"Summer" Trip to Rockport/Fulton - New Birds

We have just returned from our first "summer" trip to Rockport/Fulton. OK, I know it's not yet summer, but it's close enough! The weather was less than wonderful and we did not see as many birds as we usually do in the winter -- but we were able to add a few new birds to the life-list and we did our usual seagull feedings which is a lot of fun!



On the way, we usually count how many hawks we see, but we only saw a few. The first two Caracara that we saw was a mating pair! That was exciting! We saw 8 Caracara on the way -- which is a lot. Unfortunately, I was only able to photograph one in a field, but it did not come out well.

We added several new birds to the "life list", most of which I was unable to photograph. We saw a Least Tern, either a Ladder Backed or Red Cockaded Woodpecker (I listed it as Red Cockaded, even though the maps suggest it was more likely the Ladder Backed), Yellow-billed Cuckoo and a Black Necked Stilt (below).





As I examined some other pictures I took of birds in this same field, I discovered that there were probably several Stilts there, and I had more pictures than the one above. Here is a stilt flying:

And we saw another creature that we hadn't seen before, though this one is not a bird. We visited Memorial Park in Rockport and saw this very interesting lizard. I haven't yet looked it up in the reptile books.



Here is a close-up of the lizard's head:



-- notice the striping under his chin? You can also see that his skin was very rough and scaly. When I first saw it, I was only catching glimpses as it ran up the tree, and I though perhaps it was a horny toad (which is actually a lizard) -- but once it settled on the branch, I saw I was mistaken.

More bird pictures and weather pictures coming soon!