Fearless Marsh Birds at Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge, Texas
This past weekend I led field trips for the second biennial Gay Birders of North America meeting.
Based in Beaumont, Texas, we had about 45 people divided among four vans for three days of all-out birding.
I helped lead the trips to Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge, where I’ve never seen Least Bitterns and other secretive marsh birds so well. The auto tour loop takes you past heavily managed marshes and ditches of open water, and it seems that the birds have become used to the slow traffic that stops to ogle at them. This is a Common Gallinule, a pending split from the Eurasian Common Moorhen.
Least Bitterns were everywhere. This shot was actually with my iPhone through my Zeiss DiaScope (all those I took with my camera turned out poorly, having focused on the background).
One of the favorite birds of the trip was seen by everyone looking down below this small bridge…
…a totally fearless Sora that fed both days we were there fully out in the open.
Here it is digiscoped.