High Island Migration: Apr 17—22, 2009

Painted Bunting— Photo: Kevin Zimmer

One of the finest and best-known spectacles of spring songbird migration in North America, with dozens of warblers and other songbird species, plus loads of shorebirds, marsh birds, and Southeast pine wood specialties like Red-cockaded Woodpecker.

Every spring, millions of birds migrate north from the American Tropics to the forests of the eastern United States. They take off from Central America just at sunset for the long journey over the open waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Typically they are riding a south wind, so that when they reach the Texas/Louisiana coast, most of them continue inland before putting down. But if the trans-Gulf migrants encounter north winds and rain during their flight, they are forced down into the isolated groves and bushes of the Texas and Louisiana coastal prairie. The result can be a staggering phenomenon, as thousands of migrants invade the trees. The greatest of these fallouts occur only once or twice a spring when conditions are just right, but some birds put down along the coast every day, and a great variety can always be seen over the course of the week.

This tour is designed to focus on spring migration along the upper Texas coast. Most nights will be spent near High Island, where isolated groves of huge live oaks may attract large numbers of migrants in a fallout, and where some migrants occur regularly even without the severe conditions of a fallout. Each day's activities will depend on the weather, and our schedule will be flexible. If a fallout occurs, we will bird High Island and other migrant traps. If the weather is good, with a south wind, we will concentrate on the rice fields for shorebirds, the extensive marshes for wading birds, and the great Bolivar Flats. We will visit Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge which is famous among birders as a good place to observe such notoriously secretive marsh-dwellers as Least and American bitterns, King Rail, Sora, Purple Gallinule, and Marsh Wren. Fulvous Whistling-Duck, White-faced Ibis, and occasionally Glossy Ibis are also seen at Anahuac. The refuge is surrounded by rice fields, and when they are flooded in April the birds swarm into them. Sometimes thousands of shorebirds in glorious spring plumage are present, including such scarce species as Hudsonian Godwit, Buff-breasted Sandpiper, White-rumped and Baird's sandpipers, Wilson's Phalarope, and Stilt Sandpiper.

We will make a special trip into the pine forests and bayou country farther inland to look for Red-cockaded Woodpeckers, Brown-headed Nuthatches, and other specialty nesters like Swainson's and Prairie warblers. Regardless of the weather, every day on the Texas coast in late April will be an eventful one.

Good accommodations; all but one night at one location; easy walking on boardwalks and beaches; midday breaks some days; warm, sometimes humid conditions.