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"Wild" Texas Natives
High Island
// High Island Wildlife Refuge -more photos / /
Located east of Houston, seventeen miles south of I-10, High Island is a bird lover's and photographer's delight. Spring brings Warblers and all sorts of shore birds to the rookery.
Year round, the rookery is used as a safe place to roost for the night. For a spectacular view, visit the rookery in the last hour before sunset. Thousands of birds will be flying in for the evening.
/ / Black Crowned Night Heron / / Cattle Egret / /
/ / Great White Egret / / Great White Egret Mating / /
/ / Great White Egret Babies / /
/ / Spoonbills / / Spoonbill babies / / Snowy Egrets / /
/ / Tricolor Heron / /
/ / White Morph Tricolor Heron / /
During mating season activity is at a premium at the rookery. You will be missing out if you just stop by and say, "Wow, look at all those birds!"
Take a camera with a good telephoto lens or a good pair of binoculars and focus on the individual birds. Snowy egrets are aggressive and often clash, feathers flying. Snowies are also know for "robbing" the nests of others for twigs and branches. But, once in a clash I witnessed, the poor female snowy was fighting hard to protect her nest from an aggressive White Egret thief. The male white Egret spent the day systematically stripping the poor snowy's nest of twigs and branches and taking them just feet away to add to his nest. At first, the snowy put up a huge defense of her nest and eggs. Finally, she relented and just watched the plunder. At the end of the day, her nest was much smaller, but her eggs were still intact and she had returned to the nest to continue incubating the eggs.
White egret chicks are very aggressive with one another. It is often painful to watch, but yet the parents often sit by totally indiffent. The paired adult White Egrets are very tender and loving with one another, but except for feeding the young, appear rather detached.
One particular White Egret parent appeared a superior hunter. He regurgitated his "catch" into the nest for the babies to feed. Baby one swallowed a small fish whole. Then, baby two appeared with a shrimp hanging from its mouth. They continued to gorge on crawfish, shrimp and fish until their little craws were so distorted they hardly resembled anything like a hatchling, small egret baby. Their necks were so distended and distorted their little heads appeared lost. It was a fascinating process to watch although it certainly made for some weird and unusable photography.
Its like watching people in an airport. At first glance, its just a mass of bodies coming and going. But, as you take the time to watch you see the business man eager to come home to his family and the children delighted to see their dad. You see families reunited. You see families torn apart. You see service men being sent to the front never knowing if they will return. You see service men coming home and returning to their grateful families. When you watch you see individuals, each with a story of their own. Watching the birds at the rookery during mating season is much the same. Each bird has a story to tell.
And, there are so many hundreds of birds, there are hundreds of stories going on all at the same time. Watch carefully and enjoy the beauty that nature has created.
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To Find out more about High Island and the Audubon Society:
http://www.texasbirding.net/location.htm#high-island
Related Sites:
http://members.tripod.com/~tbrc/statelst.htm
E-mail: Donna Smolik - d.smolik@tcu.edu or dswsrs@yahoo.com
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