Goose Island State Park, Texas

In a previous blog, I had talked about "Big Tree," that is located on Goose Island State Park and I am going too do now is discuss other features of this Park.  From the information site of Texas Parks and Wildlife, The description of the Park is as follows: "Goose Island State Park is located at the southern tip of Lamar Peninsula amid the bays and estuaries of the Texas Gulf Coastal Bend. The mainland portion of the park is comprised of a live oak, red-bay woods which contain yaupon holly, American beautyberry, coral bean and wax myrtle. Also on the mainland is a portion of tallgrass prairie consisting of bushy bluestem and saltgrass. Wildlife observation and photography opportunities include white-tailed deer, raccoon, armadillo, fox, squirrel, cottontail rabbit, and over 300 varieties of birds. The endangered whooping crane feeds on berries and blue crabs occurring in the coastal wetlands around Goose Island State Park.
The island portion of the park is an oyster shell island consisting of a shell ridge and marshland. Plants on the shell ridge portion of the island include sea-ox-eye daisy, wolfberry, sea purslane, baccharis and seashore dropseed grass. The marsh at Goose Island includes smooth cordgrass, marsh-hay cordgrass, saltgrass, saltwort and glasswort. The bays around Goose Island are filled with seagrass beds and oyster reefs. Red drum, speckled trout and flounder are just a few of the fish that live in the bays around the island."  The island has an elevation of 20 feet, and that August, September and October are the wettest months.  We just happened to hit the area during a wet weekend in March.  Last year, this area was in a terrible drought, so the water was welcome.
Again, not a large number of different bird species.  We did find a colony of Black-Crown Night-Herons, which gave us an opportunity for some great pictures.  In order to photograph the birds we had to stand on a narrow spit of land, because on either side were deep holes filled with water.  Everyone took turns and we did not have any accidents.
Again, no sunset so, the day ended earlier than planned.

Turkey Vulture

Re-winged Blackbird - female

Tern Hovering looking for fish

Florida Part Four - Saturday Afternoon

Saturday afternoon we drove down to Venice Florida to visit the Venice Rookery. The rookery is a top destination for both birders and wildlife photographers because of the nesting birds that are present from January through April. The rookery is located on an island in a small lake and is in a few shorts blocks of busy stores and is also located amidst a densely populated area. The rookery is managed by Venice Area Audubon Society. The best time to photograph the birds is early in the morning or late in the afternoon. There used to be a large stand of trees behind the island on the far shore which gave a great background for morning photography, but, that stand of trees has been cut down. However, while I was there I noticed that they were starting to replant trees on the backside where the other trees were removed. My feeling is that the trees that were removed were invasive species and they are going to replant the area with native species. Since we were there in the afternoon the area where the trees were cut down gave us better and cleaner views of the island. Although we were at the latter part of the breeding season there was still a number of birds present. We were able to photograph Great Blue Heron, Great and Snowy Egrets, Double-crested Comerants, Anhingas, Black-crested Night-heron and other species.

Great Blue Heron

 Anhinga chick

anhinga drying its wings

great blue heron chicks

great blue heron and chick

great egret

Osprey being harassed by a red-winged blackbird

"feed me"  anhinga family

anhinga with fish

cattle egret

great blue heron

Black-crowned Night-heron

snowy egret

grade egret

anhinga

great blue herons

If you enjoyed the photographs and are visiting the West Coast of Florida from Tampa downward I would recommend a visit to the Venice Rookery.
Directions to the VAAS Rookery
From the North, take US 41 (Tamiami Trail) south 1/2 mile past Rt. 776. Turn right onto Annex Road at the Anderson Sarasota County Administration/Court House building. Follow Annex Road to rookery on right.
From the South, take US 41 (Tamiami Trail) north past Jacaranda Blvd. (Wal-Mart on south corner) Make left turn onto Annex Road just past FL State Police Barracks. Follow Annex Road to rookery on right.