Oh how the Meadowlarks moved me…

Over the holidays, we went to visit family in Houston. And of course, whenever we can, we squeeze in some birding. This time, we ventured a little farther out of town to Galveston Island. And what a great venture this was! 

Eastern Meadowlark

(Please excuse the poor quality video - taken with my phone).

There were several areas we could check out, but based on a brochure my sister snagged for us, we decided mid-island would be our best bet to catch some new and different species. We set out early in the morning. As soon as pulled on to a back road that was known for good birding, we saw a gorgeous glow of yellow on some powerlines above. We immediately whipped around on the two way street and pulled over. To our delight, we saw an Eastern Meadowlark! This was a life bird for both of us.

Eastern Meadowlark

Eastern Meadowlark

Eastern Meadowlark

Savannah Sparrow

We watched a Meadowlark on the wire for a while as it continued to sing, and then it eventually swooped down into the field below and was out of sight. We then spotted a sparrow that we were hoping was a new one for us, but which we later determined was a Savannah Sparrow.

Eastern Meadowlark

Eastern Meadowlark

I had crossed the road to get a closer look at the sparrow, and to my surprise, the Meadowlark that had hopped down earlier hopped back up on a eye-level fencepost about 20 feet away. I started snapping away as the Meadowlark posed and sang with the glow of the sun illuminating his golden plumage. Being so close to this bird and hearing his song, I became so full of emotion that tears nearly came to my eyes. 

Eastern Meadowlark singing

Eastern Meadowlark singing

We eventually were able to pull ourselves away from the chorus of Meadowlarks, and we continued on this back road, but not before we got a look at a few Sandhill Cranes fly over us in the morning sky. 

Sandhill Cranes in flight

In a soggy patch of grass off the side of the road, we saw about half a dozen Wilson's Snipe frolicking about. This was the closest we've been to these Snipes, and definitely the most we had seen at once. I took a couple of photos from the car. But as I tried to ease out of the car to see if I could get closer look, the skittish snipes flew off. 

Wilson's Snipe

Also, in one of the bodies of water along the road, we noticed a group of ducks. Here, we were able to spot our first Gadwall! We weren't even at the park in Galveston where we were headed, but we were already having a great birding trip. Stay tuned for the continuation of our birding adventure on the Texas side of the Gulf Coast.

Gadwall