A Morning Out With the Gulls and the Boys

Nov 23

A Sabines Gull found on the beach in Port Aransas near the Corpus Christi Ship Channel Jetties among a flock of other Gulls, Terns, and shorebirds

On the morning of November 22nd, me and the boys took off for a short birding trip before heading to a playground. We started at the JFK Wetlands — the stretch of Laguna Madre shoreline that runs along the JFK Causeway between Flour Bluff and Padre Island. It was a warm, humid morning with a light breeze and a ring of cumulus clouds threatening the kind of patchy rain you never really know how to plan for.

Bird-wise, we saw the usual suspects working the shoreline. There were more Great Egrets than Great Blue Herons, and not a single Osprey along this entire stretch, which honestly surprised me. I had kept my EF 400mm f/2.8L in the house overnight, so the moment I tried to shoot, the front element fogged up instantly — like taking a camera straight into a shower. Once everything finally equalized, I ended up getting some of my best shots of a Double-crested Cormorant swimming through glassy water.

Jonah narrated the whole thing, yelling “Bird! Bird! Bird!” every time something feathered flew by. Elias spotted a few species on his own too. Total numbers were pretty low overall. I was half-expecting a mix of plovers, but Black-bellied was the only one hanging around today.

After we wrapped things up at the wetlands, we headed to a playground on Padre Island. Normally that would’ve been the end of our morning, but while the boys were climbing around, the local RBA group — who had mostly been buzzing about the Red-footed Booby — dropped a quick note that a Sabine’s Gull had been found on the Port Aransas beach next to the ship channel.

Fifteen minutes later, we were rolling into Port A.

We pulled up to a crowd of familiar faces and scanned a sitting flock of maybe 300 mixed birds: Laughing, Ring-billed, and Herring Gulls, along with Forster’s and Royal Terns, a few other terns mixed in, and small shorebirds like Sanderlings and Ruddy Turnstones. And right in the middle of it all was the Sabine’s Gull — maybe the easiest rare bird of the year for me. I snapped one shot before I heard Jonah calling my name and knew it was going to be a one-minute wonder kind of rare bird experience for me.

On the ride back home along TX 361 I spied an Aplomado Falcon hanging on the power line and we make a quick stop so I could fire off a few shots from the closest I’ve been to a APFA.

A solid little morning of birding, playground time, and an unexpected lifer-level rarity mixed in for good measure.

An Aplomado Falcon sitting on a power line along Texas Hwy 361 on Mustang Island

SPECIES LIST

Lesser Scaup	11
Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon)	75
Black-necked Stilt	1
American Oystercatcher	2
Black-bellied Plover	4
Willet	11
Ruddy Turnstone	4
Sanderling	6
Dunlin	1
Laughing Gull	63
Ring-billed Gull	3
Double-crested Cormorant	7
White Ibis	2
Tricolored Heron	1
Great Egret	7
Great Blue Heron	2
American White Pelican	53
Brown Pelican	15
Great-tailed Grackle	15
Sabine's Gull	1
Aplomado Falcon	1