I Don't Think We're in Aransas Anymore .....

Younger Son and I were leaving Starbucks-South and headed for school, Friday morning, when we spotted a trio of seagulls in the dirt lot between McCalisters's Deli and Tractor Supply Company ..... not a bird one sees much here, in this part of West Texas.

Did the natural thing, and e-mailed the natural historian, Burr Williams at Sibley Nature Center, about the sighting ..... Burr responded promptly - naturally - with the following .....

"This time of year we do get some wandering gulls every year... most are Ring-billed Gulls from the Texas Gulf Coast, but we have also seen Bonaparte's gulls from the west coast, Sabine's gulls (that nest on the Great Plains)... and we have records of a few more species over 50 years of observation. At most of the reservoirs in the region (Balmorhea, Red Bluff, Spence, and so on...) you can usually find gulls all winter... along with white pelicans, various species of geese, loons, grebes and other water birds you don't associate with 'dry' west Texas."

Turns out, what Younger Son and I spotted were Ring-Billed Gulls.