I got to participate in Kim Eckert’s “Minnesota Birding Week” trip to Texas. On February 16, I flew from Duluth to San Antonio. Our group assembled at the airport at mid-day (an hour ahead of schedule!), got the rental cars, and off we went toward Rockport! First Texas bird, from the car rental parking lot was (surprise surprise!) Great-tailed Grackle.

We stopped at Indian Point and Sunset Lake parks, and stayed at the EconoLodge Inn by the Bay, Fulton.(It was a Best Western when Russ and I stayed there two years ago.)

Day’s birds (new for year in bold with an *):

Northern Pintail
* Redhead
Common Loon
Double-crested Cormorant
Brown Pelican
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Tricolored Heron
Black-crowned Night-Heron
White Ibis
Roseate Spoonbill
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Red-tailed Hawk
American Kestrel
* Clapper Rail

Sandhill Crane
Black-bellied Plover

* Snowy Plover
Semipalmated Plover
Piping Plover
Killdeer
* American Oystercatcher
*Black-necked Stilt
American Avocet
Willet
Lesser Yellowlegs
* Long-billed Curlew
* Marbled Godwit
Ruddy Turnstone
Sanderling
Western Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
Dunlin
Short-billed Dowitcher (probable)
* Long-billed Dowitcher
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Caspian Tern
Forster’s Tern
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
* Inca Dove
Belted Kingfisher
Loggerhead Shrike
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Red-winged Blackbird
* Great-tailed Grackle
House Sparrow

Total: 53 species, 10 new for year. Year total: 199

It was a perfect day. Sunny, temperature in the 50s. The drought is taking a noticeable toll on numbers of birds.