High Island, Texas: An Introductory Birding Tour Apr 15—19, 2011
Posted by Bob Sundstrom
Bob Sundstrom
Bob Sundstrom has led VENT tours since 1989 to Hawaii, Mexico, Belize, Trinidad and Tobago, Iceland, Papua New Guinea, the Southwest Pacific islands, Antarctica, the B...Related Trips
Our High Island Introductory tour offers more amazing birding variety in a short span of days than probably any other short tour in North America. The High Island sanctuaries, areas of prime coastal migrant habitat now set aside from development, are the best known feature of this bird-rich region. Several other key habitat elements of this small area rival the sanctuary woods as phenomenal birding sites. These include Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge, a vast, fresh water marsh system bordered by grassland and brackish marsh; Bolivar Flats along the Gulf shore, one of the continent's key sites for shorebird and tern aggregations; and rice fields throughout the area, which when flooded temporarily in cultivation become great magnets for thousands of migratory sandpipers. Add to this a short drive to bayou and pine forest where a considerable diversity of birds are already nesting, and you have the setting for an amazing birding experience.
With such a wealth of birding opportunities, it's tricky to do them justice in less than four days of overall birding time. But we gave it a very good effort. Driving from the airport toward Winnie, we saw our first Upland Sandpipers standing tall in a pasture. By late afternoon we had arrived at one of the wooded preserves set aside in the little hamlet of High Island. (High Island is not an island, but it is high—about 30 feet higher than the surrounding coastal plain—which makes it perfect for stands of trees that are a beacon to trans-Gulf migrants.) We had barely passed the gate into the woods before we were looking at a male Blackburnian Warbler, a gem of fiery orange, followed almost immediately by an exquisite Cerulean Warbler. Black-throated Green Warblers were foraging at eye level, and a Blue-winged Warbler snuck in and out of a dense shrub. At the drip set up in the woods to offer birds a bathing opportunity, we quickly saw a male Painted Bunting. At this point, the birding seemed almost too easy.
We had arrived a day after north winds, which explained the number and variety of birds waiting for us in the woods. Although fewer migrants were seen in following days, we saw 23 species of warblers during this short tour. A Swainson's Warbler worked the leaf litter almost at our feet—too close to focus binoculars. Worm-eating and Kentucky warblers showed very nicely, and a Canada Warbler—always a laudable find at High Island—gave us the view of a lifetime as it foraged through branches almost in our faces.
At Anahuac refuge we took part in a large group rail walk and were rewarded with a fine look at the famously secretive Yellow Rail. King Rails, sometimes hard to see too, seemed to be around every bend of the refuge, standing at the marsh edge. Least Bitterns posed nicely just 40 feet from the van, and a Purple Gallinule caught the morning light perfectly, shading from purple to blue to iridescent green. On the drive to the refuge, showy Scissor-tailed Flycatchers perched on fence wires, flitting up to show salmon-pink underwings.
The heronry at Smith Oaks sanctuary in High Island was full to overflowing with nesting herons, spoonbills, egrets, and cormorants. Dozens of pairs of Roseate Spoonbills were nesting alongside Tricolored Herons and Great and Snowy egrets, as pairs of Neotropic Cormorants grunted from nests higher up. Alligators swam by in the moat between viewers and waders.
The coastal tide flats and dunes of Bolivar Flats, just up the coast from Galveston, delivered a fantastic birding experience. Arriving on an incoming tide, we watched as thousands of shorebirds, terns, gulls, and wading birds loomed closer and closer. The tide brought shoulder to shoulder hundreds of lovely American Avocets, as well as American Oystercatchers, Marbled Godwits, Red Knots, and many other shorebirds. Terns of eight species, plus Black Skimmers, faced into the breeze, as if posing for scope views. Almost side by side were the continent's four small plovers: Snowy, Piping, Semipalmated, and Wilson's.
We drove along miles of rice fields, ready for cultivation. When flooded after seeding and the water is just the right depth, the shorebirding can be astounding. We found American Golden-Plovers, Buff-breasted Sandpipers, and Whimbrels by the hundreds, perhaps the thousands.
A visit to a nearby bayou was rewarded with great views of lustrous yellow Prothonotary Warblers, as well as a singing Yellow-throated Warbler and Northern Parula—three more warbler jewels. Yellow-crowned Night-Herons and Little Blue Herons posed amid the black water of the bayou and the bright green of the bald cypress leaves, as spoonbills flew overhead. Another lasting image of a great, short tour.