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This Thanksgiving week was spent as a family along the Texas Gulf Coast, on the Bolivar Peninsula to be more specific. It’s become a favorite spot (as you can see here, here, and here!) for not only the wide open semi-clean beaches but also for the variety of shorebirds.
These are a just a few faces representing the splendor of Bolivar Flats Shorebird Sanctuary and the 17th Street Jetty (which runs along it). We did no counting for eBird not only because of the numbers (counts in the thousands are intimidating!) but because it’s difficult to juggle a list AND a camera AND a field lens AND a husband who is more intent upon soaking it all in.
So that’s what we did.
All photos are straight from the Canon/Tamron combo as I saw them through the viewfinder — untouched, uncropped — with the lens fully extended at 600mm zoom. Who has time for post-processing? (I don’t.)
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Snowy Egret
Reddish Egret
Ring-billed Gull
American Golden-plover
Nelson’s Sparrow (Lifer!)
Marbled Godwit
Black-necked Stilt
American White Pelican
Ruddy Turnstone
Long-billed Curlew
Snowy Plover
Recent Gets For the Annual Count:
- #246 Wilson’s Snipe, 11/20
- #247 Greater White-fronted Goose, Flyover 11/22
- #248 Snowy Plover, 11/24
- #249 Baird’s Sandpiper (Lifer!), 11/24
- #250 Nelson’s Sparrow (Lifer!), 11/25
- #251 Seaside Sparrow, 11/25
- #252 Western Sandpiper (Lifer!), 11/25
- #253 Ferruginous Hawk (Bird of the Year!), 11/26
DirtNKids Blog 
I saw a flock of maybe 20 birds that looked all together out of place for what I usually see. They were roughly grackle size but between grass green and lime green. Any ideas?
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It’s possible there is a feral flock of Monk Parakeet. They seem very out of place! They have established populations around Texas. Here’s one I shot a few weeks back.
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That looks like they did! They weren’t blending in terribly well with the morning hunters on the grass behind the gas station.
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Gorgeous! Happy Belated turkey day… 🙂
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You too, Courtney! Only ours is now a ‘Thankful Shorebird Day’ and we choose not to eat one.
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Great photos! Ruddy Turnstone is the only photo that we could take here in Europe
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Still, I’m always amazed at how similar many of our species are. (But we have nothing like a hoopoe.) Glad you enjoyed!
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Beautiful photos! Thanks for sharing. Bolivar is one of my favorites as well.
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Thank you, Ginny.
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