Sunday morning I led a canoeing/kayaking trip especially to see a large rookery that occupies 10 islands. We paddled around and over blooming water lilies, around water lotus in bud, past alligators, common morehens and coots to see 1000's of cattle egrets, 10 roseate spoonbills, 10's of ahningas, 100's of little blue herons and snowy egrets 10's of great egrets, 100's of white ibis and 10's of black crowned night herons. The nests are often so close that one bird will steal nest material from another bird. Some already had fluffy babies - usually 2 or 3. The roseate spoonbills were in their full breeding plumage, an impossible mix of scarlet, pink, and yellow. The redwinged blackbirds and moor hens gave us the marsh sounds. The great tailed grackles were nesting everywhere as well. The day was just a series of "WOW's" and "LOOK AT THAT" and "I never knew that cattle egrets had reddish crests in breeding season" and "what red feet those ibis have". All this was on Sheldon Lake in Sheldon Lake State Park, in the Houston, City Limits. (Texas) There are also several rookery islands in the gulf near Galveston Island. Sometimes we tour past them - they are off limits during the breeding season. We see all of the wading birds plus pelicans, gulls, terns, and oyster catchers (the ones with the carrot bills) I have also used my canoe to do spring or Christmas bird counts. I love the ducks, grebes, and loons that are here for the winter. And the more I learn about the birds, the more I enjoy them. Marilyn Kircus *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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