I forgot to feature this bird in yesterdays post – Roseate Spoonbill. Quite the Bobby dazzler

Today was a transition day, moving south from the Anahuac / High Island area down towards the Rio Grande, stopping overnight at Port Aransas. We birded up until lunchtime, then took the 200 mile, scenically challenging, drive to our hotel. First stop this morning was the coastal reserve at Bolivar Flats. Plenty of shore birds but nothing new over yesterday, except the rather surprising addition of Glaucous Gull. There’d been an Iceland Gull reported at this location over the past week but a birder, staying in the same hotel as us at Winnie, found the Glaucous whilst looking for the Iceland! It seems very odd to see this species, which I associate with Norfolk in mid-winter, straying as far south as the Gulf of Mexico. We caught the ferry to Galveston and checked out a couple of sites – one being Corp Woods which we visited on our last trip to Texas in 2009, the other being Lafitte’s Cove. We did add a couple of new species but generally it was pretty unexceptional.

Clapper Rail in the early morning sun – West Frenchtown Road, Bolivar Flats

Spotted Sandpiper, taken at the same location – like our own Common Sandpiper, only with spots!

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the trip so far, Glaucous Gull – found by a birder looking for the reported Iceland Gull – Bolivar Flats. Record shots only