by Greg Whittaker, Animal Husbandry Manager at Moody Gardens
Excellent weather – walked around Aquarium Pyramid and retention ditch to Colonel Paddlewheeler dock. Then walked the path around Palm Beach and to the Lake Madeline channel. We went back past the Learning Place and ended at the hotel near the pool.
By my count we saw 33 species listed here in taxonomic order (not the order we saw them):
Mottled Duck, Blue-winged Teal, Common Loon, Brown Pelican, Neotropic Cormorant, Double-crested Cormorant, Snowy Egret, Tricolored Heron, Yellow-crowned Night Heron, Peregrine Falcon, Black-bellied Plover, Killdeer, Black-necked Stilt, Solitary Sandpiper, Greater Yellowlegs, Willet, Ruddy Turnstone, Western Sandpiper, Least Sandpiper, Baird’s Sandpiper, Dunlin, Laughing Gull, Forster’s Tern, Rock Pigeon, Eurasian Collared Dove, White-winged Dove, Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, Barn Swallow, Northern Mockingbird, European Starling, Scarlet Tanager, Great-tailed Grackle and House Sparrow.
Birding 201 is next Saturday, April 20 and there is a limit to the number of people we can take. We will leave Moody Gardens in a van and spend about 2-3 hours out in the field. Please respond and let me know if you are interested in going so we can reserve a seat. To reserve a spot, please call 409-683-4101 no later than Wednesday, April 17.
Get out and see the birds this week, there are lots of them here on the island and lots of other birders to help you identify things. I just tallied what I’ve seen since Thursday when Featherfest started and have 103 species.