Spring on the Central Texas Coast Apr 19—24, 2009
Posted by David Wolf
David Wolf
David Wolf is a senior member of the VENT staff and one of our most experienced tour leaders. After birding the U.S. and Mexico for over a decade, an interest in the wildli...Related Trips
It was an ugly, slow-moving storm that hit my home in East Texas on Saturday, dumping rain and lots of lightning, but I left for the Central Coast anyway. As I skirted Houston, the city seemed to be hiding under a black cloud filled with fiery flashes. Water choked the bayous, while to the southwest there was so much flooding I felt like I was driving through the sea. I finally reached Port Lavaca for the night and went to bed with dreams of a huge surge of downed migrants likely the next morning. To my disappointment, it didn't happen. While I had a pleasant day of birding, with nice weather as the storm moved out into the Gulf of Mexico, it seemed to be only shorebirds and a few swallows pushing through against the north wind. There were almost none of the colorful songbirds that make spring birding on the Texas coast so famous. Oh well.
I met the group that evening and decided that we would bird tiny Blucher Park on the edge of downtown Corpus Christi the next morning, thinking that at least a few migrants were bound to come in. Little did I know that the stage was now set for one of the biggest "fallouts" I have seen in 45 years of birding the Texas coast. As we neared the park at dawn on Monday, I realized that there were suspicious numbers of birds flying south to north over the city. My excitement level began to rise and my brain buzzed with the possibilities. A few minutes later we stepped out of the van and I immediately heard zip notes everywhere. Looking up, a flock of 20 male Indigo Buntings flew over us low, as a large flock of Franklin's Gulls kettled just above. The loud chatter of orioles in the nearby trees couldn't have been missed. A warbler zipped across the lane and disappeared into the thick trees. I looked up again and birds were simply pouring over, too many to count. Within minutes it was clear that huge numbers of migrants were streaming over the treetops and nearby buildings, and that we were perfectly positioned in the midst of a major fallout. The birds were incredibly restless and few lingered long enough for good looks, so we stepped to a nearby parking lot just to watch this phenomenon from a more open spot. Right in front of us, in perfect light, flocks of 5–20 Indigo Buntings and Baltimore Orioles flew past every few seconds, most of them colorful adult males. Every now and then a bright red tanager zipped along, or a male Rose-breasted Grosbeak, or a small flock of Eastern Kingbirds, or even a tiny warbler or vireo. Some briefly landed in the trees before quickly flying on, while others flew past us in all directions. We simply stood there and gawked in utter amazement for well over an hour as I kept a crude running tally in my head.
By 8:45 the flight was slowing down and we hit the park and nearby yards. Now many of the birds were feeding and bathing, moving more slowly. There was something to look at simply everywhere, and before noon we had tallied 17 species of warblers; 2 perched Chuck-will's-widows; 8 male Painted Buntings; a smattering of flycatchers, vireos, and thrushes; and a wide assortment of other migrants, almost all of them yielding great looks. I quickly added up my tally of the dominant migrants: 3,000+ Indigo Buntings, 1,115+ Baltimore Orioles, 140+ Orchard Orioles, and 55 Northern Waterthrushes! Numbers and words, however, do not adequately convey what we experienced. It was exhilarating, it was exhausting, and it happens only rarely in a lifetime. Apparently the storm and north wind caught these birds far out over the Gulf of Mexico and we witnessed a "delayed" fallout as they struggled to make landfall a day later. What a lucky start to our inaugural "Spring on the Central Texas Coast" tour!
We didn't waste the rest of our time in the region either; almost 200 species of birds were seen—and we still had time for some afternoon siestas. Shorebirds were present in variety and abundance, providing us with some great learning opportunities. Raptors were a frequent sight, and we had many looks at the lovely White-tailed Hawks and comical Crested Caracaras, among others. We were entertained by residents like Northern Bobwhite, Roseate Spoonbill, and Greater Roadrunner, and we found uncommon migrants like Fulvous Whistling-Duck, Cinnamon Teal, Least Grebe, Hudsonian Godwit, Cape May Warbler, Clay-colored Sparrow, and Yellow-headed Blackbird. A fabulous and unexpected trio of lingering Whooping Cranes was the icing on the cake!
Falcon Point Ranch proved to be a great facility for us, with lovely rooms, great food, a most hospitable staff, and centrally located to a variety of birding areas, including right on the ranch. Our time went by all too quickly, but the memories will linger for a long time.