Texas 17 - Day 8

The morning was spent checking out a few sites that had recently reported Wood Stork. No luck at any of them but the trip down Cannon Road was great. We saw around 50 soaring White Pelicans...

Awesome birds with a 9 foot wing span!!! Even they can look diminutive in a Texas sky. I managed a record shot of a superb White-tailed Kite through the windscreen before it flew...

We then headed for the Edinburg Scenic Wetlands for lunch and a relaxed afternoon. The main quarry here being...Kingfishers.

Belted is common but Green is only found in southern Texas and Arizona while Ringed is exclusive to Texas. I was hoping to see all three here. We made our way to the North pond overlook which gave us a great view over the water. I bumped into another birder who told me a bit about the reserve. Nice chap...spoke like James Stewart!

We then both heard a loud clicking noise. We looked up and there high n a dead tree was a Ringed Kingfisher!

We moved carefully along the track and obtained better views...

I thought Belted was big until I saw this (16in)! By far and away my best view of this species. It was present all afternoon giving great views perched...

Male

and in flight. There was a small pool behind the viewpoint and the chap said that the Green would almost certainly visit it at sometime. I decided to sit in the cover and wait. It paid off...

Female

Pleased how this came out as the bird was in deep shade. It was great to spend quality time with these two superb special species. I reckon I saw at least four Green.

As the afternoon wore on Snowy egrets began to appear in numbers to roost around the pond. One came over to see us...

I estimated c400 by the time we left...

However before they arrived we spotted a single bird which was obviously snagged in a tree...maybe fishing line. Not a nice sight. It was fighting to free itself but failing. It had probably been there since its last roost...at least!

Friends trying to help

We informed the staff and they went straight away to try and free it. Full marks. After around 20 minutes they succeeded in freeing the hapless bird...

Felt good.

Full roost...

A distant Osprey over a sports field was a nice finish...

Trip list 100

Stay tuned...