Yacht Basin Road

The Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail - Upper Texas Coast

UTC057:  Yacht Basin Rd

White ibis, snowy egrets, great egrets, and willets foraged along the roadside.

It was a wet, cold weekend - the perfect time to visit a site which didn't require me to leave the warm, dry comfort of my car.  Yacht Basin Road cuts from the rolling surf of Bolivar Peninsula to the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (GIWW), crossing a coastal marsh.  Birds can be easily viewed from both sides of the street.  There were no other vehicles on this day, so I was able to take my time creeping along and stopping to take photos through the driver's side window, which I kept rolled down except during the brief periods of rain.            

I looked up and spotted what I thought was an osprey perched on a power line.  It wasn't until I got home that I realized I captured something even better, a white-tailed kite.  I'm always excited to add a new bird to my life list.

According to the map, there are many roads that cut towards the GIWW worth checking out and mentions three in particular.  I found the killdeer along Tuna Drive on someone's yard.  (The bird was, not me.  Don't trespass in Texas!)  

The Roseate Spoonbills are my Pink Saturday post.  I found them beside Bob's Road.

Finally, I photographed the white-winged dove on the power lines above Crystal Beach Road.  It was here that two nutria jumped out of the ditch no farther than four feet from my car and made a dash for a nearby pool of water. I was not quick enough with the camera to get pictures.    

Date of visit:  February 2, 2014
Temp: 50 F
Conditions:  Overcast, windy, periods of rain.
Time:  Midday
Species identified(13):  Brown Pelican, Snowy Egret, Great Egret, White Ibis, Willet, Semipalmated Plover, White-tailed Kite, Killdeer, Roseate Spoonbill, Neotropic Cormorant, Tricolored Heron, Little Blue Heron, White-winged Dove