Featherstone Quiltworks

I’ve always considered myself a quilter who happens to like to take bird photos.  And bug photos.  And flower photos.  And travel photos.  But when we have a holiday get-together with family, I’m horrible about taking people pictures.  I just forget.

Tuesday I made a visit to Paradise Pond and the Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center (two different spots, only about 1/2 mile apart).  I was so excited when I arrived at Paradise Pond because there were no other cars in the parking lot.  That rarely happens.  And when you have a number of people walking up and down the boardwalks, sometimes visiting with each other, you don’t see many birds up close.

I got to the end of the boardwalk and there’s a bench where you can sit, semi-shielded from the birds.  You could hear the loud brwawk of the Black-Capped Night Herons.  I could tell there was one really close, but I couldn’t see it.  I sat on the bench, and waited.  And waited.  It was the first time I felt like a real birder.

And I was rewarded!  A Night Heron flew down to a low branch, and stayed there for several minutes.

Black-Capped Night Heron

And a close-up shot of that red nocturnal eye (they hunt at night and rest in trees during the day):

Up Close

–Sue

When I was at the Birding Center Thursday, the Roseate Spoonbills took most of my attention.  A little sideshow, however, was the Dowitchers.  They had been congregating, intermixed with some Spoonbills, on the other side of the reeds and cattails from me. 

Suddenly, they rose up together like a swarm of Texas mosquitos:

How would you like to be the air-traffic controller for that mess?  Then they circled around the water on the far side of the cattails…

…before settling back in amongst the Roseate Spoonbills.  This cloud of birds was really quite a sight.  I’m heading over there again today, so who knows what I’ll see?  Every day is a new adventure.

–Sue

Port Aransas, TX, is a fun place to be this time of year.  There are all kinds of migratory birds passing through, and from day to day, you never know what you will see.

Last week, we went for a walk with friends through the newly developed “Charlie’s Pasture” area on the island.  From a viewing tower, we spotted what looked like a Great Blue Heron wading/fishing a distance away.  The only thing was, the nead and neck were kind of pinky colored.   I zoomed all the way out on my camera, hoping for the best and took a couple of pictures.  When I got it up on the computer monitor, I knew it wasn’t a blue heron — but what was it???

Okay, I know it’s a pretty bad picture, but it was enough to identify this critter.  It’s a Reddish Egret.  It’s so much fun to see something new, and I hope I get to see one again close up.

Today at the birding center, I saw some of the American Avocets in the water.  I usually see them on shore, so it was fun to see them swimming.

A single Roseate Spoonbill was hanging out on the same point where the alligator was a week ago or so.  There were many avocets, ducks of all kinds, dowitchers, black-necked stilts, and turtles on this little point also.

Today I stopped over at Paradise Pond and THAT’s where all the Great Blue Herons were hanging out.  

They weren’t wading in the water, but rather they were mostly in trees, with one deciding to fly over the pond, which was pretty exciting.  It’s hard to beat blue herons for for picture-taking.  The bird that circled overhead is the one that is picture up in the bare tree branches.  That was a rare treat; I’ve never seen one of them sit up there before.  Then he decided to get down lower into the brushy part of the tree, and kind of crashed and thrashed his way down through the branches.  For such a graceful looking bird, he moved through the tree like a gawky teenager! 

Wonder what I’ll see tomorrow?

–Sue