South Padre Island and Bay Cruise – Part 3
/The last part of the field trip was a cruise on the bay. The first ‘sight’ was a lighthouse with scaffolding around it as we neared the dock on our bus.
Then we were off and looking for Peregrine Falcons under the bridge. We spotted several but there was only one that was positioned for pictures.
There were mud flats with Laughing Gulls,
An Osprey surveying the scene, and
A Great Blue Heron walking awkwardly in the mud.
There was an island that provide roosting sites for Great Blue Herons (7 of them in the foreground) and Roseate Spoonbills (8-10 of them in the background).
This is the best picture I got of the Roseate Spoonbills as we cam around their side of the island.
Brown Pelicans, Double-crested Cormorants, and laughing gulls were groups on the sandy beach.
What birds to you see in these two pictures? So you see the Green-winged teals (2 males and a female), Black-Necked Stilt (2), Great Egret, Laughing gulls.
As we headed back to the dock, there were Double-Crested cormorants on pilings we were passing
And a Laughing Gull settled on the highest point of our boat.
There were so many Brown Pelicans. It’s thrilling that their numbers have recovered from the brink of extinction caused by pesticide pollution!
