John and Mary Kormendy: Birding Trip to Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge and High Island (April 2017)

We were there too early (April 8 - 10), so High Island was very quiet. As a result, we spent most of our time at Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge, mostly looking for rails (we saw 3 King rails there) and along the Bolivar Peninsula and Flats.

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Black-bellied whistling duck (Anahuac NWR)

Greater (Attwater) prairie chicken - a male, FAR away, photographed VERY badly only between displays. His orange display patch is visible but not inflated. Guides at the NWR estimate that there are only about 42 birds left in the wild - they count only males and multiply by 2, so this is probably a slight underestimate. But they released about 200 captive-reared birds last year, most of which did not survive the rain storms that flooded out the nesting season. For this reason, we decided that these birds are definitely not countable in our life lists. But we were glad to see them.

Pied-billed grebe (Anahuac NWR)

Brown pelican on nest (between Boy Scout Woods and the ocean)

American bittern (Anahuac NWR)

Least bittern (Anahuac NWR)

King rail (Anahuac NWR) Mary got her life bird at Attwater Prairie Chicken NWR the day before we saw this bird.

Wilson's plover (Bolivar Flats)

Semipalmated plover (Bolivar Flats)

Piping plover (Bolivar Flats)

Black-necked stilt (Rollover Island on the Bolivar Peninsula)

Willet (Bolivar Peninsula)

Marbled godwit in winter plumage (Rollover Island on the Bolivar Peninsula)

Ruddy turnstone in pretty good breeding plumage (Rollover Island on the Bolivar Peninsula)

Laughing gull (Rollover Island on the Bolivar Peninsula) We spent a lot of time looking for Franklin's gull, and briefly thought we has a small chance with a few of the birds, but this one clearly had extensive black wing tips, and we never saw Franklin's gull in 3 days of searching.

We got our life bird Franklin's gull in 2019.

Least terns and a Semipalmated plover (Rollover Island on the Bolivar Peninsula)

Gull-billed terns - note the long wings and much shorter tail (Rollover Island on the Bolivar Peninsula)

Royal terns (Rollover Island on the Bolivar Peninsula)

Marsh wren (Bolivar flats - in adjacent salt grass)

Seaside sparrow (Bolivar flats - in adjacent salt grass)

Brewer's blackbird (Attwater Prairie Chicken NWR)

Birds from the USA and Canada:   our house,   Hornsby Bend and greater Austin,   Texas,   California,   Hawaii,   Canada,

Neotropic birds from Central America and the Caribbean:   Honduras,   Costa Rica,   Panama,   Trinidad and Tobago

Neotropic birds from South America:   Ecuador,   Ecuador 2017,   Brazil.

Western palearctic birds:   Europe: Germany, Finland, Norway,   Europe: United Kingdom,   Europe: Spain,   the Canary Islands,   Europe: Lesbos, Greece,   Israel

Eastern palearctic birds:   China

Birds from Africa:   The Gambia,   South Africa

Indo-Malayan birds from   India: North-west (Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand)   India: North-east (Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya)   India: Central (Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh)

Birds from   Australia,   New Zealand.

For our 2014 December trip to India, see this travelog.

For our 2016 May-June trip to India, see this travelog.

For our 2017 April trip to High Island, Texas, see this web site.

For our 2018 March trip to India, see this travelog.

For our 2018 May trip to China, see this travelog.

For our 2018 November trip to China, see this travelog.

For our 2019 April trip to High Island, Texas, see this web site.

For our 2019 July trip to China, see this web site.

For our 2021 April trip to High Island, Texas, see this web site.

For our 2021 December trip to Ecuador, see this web site.

For our 2022 January trip to Peru, see this web site.

For our 2022 July-August trip to Australia and Papua New Guinea, see this web site.

For our 2022 September trip to Bolivia, see this web site.

For our 2022 November-December pre-trip to Argentina (before our Antarctic cruise), see this web site.

For our 2022 November-December cruise to Antarctica, see this web site.

For our 2023 January birding in Chile, see this web site.

For our 2023 January-March cruise from Chile to Antarctica and around South America to Miami, FL, see this web site.

For our 2023 March-April birding in south Florida (after the Seabourn cruise), see this web site.