Long-billed Thrasher— Photo: Kevin Zimmer

The Central Texas Coast is well-known as perhaps the "birdiest" area of the country. For decades, Christmas Bird Counts in this region have produced some of the highest totals of any in the country. And "Big Day" teams have chosen this area as the best in the country to find a large species total on a single spring day. During this workshop, we’ll take advantage of these riches, not for the purpose of compiling a large species total, but with the aim of sorting through some of the tougher field identification problems that face birders in Texas and elsewhere in North America.

Although there will be many groups of birds we'll see on this tour, we will pay particular attention to some of the more difficult ones such as cormorants, herons, waterfowl, raptors, shorebirds, gulls, terns, sparrows, and meadowlarks. Any of these groups could warrant a workshop all their own, but we will dabble in all of them, taking advantage of whatever interesting challenges come our way, and turning them into learning opportunities. Along the way, we should see an array of other interesting birds, including a few of the South Texas specialties whose range reaches the Central Coast, such as White-tailed Hawk, Golden-fronted Woodpecker, Great Kiskadee, Couch's Kingbird, Long-billed Thrasher, and Green Jay. We should also see Whooping Crane, a magnificent and very rare species whose winter range is restricted to this stretch of the Texas coast.

Our home base for this workshop will be the recently opened Falcon Point Lodge, located on a 6,000-acre hunting reserve adjacent to the famous Aransas National Wildlife Refuge and overlooking San Antonio Bay. This fabulous new lodge offers us extremely comfortable accommodations, excellent food, and a wonderful array of birds right off our back porch. It even gives those who wish the opportunity to gather in the evening and discuss some of the day's discoveries—the perfect arrangement for this workshop!

A single accommodation tour with comfortable lodging and excellent cuisine; easy terrain; mild to cool weather.