There is something pretty impressive about a pink bird nearly three feet tall with a four-foot wingspan and a bill the size and shape of a small spatula. The wonderful pink plumage was nearly the undoing of the roseate. They were nearly hunted to extinction during the early 1900s to provide feathers for the millenary trade. Fewer than 200 roseates were believed to be left in Texas by 1920. Given protection, these birds began to rebound.
Today there are healthy populations along the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana.
Our next stop was along an inlet to Galveston Bay, where between 20 and 30 common loons were fishing. At this stop, Karysa spotted an immature brown pelican and an immature ring-billed gull. It was encouraging to hear this young birder was not only interested in learning the difference between species but also the different age and seasonal variations within species. Not long after the inlet, we pulled over to get a good look at an eastern phoebe. After studying the phoebe for a few minutes we started to pull back onto the highway when a red topknot became visible just across a roadside ditch.