Texas Nature: Laughing Gulls

Showing posts with label Laughing Gulls. Show all posts

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Parking Lot Birds

When I think about going out to photograph nature, I am usually thinking about going down to the coast, a local marsh, or perhaps a wooded nature trail. I sometimes forget that even though we are surrounded by all the trappings of civilization, nature is all around us. One of the things I notice everyday is the birds. Many birds like the ones in this blog have adapted well to city life. The bird that probably comes to mind most often is the Rock Pigeon (Columba livia). Around here the pigeons seem to be a bit more shy that the ones you see hanging around park benches of larger cities.

Rock Pigeon

Even though I live about 20 miles from the coast I still see quite a few seagulls. You can find them hanging around on just about any day, but they seem to be most plentiful on windy overcast days. Some days I arrive at work early with some stale bread to feed the grackles that are plentiful, and there will be no gulls in site. But as soon as I throw out some bread, I will be surrounded by dozens of gulls. Ring-billed Gulls are usually the most common, along with a few Laughing Gulls.

Laughing Gulls

seagulls, laughing gull, ring-billed gull, birds

Ring-billed Gulls and one Laughing Gull

Last but not least the ubiquitous Great-tailed Grackle. A year round resident of Texas, it is often seen around parking lots, lined-up on power lines, and filling trees.

Two male Great-tailed Grackles in the foreground.

A group of female Great-tailed Grackles

Filling the trees.

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Pleasure Island Part 4

The fourth part of my series on Pleasure Island takes us to the North Levee. So far this area has been the least productive in my trips to Pleasure Island. Although it has not been as good as the other areas, it still provides plenty of opportunities to view and photograph nature. I suspect that part of the reason for it being less productive is that the levee road is surrounded by water on both sides with very little land to attract wildlife or grow plants. On the southeast side is Sabine Lake, where the road is protected by a rock barrier. You will see various shore birds walking on the rocks or floating on the lake.

View of Sabine Lake along north levee.

Willets along the north levee of Pleasure Island

Great Blue Heron

Little Blue Heron

The northwest side of the levee road is also bounded by water. There are narrow channels on either end of the road with a much wider area of water in the middle section. Unlike the lake side, the is a strip of land the can support a variety of plant life, including trees and shrub. In addition to shore and water birds this area should attract a variety other birds and wildlife that use the plants for food and shelter. Also this area should be of interest to those of us interested in wildflowers. I hope to have some photos of the wildflowers of this area in future post. For those interested in Texas wildflowers you can view some of my photos on my other blog and website at http://wildflowersoftexas.blogspot.com/ and http://www.wildflowersoftexas.com/

One of the channels on the northwest side of the levee road.

Large body of water in the middle section of the levee road.

Northwest side of levee road.

Great Egret standing in the road.

Great Egret

Red-breasted Merganser

Laughing Gulls

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Pleasure Island Part 1

Pleasure Island is an 18.5 mile long man-made island on the Texas coast. It was constructed by the U. S. Corps of Engineers, using deposits that were dredged during the construction of the Port Arthur Canal, and the Sabine Neches Intracoastal Waterway. Port Arthur Canal was completed in 1899, and the Sabine Neches Intracoastal Waterway in 1908. The island is connected to Port Arthur, Texas by the Martin Luther King Jr. Bridge and to Louisiana by the Sabine Causeway. According to Pleasure Island Website , there are about 14,000 acres of which only about 2,200 acres are usable. This leaves about 11,800 acres of natural area.

There are several areas of interest for naturalist that I will cover in future post. The North and South Levees, the south end of the island around the causeway , and the shoreline on the channel side.

Sabine Causeway Bridge between Pleasure Island and Louisiana

The above photo shows Causeway bridge and fishing pier on the south end of the island. Birds can usually be found around the pilings, boat ramp and the pier. The pier is part of Walter Umphrey State Park.

Here are a few photos I took last week in this area.