Going to see sea birds
Si! I saw the sea bird I wanted to see.
Another Saturday another decision to make. It was raining of course, like it does every Saturday, so I needed to go somewhere where I could spend time car birding if the rain was too heavy for walking. Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge has a pretty good auto loop where one could see lots of ducks and other water birds but I have most of those already on my life list and my Brazoria county list so the wildlife refuge would be my backup plan if the rain got too intense. Northern Gannet is one of the only life birds in the area I need and there are a few other species I could pick up for Brazoria county with a little effort. Northern Gannet is a sea bird and the only pelagic bird that you could expect to see from land, others are possible but not very likely. I needed a place where I could get out in the gulf a little ways so I was off to the Freeport jetties. You could use a scope from the beach but with the wind ripping out of the east and rain setting in it is very difficult to hold the scope still and keep it clean so the best option is to walk out on the jetty with the surf pounding on the rocks spraying salt water all over your optics. I got to the end of the jetty a half of a mile out in the gulf and saw many gulls, terns and other near shore birds but no gannets. After standing in the wet, windy, and cold marine salt spraying air for almost a half an hour I spotted in the distance a Northern Gannet for Texas Life Bird 415.
I spent quite a bit more time out there and ended up seeing 8 more gannets. On the way home I stopped by Brazoria NWR but saw no new county birds and since the conditions were not too good for photography I snapped a few quick pics for the blog and headed to Camp Mohawk Park where I picked up a few new county birds.
Another Saturday another decision to make. It was raining of course, like it does every Saturday, so I needed to go somewhere where I could spend time car birding if the rain was too heavy for walking. Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge has a pretty good auto loop where one could see lots of ducks and other water birds but I have most of those already on my life list and my Brazoria county list so the wildlife refuge would be my backup plan if the rain got too intense. Northern Gannet is one of the only life birds in the area I need and there are a few other species I could pick up for Brazoria county with a little effort. Northern Gannet is a sea bird and the only pelagic bird that you could expect to see from land, others are possible but not very likely. I needed a place where I could get out in the gulf a little ways so I was off to the Freeport jetties. You could use a scope from the beach but with the wind ripping out of the east and rain setting in it is very difficult to hold the scope still and keep it clean so the best option is to walk out on the jetty with the surf pounding on the rocks spraying salt water all over your optics. I got to the end of the jetty a half of a mile out in the gulf and saw many gulls, terns and other near shore birds but no gannets. After standing in the wet, windy, and cold marine salt spraying air for almost a half an hour I spotted in the distance a Northern Gannet for Texas Life Bird 415.
This Northern Pintail is not a new bird but a pretty decent pic considering the conditions. Such a handsome duck I figured it would look good on my blog.
I ended the day with 5 new birds for Brazoria county bringing that total to 185. And if I catch a good day during spring migration I should be able to make this another 200 bird county.
Comments
Post a Comment