Birding the Upper Texas Coast

This past weekend Martin and I made our yearly pilgrimage to High Island. It was a week early than we usually go, but next weekend is the Great Texas Birding Classic and I am on a team this year! (more blogs to come) Despite being a little early, it was still a very good weekend bird wise.

We arrived at Boy Scout Woods at about 7AM on Saturday. No one was at the kiosk, so we couldn't get our year admission patch. We went across the street to the new birding center operated by Tropical Birding and had a cup of incredibly good coffee. (Look at the end of the blog for information on a new monthly coffee plan that they are setting up.) We chatted with Ian, the owner of Tropical Birding about a new scope that we were shopping for and a bit about Tandayapa lodge, part of Tropical Birding, in Ecuador, where we stayed 3 years ago. As we stood there Orioles and Tanagers were dropping into almost every tree. We broke away and headed back to Boyscout Woods.

We wandered around picking up a few warblers in between the huge numbers of Scarlet Tanagers, mostly males. There was a Northern Waterthrush sparring with a female Prothonatary Warbler in the pond by the kiosk. We found a spot in a tangled area with a bonanza of vireos: White-eyed, Blue-headed, Yellow-throated and Red-eyed were easily visible. A tree near the kiosk produced Black-and-whte, Northern Parula and a singing Blue-winged. Rose-breasted Grosbeaks were picking off mulberries.

At 9AM we met a couple of new friends, Pam and her son Tom, from Santa Cruz. I had been corresponding with Pam, who was introduced to me by another friend in the Santa Cruz area. Pam and Tom had never been at High Island before and had been having a fantastic time for the past couple of days. We showed them the vireos, who were still hanging around and then headed to Hook Woods, a fairly new reserve, where we had had incredibly good luck in the past.

Hook Woods wasn't quite as crowded, though more crowded than I had seen it in the past. We heard that a Swainson's Warbler was being seen and set out to find itf. Swainson's are incredibly quiet and unobtrusive. They are not shy at all, but just hard to see! They like low heavy ground cover. We worked the area near the boardwalk intensively and got fleeting glimpses, but not the target bird. We did a bit more birding, picking up a few more species, including a male Blackburnian,but kept returning to the Swainson's area. Finally Tom, who is 22 and has an incredible eye, picked the bird up moving very near the boardwalk. We all got fabulous looks.

Feeling very satisfied, we took off for Smith Oaks. Things were a bit slower, but we still managed to pull out what was for Martin the prize of the day, a spectacular male Cerulean Warbler. Pam and Tom had already seen Cerulean, but I think they were happy with the great views we got. We split up with Pam and Tom at that point. They were heading to Anuahac and Martin wanted to do shorebirds at Bolivar Flats. We really enjoyed their company! On a side note, I was whining about my weight and Pam said ""But you are so skinny!" She is now officially my new best friend! LOL.

We started out for Bolivar, when Martin suddenly changed his mind and decided to go to Anuahac to look for shorebirds instead. Cyn Ti Lee had seen some Hudsonian Godwits and other good birds the day before. We tried a unit where there are usually flooded rice fields, but they were really dry and nothing was using them. We went to the main area of the refuge, where we found a bit more habitat, but it wasn''t very productive. Then I got my bird of the day! Martin was scanning a flooded field with the scope, while I fiddled around with my bins.(I cant wait to get my new scope) I spotted a large white and black bird zipping down the field towards us on eye level. It took a second to process what I was seeing, then I yelled out "SWALLOW-TAILED KITE!" It flew right past us, very close! It turned and hunted over the water for a minute or two. We waved to some birders who were driving by and pointed it out. It headed north over the trees and we didn't see it again. ST Kite is one of my very favorite birds! This was not where I would expect to see one, so I was thrilled.

We then headed over to Sabine Woods, near the Lousiana border, right off of the gulf. This is our favorite spot on the coast. We had good numbers of warblers, though we had to work hard to get them. Highlights were a male Golden-winged, Magnolia, Kentucky, numerous Worm-eatings and Chestnut-sided. We could hear Soras calling from the reeds across the road. My favorite non-bird sighting was a tiny alligator perched on a hump of mud in the middle of the pond. They always look like they are smiling. We also visited the Willows at Sea Rim state park, which is just down the road. There we got good looks at a female Cerulean Warbler. We headed back to our hotel, tired and very happy! We ended the day with 21 species of warblers, which kicks ass in mid April!

As far as the coffee from Tropical Birding, their web site is WWW.Shadierthanthou.com. Check it out! They are working to get shade grown coffee into areas where its never been grown, like Africa and Indonesia. Its an opportunity to get some great coffee and do some good!