Texas and Yellowstone National Park - Corpus Christi Area 14th December (Day 5)

We were up at 05:40 and had breakfast in the hotel. We were collected by Jon McIntyre of McIntyre Birding Tours at 07:30 and headed to the north of the city generally following Highway 35. Our first stop was at an area of wet grassland and scrub at Tejas Gas Road to the north-west of Lamar here we were looking for Sedge Wren and LeConte’s Sparrow and while the former showed fairly quickly we failed with the sparrow. Other birds here included numerous Savanna Sparrow, Grasshopper Sparrow and Lincoln’s Sparrow. My eBird checklist for this site is here.

Grasshopper Sparrow - Tejas Gas Road, Corpus Christi Area

Grasshopper Sparrow - Tejas Gas Road, Corpus Christi Area

Grasshopper Sparrow - Tejas Gas Road, Corpus Christi Area

Sedge Wren - Tejas Gas Road, Corpus Christi Area

Our next stop was at the Big Tree area of Goose Island State Park for one of my main targets of the trip, rounding a corner we were amazed to see eight stately Whooping Crane in a field adjacent to the road with 25 Sandhill Crane. We watched these stunning birds for around 30 minutes at close range and noted that only one bird was ringed and seemingly carrying a satellite tag with solar-panel and, the other birds were unmarked and evidently wild born. Also in this area were Brown Pelican, American White Pelican, American Coot, Black-bellied Whistling-duck, Lesser Yellowlegs and Spotted Sandpiper. The temperature by now had soared into the mid-20's centigrade and there was a fair heat haze evident. My eBird checklist for this area can be viewed here.

Black-bellied Whistling-duck and American Coot - Goose Island State Park, Corpus Christi Area

Black-bellied Whistling-duck - Goose Island State Park, Corpus Christi Area

American Coot - Goose Island State Park, Corpus Christi Area

Whooping Crane - Goose Island State Park, Corpus Christi Area

Whooping Crane and Sandhill Crane - Goose Island State Park, Corpus Christi Area

Whooping Crane - Goose Island State Park, Corpus Christi Area

Whooping Crane - Goose Island State Park, Corpus Christi Area

Whooping Crane and Great Blue Heron (heat haze evident in this image) - Goose Island State Park, Corpus Christi Area

Whooping Crane attacking Great Blue Heron - Goose Island State Park, Corpus Christi Area

Sandhill Crane - Goose Island State Park, Corpus Christi Area

Sandhill Crane - Goose Island State Park, Corpus Christi Area

Sandhill Crane - Goose Island State Park, Corpus Christi Area

Great Blue Heron - Goose Island State Park, Corpus Christi Area

Lesser Yellowlegs - Goose Island State Park, Corpus Christi Area

American White Pelican - Goose Island State Park, Corpus Christi Area

American White Pelican - Goose Island State Park, Corpus Christi Area

We continued northwards along Highway 35 and turned eastwards into an area of seemingly endless fields used for cotton production. Here we were seeking Sprague’s Pipit which winters in the grass strips bordering the tracks bisecting the fields. We came across a Burrowing Owl, Merlin and numerous American Kestrel and Red-tailed Hawk but no pipit, however, a little later on our return journey we revisited this area and recorded a single Sprague’s Pipit which we flushed and had rather poor views of. My eBird checklists for the area can be viewed here and here.

Burrowing Owl - Off Highway 35, Corpus Christi Area

Burrowing Owl - Off Highway 35, Corpus Christi Area

Our next stop was at the small village of Tivoli (eBird checklist here) where we soon found a large flock of around 60 Boat-tailed Grackle. Continuing onwards, we drove the Guadalupe River Road which passed through scrub and then into reedbeds, this was quite a birdy track and we spent sometime here seeing Couch’s Kingbird, Sedge Wren, numerous Myrtle Warbler, Orange-crowned Warbler, Killdeer, Eastern Meadowlark, Cooper’s Hawk, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Cave Swallow, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Swamp Sparrow and Field Sparrow. A heard only King Rail was a little frustrating as it would have been a tick but the bird was in dense reeds and we could not see it. Tobias's sharp eyes picked out a basking American Alligator in the reeds. My eBird checklist for the area can be viewed here.

Boat-tailed Grackle - Tivoli Village, Corpus Christi Area

Killdeer - Guadalupe River Road, Corpus Christi Area

Couch's Kingbird - Guadalupe River Road, Corpus Christi Area

Couch's Kingbird - Guadalupe River Road, Corpus Christi Area

American Alligator - Guadalupe River Road, Corpus Christi Area

We then headed to the Linda S Castro Nature Sanctuary at Fulton where the highlights were Black-crested Titmouse, Pine Warbler, Ladder-backed Woodpecker, Blue-winged Teal, Mottled Duck, Neotropical Cormorant and Least Grebe (eBird checklist here).

Black-crested Titmouse - Linda S Castro Nature Sanctuary, Corpus Christi Area

Ladder-backed Woodpecker - Linda S Castro Nature Sanctuary, Corpus Christi Area

Least Grebe - Linda S Castro Nature Sanctuary, Corpus Christi Area

Yellow-rumped Warbler - Linda S Castro Nature Sanctuary, Corpus Christi Area

Lincoln's Sparrow - Linda S Castro Nature Sanctuary, Corpus Christi Area

We then headed back towards Corpus Christi first stopping at Sunset Lake, a saline lagoon where the highlight was three Piping Plover, we also saw a good range of other wetland birds including Semipalmated Plover, Least Sandpiper, Snowy Plover, American Avocet, American Oystercatcher, Willet, Black Skimmer and Forster’s Tern as well as Great Kiskadee and Loggerhead Shrike. My eBird checklist can be viewed here.

Black Skimmer, Laughing Gull, Ring-billed Gull and American Herring Gull 

- Sunset Lake, Corpus Christi Area

Piping Plover - Sunset Lake, Corpus Christi Area

American Avocet - Sunset Lake, Corpus Christi Area

Loggerhead Shrike - Sunset Lake, Corpus Christi Area

Our final stop of the day was at the slightly dodgy feeling Blucher Park in Corpus Christi which is located close to a car park area where there were numerous down and outs and the park was clearly used as a sleeping area by some. Still, here were recorded Bewick’s Wren, a vagrant Clay-cloured Robin, Long-billed Thrasher, Grey Catbird and Pyrrhuloxia. My eBird checklist can be viewed here.

Long-billed Thrasher - Blucher Park, Corpus Christi

We spent the rest of the early evening in the pool at our hotel where I recorded Peregrine, Caspian Tern and Royal Tern. My eBird checklist can be viewed here.

Links to Other Days of the Trip (Click to View)

10th December (Day 1) – Fly London Heathrow to Dallas (15:45 - 20:10).

11th December (Day 2) – Trinity River Audobon Centre AM.

12th & 13th December (Day 3-4) - Work conference with no birding.

14th December (Day 5) - Birding Corpus Christi area.

15th December (Day 6) - Birding Corpus Christi area.

16th December (Day 7) - Fly Corpus Christi to Bozeman.

17th December  (Day 8)- Travel east through Lamma Valley in Yellowstone National Park.

18th December  (Day 9)- Travel west through Lamma Valley in Yellowstone National Park.

19th December (Day 10) - Non-birding day.

20th December (Day 11) - International Flight.