Last winter Skip Cantrell found a Bar-tailed Godwit on the soccer practice fields in Portland just north of Corpus Christi. It was the second record for Texas. I didn't go up to see it as I had already seen the Oso Bay bird in Corpus back in 2014. Well he found it again for a second winter a few weeks ago and again I didn't worry about going to see it. However flight photos of the bird show the heavily marked underwing of the Siberian "bauri" subspecies. The bird from 2014 was the European 'lapponica" subspecies. Well with the way "alpha taxonomists" are raising subspecies to full specific status, I figured I'd better see this one in case it get's split and become a full species. Birders are now learning to stick subspecies in the "bank" and wait for the lifer tick in the future.
So I ran up there this morning and arrived at the Chatwork Park soccer fields only to meet a couple of birders as the were leaving without having seen the godwit. The story was they had ran into a birder who had earlier seen the bird but it had flow away to the south. Other birders and I searched the area but couldn't find anything but a few Long-billed Curlews and a Marbled Godwit. So I was off to Sunset Lake Park.
Sunset Lake Park is wetland area located at the mouth of Nueces Bay on the south side of Portland and is a couple of miles from the soccer fields. The Bar-tailed Godwit hung out a lot there last winter and was seen there yesterday afternoon. But when I arrived I had no idea where to look and the tide seemed to be high so there was little shoreline and few shore birds. I checked a few short side trails where a narrow strip of beach was visible. Nada. I parked at the gate at the start of the biking trail and walked it a bit, but it looked pretty hopless. I saw a Clapper Rail and a few other common things. I decided it was time for lunch and to plan a new strategy.
As I was sitting on the back of the Rav 4 with the rear door up and eating lunch, a couple of birders pulled up beside me. We talked about the godwit and the guy exclaimed "There's a godwit flying by!" Sure enough a godwit was flying past us and though it was in the sun, it appreared to be too gray for a Marbled Godwit. The birder was sure this was the Bar-tailed Godwit but I wasn't so sure. The bird seemed to fly over the row of short salt cedars to the beach beyond. So the birders ran off down the bike trail hoping for a view of the godwit. Problem was there was no way to get across the water to the salt cedar fringed beach and no way to see over the salt cedars. I decided to drive back north to the first little side trail to the beach and scope down the shoreline.
Looking down the beach through the scope, yup, there was a godwit way down there, maybe half a mile away. But the tide was going down and water was flowing across the sand to the bay so I was going to have to get wet. I waded through the shallow water and bushwacked around some salt cedars, accidentally kicking a prickly pear. Ouch! But soon I was on a good stretch of beach and getting closer to the godwit. Looking through the scope, the bird was back lit and I was getting no color. It appeared to be striped like a Bar-tailed and not barred like a Marbled. But I eventually got close enough to see it was actually the Bar-tailed Godwit. My photos were pretty bad with the sun behind the bird. So I decided to hide behind a salt cedar and see if the bird might wander in my dircection. Sure enough It started coming towards me in the company of a Dunlin. As the lighting angle changed my photos started to get better. Eventually it passed me and I got great light.
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