to learn to be sea turtle rescuers. Sea turtle

rescuers patrol the beaches for Kemp’s Ridley turtles during April to July along the

seashore on the Texas Gulf Coast. To become a certified member of the Sea Turtle

Patrol, a person has to do a six-hour online training about sea turtles, a two-hour online

training about driving the UTV, and then a four-hour in-person training where you

practice driving. We all did the online trainings and we reserved an Airbnb and

drove four hours to Corpus Christi for the training, only to learn that high tides had

covered most of the beach; we wouldn’t be able to do the training this weekend.

So that’s the disappointment and it was a great disappointment.

But we pivoted and decided to use the weekend to go to sites along the

Great Texas Wildlife Trails and report back to Texas Parks and Wildlifevia iNaturalist and eBird. That way the weekend wouldn’t

be a total loss, we thought.

And, oh my, the weekend was far from being a total loss… the weekend

turned out to be a delight.

We visited six sites along the GTWT, along the Central Texas Coast (CTC). Here are my thoughts about these spots.

Matagorda County Birding and Nature Center.

CTC-005A.

We stopped here on the way to Padre Island, before we knew that the training was canceled.

We walked the trail through some wooded areas and to the water, and there were

birds everywhere. A flock of a couple hundred sparrows were in the trees, and

lots of water birds.

But here was the highlight…

Yes, a Bald Eagle.

Packery Channel.

CTC-062.

We scoped out where our training was to take place (or not take place, as it turns out)

on Padre Island National Seashore the next day, and then we headed for Packery

Channel. There were a lot of water birds wading in the shallow water and

I snapped photos of some of them.

A Great Blue Heron.

A Great Egret.

Padre Island National Seashore. 

CTC-063.

We got the bad news that it was too dangerous to do our driving practice. We were

crushed—we’d driven 250 miles and we’d spent a lot of money—but we decided

to use our stay to do work on the Great Texas Wildlife Trails for our naturalist group

instead. Since we were already at Padre Island, and it’s one of the sites on the trails,

we spent time looking for wildlife there. Again, we saw a lot of birds I’d seen before

along the Upper Texas Coast—Herring Gulls, American White Pelicans and

Brown Pelicans, Black-bellied Plovers, Royal Terns, Sanderlings—but I also

saw some new-to-me birds…

A Red-breasted Merganser.

A Long-billed Curlew.

A Greater Yellowlegs.

My favorite find was this one…

A Vermillion Flycatcher.

Packery Channel Park. 

CTC-064.

To cap off the day, we visited Packery Channel Park, walking distance from the

townhouse where we were staying, in the evening.

The trees along the path were filled with Yellow-rumped Warblers. 

When we left to head back to the townhouse, we were delighted to see an Osprey at the exit.

It was on our last day that we found ourselves in Bird Heaven. A couple of birders

at Padre Island National Seashore recommended driving down Mustang Island

to a site there. So we did. All I can say is, Oh my.

Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center.

CTC-057.

If you are a birder, this is a place you must go, I think. Enormous flocks of birds,

and a lovely wooden boardwalk to get up close to all of them.

Here are the new-to-me birds I saw. 

Blue-winged Teals.

Green-winged Teals.

Northern Shovelers.

We were overwhelmed with birds, counting for eBird, taking photos for iNaturalist,

and then I looked up, and what did I see flying overhead?

Whooping Cranes!

Two adults Whooping Cranes and a young one walked around the grasslands eating.

I watched in wonder. I never thought I’d get a chance to see Whooping Cranes.

They were magnificent.

We walked the trail and saw lots and lots of other new-to-me birds.

Pied-billed Grebes.

Black-necked Stilts.

Long-billed Dowitchers.

American Avocets.

We met a birder who recommended we stop at one more site, so we couldn’t resist.

Goose Island State Park.

CTC-048.

There’s a big live oak tree at Goose Island State Park, the birder told us, and near it

is a spot that a colony of Whooping Cranes live during the winter.

Off we went, and sure enough, he was right. The Big Tree (official name) was truly big, and nearby was a little colony of Whooping Cranes. 

I was able to get a nice close up of a Whooping Crane here.

A Whooping Crane flew up as we drove off, giving us a lovely send off.

A Whooping Crane flew up as we drove off, giving us a lovely send off.

For more photos, link up at Wordless Wednesday, Comedy Plus, Messymimi's Meanderings, Keith's Ramblings, Create With Joy, Wild Bird Wednesday, and My Corner of the World.