A Black-tailed Godwit in Texas!

A Red-necked Phalarope was found this weekend in a shallow pond just outside of the Brazoria NWR. I went to see the phalarope and had a really difficult time photographing it. The light was terrible and I couldn’t get around it.

Red-necked Phalarope

A Hudsonian Godwit was also there, to the best of my knowledge, and I tried unsuccesfully to photograph it too.

Hudsonian Godwit?

Two days later, I found out that there was a first state record Black-tailed Godwit on the same pond. This is a bird that should be in Europe, Asia, or Africa instead of the Texas coast. Too late to go yesterday, so I went this morning. I got there in time to get good light and started taking pictures of what I thought was the bird. It flew off and I was nervous that I lost it until I was told that I had looked at the wrong bird. Looking at my pictures, it’s really hard to tell the difference until they fly away. The Black-tailed Godwit has white under wing covert feathers whereas the Hudsonian has dark feathers.

Black-tailed Godwit

Black-tailed Godwit

Black-tailed Godwit

Black-tailed Godwit

Hudsonian Godwit