I saved the most difficult category for last – miscellaneous birds. Specifically flycatchers. I am challenged when it comes to identifying flycatchers. Thankfully, there was a local birding expert nearby when I saw the flycatchers, and she was able to identify them for me. You can see why it’s challenging to identify them…they almost look identical!
Here’s the many variety of flycatchers I saw at Port Aransas. And they are all lifers!!!
Alder Flycatcher
Acadian Flycatcher
Yellow-Bellied Flycatcher
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Least Flycatcher
While visiting there, I went out every morning before dawn. I saw some beautiful sights around the town. One morning I toured the marina and took a few pics.
Beautiful sailboats
Homes on the Port Aransas Marina
The beach at dawn is gorgeous. Very few people, calm winds, the sounds of the surf and birds.
Horace Caldwell Pier at sunrise
I found some sand sculptures one morning. They must have had a contest the day before that was sponsored by Crown Royal. I was pretty impressed with the sculptures, though I can’t figure out why the pig was the grand champion. Hmmmmmm…..
Willie Nelson
It’s always 5 o’clock somewhere
Lovely mermaid
Grand Champion Pig
While walking Charlie’s Pasture I did encounter a few butterflies. They were difficult to find as the wind blew pretty good almost my entire trip. I found other fun stuff too while hiking the boardwalks.
A gorgeous passion flower
I believe this is a White Peacock that survived a close call!
Funereal Duskywing
Ceraunus Blue
Green Anole shedding its skin. I loved to catch these lizards when I was a little kid living in Houston!
Common Buckeye
A very fresh Pipevine Swallowtail
One morning at Charlie’s Pasture I came across a coyote. Just beautiful!
Coyote
While visiting the Leonabelle Refuge I saw lots of Great-Tailed Grackles and a few other fun things.
Crab
The sightings of the day 🙂
Great-Tailed Grackle
Mullet – this fish was 2.5 feet long!
I had two birds I really wanted to see while visiting the Gulf Coast. The first was the Roseate Spoonbill, which I did see and posted about previously. The second bird was the Crested Caracara. I have looked for this bird for years. On this trip I finally saw it. Then like my blogging friend Aussiebirder who recently commented “it takes you forever to see that lifer bird, then it seems like once you see it, you see it everywhere!” I think I saw over 10 individuals while there this last trip.
Crested Caracara
Along with the Crested Caracara I saw these other two birds I scared off a dead coyote.
Turkey Vulture
Harris’s Hawk
One day we visited Aransas Wildlife Refuge. It took about 1.5 hours to get there, but was well worth the trip. That particular day was extremely windy. The beach would have been miserable. But with all the trees at the refuge, it was a beautiful day. The very first thing we saw were 3 alligators!!! 🙂 That was awesome!
Alligator
Alligators
We drove around this large refuge and came across some fun stuff. There was this 80-foot high catwalk. It was so fun to walk that climbing, winding cawalk. At the top the views of the coastline were amazing!
Scarlett loved running up the path
My mom waving from further down the path. Such fun!
Gorgeous view!
While hiking this catwalk, we spotted a huge butterfly. It landed very briefly for one photo.
Palamedes Swallowtail
And I got a beautiful shot of a dove.
White-Winged Dove
We had a picnic in a lovely spot. A deer greeted us as we drove up. This would be one of several deer we would see that day.
White-Tailed Deer
Me and Scarlett
Beautiful picnic area
I love the oak trees in Texas
I took mom and dad out to a nice dinner for Dad’s birthday. The restaurant was small and intimate and the food was delicious.
My dad (Joe) at his birthday dinner
But our favorite place to eat was Trout Street. We ate there twice on the patio enjoying the marina view. After dinner on one visit, mom and I toured the docks. I really considered buying this yacht that was for sale (NOT!). 🙂
Mom and Dad (Dorothy and Joe)
Dad looking very nautical in his blue and white striped shirt 🙂
Me enjoying a lovely dinner on the marina
My beautiful mother!
Tempting to buy….. LOL!
One day visiting the beach we drove past a Jeep Rally. I was really wishing I was in my Jeep. But sadly we were in my dad’s Ford pickup. I need to see about Jeep Rallies in New Mexico!
Jeep Rally at the Beach
Lots of great Jeeps were there
It was a wonderful trip to the Gulf Coast!!! I hope you enjoyed reading about my adventures there.
Hi Kelly, As usual, looks like an amazing trip you had and I’m guessing you’ve still got a few more pictures to share with us – you did get your Green Jay, right? Noticed on this one the little butterfly you call a Reakirt’s Blue is actually a Ceraunus Blue – we get lots of Reakirt’s around here but only rarely a Ceraunus. Reakirt’s has has a line of 5 strong black dots on the forewing, while Ceraunus only has the two strong black spots like in your picture. Joe
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Thanks Joe for the correction on the blue. I really struggled with that one. That makes it a new butterfly for me. Sadly that’s it for my coastal pics. Next post will be the drive home thru San Angelo and Bitter Lake. I never made it to Brownsville, just too far to drive in a short time. I was falling asleep with 3 more hours of driving ahead of me so I turned around and headed to San Antonio to get my folks. Too ambitious plans I guess. That Green Jay will have to wait.
What a fantastic trip you had! Did your parents go birding with you every day? I am sure your dad had an extra special birthday since you were there🎂🎂
My mother went once and really enjoyed it. And i enjoyed having her with me. But otherwise they are too elderly to keep up with me every day. We all 3 had a great time birding by car at the Aransas Wildlife Refuge.
Wonderful trip here with you, your parents and Scarlet, of course! Lots of wildlife and beautiful views – perfectly documented!
Thank you so much Tiny! 😊