Suburban Bird Watching - Buffalo Bayou at Highway 6 Bridge - Barker Dam spillway

Great birding location in West Houston:  Buffalo Bayou downstream of the flood-control gate at Barker Reservoir near Highway 6 

Great Egret

The Texas coast offers great opportunities for birding, but casual birdwatchers and hobby ornithologists need not drive all the way down to Galveston Bay, not to mention Port Aransas or Goose Creek Park / National Wildlife center to indulge their passion for feathered wildlife.

There is a great -- not to mention very accessible -- spot to watch birds in West Houston where Buffalo Bayou exits from the Barker Reservoir into the spillway, a channelized stretch of waterway that has no underbrush or trees to obstruct the view. Large birds such as Great Egrets, Blue Herons, and Night Herons like to linger at the point of confluence of the bayou with the canals that runs Northward and Southward alongside the dam on the city-facing side. The difference in elevation causes the water streams from the drainage canals to cascade, which apparently facilitates the bird's chances to spot and catch fish there. They do that using their bills as spears.

Tricolored or Great Blue Heron (not sure)
The white bird behind the Heron is probably a snowy egret

Several such birds – great egrets, snowy egrets, tri-colored herons, night herons, and such -- can regularly be seen there and even occasionally get into a scuffle with each other over the best spot to wait for the water current to deliver the next meal.

Great Blue Heron (my best guess)

An additional plus of this suburban bird-watching spot is that a reasonably-sized parking lot is conveniently located closeby. It has recently be resurfaced and also provides access to the Terry Hershey Hike and BikeTrail, the Barker Dam Road (gravel road), and the bike-only trail which runs North parallel to the dam and Highway 6 and then curves to the West and follows the dam to Sergeant Hatch Park and Barker-Clodine Road; and the other leg of the George Bush Bike Trail that runs South to the parking lot at Briar Forest and to Noble Road Trail inside the reservoir (though the latter is not paved and more suitable for dirt bikes and hikers).

Snowy Egret (Egretta thula)
(characteristic black legs and yellow feet; smaller and stockier than the Great Egret)

If interested in bird-watching in the Houston/Harris County area, note that  native, migratory, and exotic birds can also be seen at the aviary at Bear Creek Park, including owls. The obvious benefit of the aviary, like that of a zoo, is that the birds are always there and that a considerable variety of them are found in close proximity. Lots of spare time and patience to endure stretches of downtime with no bird sightings is not required for a rewarding educational experience, or just mere enjoyment of this colorful aspect of nature.  

Landscape with flood canal on city-facing side of Barker Dam
View from the ped-bike bridge - Oct 2012