South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center

 

Tricolored Heron

  One of the places we had to go was the South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center. This is a private property and cost us $14. It was well worth it. There is a boardwalk that goes over a marsh, beach, and alligator enclosures. There are plenty of wild birds here but the place is also home for rescued alligators. When people call because they have a gator in their pool or there is a problem gator, some of them end up at this facility to live out their lives. 

   It was chilly the day we went and didn't make it to the center until 11 AM. By this point the air was warmer than the water and some gators came out to sun themselves. We did make a quick stop on the way to see the Aplomado Falcon. The falcon was distant but a Loggerhead Shrike perched on a fence post next to the car. This pitstop took a half hour and gave Mother Earth time to warm up. 

   At the center, you will probably see a domestic Mallard and a Muscovy Duck before you walk into the building. Just outside the back door is an owl enclosure and a deck. Just beyond the deck the boardwalk of three quarters of a mile begins. 

  Immediately, we had birds. Right in front of us were three Roseate Spoonbills, a large flock of Black Bellied Whistling Ducks, a feeding Common Galinule, herons, egrets, and many other ducks. It was good I took a few photos of the Spoonbills because they flew off in ten minutes. It was tough to walk away from this one spot but I also wanted to see what else was in store.

   Fifty feet down, Blue Winged Teal, Coots, and Northern Pintails were feet from the boardwalk. I took a ton of photos of the Pintails. Both Night Crowned Herons were perched in the trees a on the other side of the water (twenty feet from us) and a Green Heron would fish from the bottom most branches of the trees. Egrets and Great Blue Herons were fishing and doing fairly well. 

   

Yellow Crowned Night Heron

   The boardwalk leads out to a huge sandflat on the gulf. Hundreds of Redhead ducks were sunning themselves. The Spoonbills flew off to this area. There were many shorebirds but without my scope I didn't put any effort into figuring them out.  

   The boardwalk forms a loop but most of the good birds were back at the beginning so we backtracked and looked at them again. A Belted Kingfisher and a grumpy Tricolored Heron added to the mix. The Tricolored was close enough where I could get head and neck shots to fill my photo.

   The light was perfect and I ended up with photo upgrades of five species I had previously seen (separate post). This place was just awesome.  

Black Bellied Whistling Ducks