Texas Birding: Elusive Bar-tailed Godwit Expedition

South Texas is known for its rare bird species, which sometimes includes long-range migrants such as Bar-tailed Godwits and far off vagrants such as the Cattle Tyrant. We drove up from the Rio Grande Valley in early February to try to find these two species near Corpus Christi, but ended up with more of a chase than we expected.

Gear Links (As Amazon Associates we do earn from qualifying purchases)

Panasonic LUMIX FZ80 4K Digital Camera
Used for most bird videos) - check credits as we do source some photos/videos elsewhere which is noted in the description

Cayer FP2450 Fluid Head Tripod, 75 inches Aluminium Tripod
Derek's lighter tripod

Andoer Video Tripod Aluminum Alloy 67 Inch
Derek's heavier tripod

Nikon D5300
Derek's vlogging and macro camera

Rode VideoMicPro Compact Directional On-Camera Microphone
Derek's external microphone for Nikon D5300

Connect with us!

Thanks to Terry Sohl for allowing us to use his range maps

Bar-tailed Godwit in breeding plumage by Kristine Sowl, USFWS (Public Domain)
Bar-tailed Godwit in cover image by Becky Matsubara (CC by 2.0, edited)

All other photos and videos by Derek and Ryan Sallmann

#Birding #BirdWatching #BadgerlandBirding

[lbeth]

You were with my They are such passionate and talented birders...glad to see them pop up in your video ❤

[braydenpaulk]

My last minute lifer was a Great Gray Owl at Sax Zim Bog! I was with my family there all day and as we were about to leave I convinced them to drive down one last road. As we were driving along we saw something that looked like a stump on the side of the road, until it turned its head and we saw its big yellow eyes! It was stalking a black cat in the road and I got great views of it.

[SteveEvansFilms]

Brilliant video. I remember flying from the UK to Denmark, Europe for a Glaucous-winged Gull, which had been feeding at a small pool in a park for weeks. I spent all day there and nothing! On the way back to the airport I drove past the harbour a noticed a huge flock of gulls. Thankfully, I decided to stop and was rewarded with excellent views of the gull. Those last minute stops are always worth it. Keep up the great work both👍

[cathco]

Success! So exciting! I saw a Bar-tailed Godwit on June 18, 2023 at a location you guys visited back in the spring. It was at Edwin B. Forsythe Nat'l Wildlife Refuge in Oceanville, NJ on the 8 mile Wildlife Dr. loop. The bird hung in for a few days giving great looks to many birders. Congrats on the lifer!

[csfsangle]

The hope meter is awesome, I love how is change each interview

[Stukin_The_Pines]

So glad that your Hope Meter did not become a Nope Meter this time.
Really enjoy your videos. I watch them a second time, with the closed caption option.
Not because I need it, but because there often is humor in the way spoken words are
converted into print. For example this video mentions a species that no one will ever
see. The "long build curu". It goes right there on my list of never-to-be-seen birds,
along with the "wide iberio".

[Beryllahawk]

Flock of Godwits, a far more exciting band to hear about than Flock of Seagulls, haha!!
I'm really glad y'all managed to find it!!! Big hugs!!

[westhompson]

I had a very similar experience with this bird! I got to see it, the cattle tyrant, and flamingos in one day. Epic birding!

[bradabendroth]

I wasn’t particularly chasing anything but I stopped by a myre big island state park in southern Minnesota on the way down from
The Twin Cities to my parents house in Iowa many years ago. It was getting dark and I had walked a few trails and was about to leave until I saw one trail I didn’t go down. I was hesitant but I took it and discovered a brown pelican on a log in the water amongst many American white pelicans. A last minute state lifer and it was still there the next morning for other birders to see.

[NathanWebb-ch]

Congratulations on your lifer bar-tailed godwit, Ryan!

[rgdodson]

That was a fun video! Nothing like getting a lifer at the last minute.

[jimmosley]

Had a last minute lifer at BDANWR in NM. It was a Sungrebe in November 2008.

[jtwanderer]

What a fun video! Really enjoy the Hope Meter ;-)

[GreatGray]

I have only seen Marbled and Hudsonian. Congratulations on the Godwit!

[sw]

You're both lucky to be able to bird with your brother. Mine made the long migration from the US to Australia several years ago!

[ospry]

Interestingly, Texas has two Bar-tailed Godwit Records, both from the Corpus Christi area. The 2014 record was a European subspecies and this bird was a Siberian subspecies.

As a Corpus local, I have had the privilege of seeing this particular bird numerous times, during its first winter (22-23) and its second winter (23-24), but every time was at Chatwork Park in San Pat County. Despite many attempts, I couldn't locate it in Nueces Bay, which would put it in my home county of Nueces. I'm hoping it returns for a third winter for my redemption!

[brittnyrv]

Ive seen Hudsonian and marbled in the coastal bend. Very cool 😊🎉

[roshanchachane]

We get to see these birds here in Central India quite often.

[morganpickering]

I know when an American came over to here in Australia he was interested in our godwit slang, barwit for bar-tailed godwit, blackwit for black-tailed godwit, and hudwit for a hudsonian godwit. We don't get Marbled godwits here but I would presume you should call them Marwits. Sounds like he was going to take it back over and share this terminology.

Congratulations on the lifer!

[ABirdersParadise]

Congrats on the lifer! I had a last-minute lifer not too long ago with the White-faced Ibises (eBird rarity) I went looking for in July. I searched the marshy area on an auto tour route, and couldn't find them. I had completely given up hope of seeing them, but then, when we were almost to the end of the auto tour, I noticed that the NWR had a new marshy/pond area (I guess the staff created it because I don't recall having a lot of rain), and I searched it as much as possible with the heat waves making pictures turn out terrible. We were just driving off when I saw a few birds flying that looked unusual, so I zoomed in on those, and sure enough, they were the White-faced Ibises.