Great birding day in Houston, TX (1 Viewer)

White Oak Bayou runs through the middle of the city and runs under a few freeways. There's a lone Cypress tree that grows up out of the middle of the bayou. You can see it when driving along I-10, and I usually notice cormorants perched in it. I decided to have a closer look today. Counted 9 neotropics with 2 females. I also saw my first ever Pied-Billed Grebe - I was thrilled. Also, a Muscovy hen with 5 ducklings. A thought I had was that they'd be easy pray for the cormorants, knock on wood. Also, I saw dozens of adorable Barn Swallows darting out from their nests underneath the I-10 bridge. I love the way the fly. Off topic, I also happened to see one of these.

Then, I headed up to the Spring Creek Greenway in the extreme northen end of Harris County and saw my first ever Tufted Titmouse. I also saw two crows in the creek who appeared to have learned to dig for and open and eat mussels!?! Also saw a couple really nice female Northern Cardinals and heard a loud owl call.

Good birding day.

I recommend "Finding Birds on the Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail". It has many upper coast and Houston area birding locations, along with which birds you can expect at each.

"The Birds of Houston, Galveston, and Upper Texas Coast", by Weeks, Eubanks, and Behrstock is a great reference for seasonality and distribution of birds in our area.

Also, "The ABA Guide to the Texas Coast" lists many regional birding spots. It's by Weeks and Cooksey and published by the American Birding Association.

Also, eBird can show you where to find birds you might be interested in seeing, plus where they've been spotted.

Best of luck. Perhaps we'll meet out in the field sometime.

Steve Gross
President, Texas Ornithological Society
Houston, TX

Thanks so much for the tip, Steve.