The Swamp Blog
My first blog entry on Minds. I'm so excited. And of course there's the suspense of wondering if it will upload correctly. We'll find out.
Today I went to Armand Bayou Nature Center in Pasadena (southeast of Houston) to look for the Tropical Parulas recently reported there. This is a rare bird in the U.S., with a small beeding population in the Rio Grande Valley. But this is the Upper Texas Coast, and it's a very rare bird this far east. Originally a single male was observed and then a female was found in the same area. I heard they were still there this morning, so I made a fast drive down from Kingwood and hoofed it through the swampy woods to the area along the Martyn Trail where the birds were being seen.
Two other birders were there ahead of me. Bad news - they had been looking for two hours with no luck. After concluding that the bird was not where they were looking, I decided to expand the search area and took the trail deeper into the woods (wandering away from the place the bird is known to frequent is always a risky strategy). A Golden-crowned Kinglet was a nice find, and it turned out to be part of a small mixed species flock that included the female Tropical Parula! After a few brief looks I hurried back to tell the others, who in the meantime had found the male. It was foraging in a thicket next to the path. I had hoped to get photos, but the vegetation was too thick for a clear shot, and I had to content myself with some nice close views. This photo was taken by Andrew Scott, who saw the bird earlier in the day.
So everybody there got to see a Tropical Parula, and everybody left happy. I had to hurry back to pick up my kids, but on the way I stopped to take photos of turtles, 'cuz you can never have too many.