Birds in Texas, USA — Itamar Engelsman Photography

Tail end of the spring migration around San Antonio and Austin

This time I caught the tail end of the bird migration around this area and visited amongst others Brackenridge Park, the botanical gardens of San Antonio, Crescent Nature Park, the Lomar Bird Sanctuary in Uvalde, Mitchell Lake Audubon Center and around Austin the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center, the Commons Ford Ranch Park, the McKinney Falk State Park and the Hornsby Bend Bird Observatory. There were many birds I saw for the first time and I believe I took some interesting photos of the birds in their environment.

Murmuration near Shoveler Pond in the Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge

A murmuration is a huge group of starlings that twist, turn, swoop and swirl across the sky in beautiful shape-shifting clouds, usually before dusk. Scientists believe it gives them protection in numbers from predators as they can’t singhle out one bird as prey. It is not yet known how each bird knows which way to turn without bumping into the others. I had the privilege to watch a murmuration of thousands of birds that formed like a curtain of birds. It was an amazing view and the images here do not do justice to what it looked like in reality.

Shoveler Pond in the Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge, Smith Oaks Sanctuary and Bolivar Peninsula

Back in Texas I visited the above mentioned areas, the SMith Oaks Sanctuary I visited before in the spring time. The Bolivar Peninsula was supposed to be full with birds but during my visit there were very few around. I still found some interesting species and again some birds I never photographed before.

Whooping cranes and more, Rockport, Port Aransas, Texas

I visited this place specially to see and photograph the whooping cranes. There are only around 800 alive in the wild. In the summer they live in Canada and in the winter they migrate to the Gulf of Mexico. They chose their mate for life during the 4th year of their life and each year return to exactly the same territory, usually with one or two chicks. There are also photos of pelicans and several other birds (unfortunately the weather did not cooperate and it was mostly either foggy or grey sky).

Young Whooping Crane (note the transmitter on it's leg)

Whooping Crane shaking the crab to break off it's leg to eat it

Whooping Crane kills the crab with it's beak

Whooping Crane, no legs left, ready to swallow the body of the crab

Smith Oaks Sanctuary, Houston, Texas

I visited this sanctuary specially to photograph the roseate spoonbill which is a beautiful bird. I was pleasantly surprised how approachable the birds were due to the water separating them from the viewers and the few people present at the time. I also was lucky to visit at a time the birds had young chicks in their nests and in particular the heron has got two chicks just born as well as an egg in it’s nest. In the bottom part of this section I have put most of the roseate spoonbill images.