Day of the Swainson's...TEXAS (10 April)

Well, after yesterday's unexpected bumper crop of warblers in High Island, it was hard to know what to expect. I mean after all the weather had suggested nothing out of the ordinary the day before, and actually hinted towards a quiet day with species overflying the woods rather than coming down, and we ended up with a cumulative total of 23 warbler species in the woods. On this day the weather was largely the same but the birds were very different-lower overall numbers (Tennessee Warblers no longer decorated every tree, and Hooded Warblers were no longer inescapable, although both species were still present).

Our morning walk around Houston Audubon's Boy Scout Woods was quite for a while before I kicked up a brown job in front of me, which was far from insignificant when I clapped eyes on its within my bins: a Swainson's Warbler no less. This is one of the most sought-after species in the coastal migrant traps, and easily missed, so we pursued it with vigor, and soon tracked it down feeding alongside an Ovenbird which could both be appreciated within the same binocular view on occasion. The bird continued to perform for the Boy Scout crowd on and off through the day, and it transpired that a number of these furtive warblers were roaming the same lot, making it a good day for those looking to add this to their life lists. Here is Luke Seitz's photo of the very individual that brought joy to many, including me today.

Over lunch down on the shores of the Bolivar Peninsula, the usual suspects were found, although we could not find yesterday's Snowy Plover unfortunately. Highlights did include around a dozen Red Knot though at HAS Bolivar Flats, and Black Tern at Rollover Pass, among a horde of other coastal birds.

After a scout around Houston Audubon's Smith Oaks woods in the afternoon proved what we expected, the woods were largely quiet, bar a few Summer Tanagers and a glowing male Scarlet Tanager, Luke and I headed back down the coast to shoot birds in the late afternoon light, highlights of which are to come...

Early Spring...TEXAS (9 April)

Little did we know when we awoke to a hot humid day and southerly winds, what a great day fro warblers this would be. I mean after all at this time of the month, High Island is meant to relatively quite with low diversity...or so they say.

I awoke to a Northern Parula and Tennessee Warbler brightening up our backyard on 5th Street (the parula anyway!), and shortly after a male Rose-breasted Grosbeak planting itself to a mulberry tree openen our Houston Audubon walks across in Boy Scout Woods. By the end of the morning some warblers had pleased: Yellow-throated and Black Throated Green Warblers for one, and a mass of Indigo Buntings had clearlt dropped in overnight. However, Texas's own "rainbow bird" Painted Bunting somehow managed to elude me all day long, and I eagerly await my first of season-today perhaps?

However, I am not complaining as it was the best day of the spring so far with warbler numbers rising to 23 species by the close of business. After an afternoon walk along the shore at HAS Bolivar Flats where I got my season first Snowy Plover with a huddle of portly Piping Plovers, and watched a sorry-looking Red Knot limping along the beach with a couple of healtheir looks birding in tow, I returned to the woods and took on the late afternoon Houston Ausubon walks around HAS Smith Oaks. We needed to work hard for our birds but Yellow-throated Warbler came, and it was very clear that literally masses of Tennessee Warblers had dropped in for the afternoon: barely a moment went by when a Tennessee was NOT in view. A Prothonotary Warbler was more selective showing just once.

Just as we were finishing our walk a male Cerulean Warbler and the quitessential Halloween bird, American Redstart turned up and closed out the walk in dramatic fashion. Luke Seitz and I then enjoyed shooting the Roseate Spoonbills and Great Egrets in the soft evening light over Claybottom Pond before returning, almost inevitably to the Boy Scout Woods drip, which was pumping with colorful activity...

The day closed with my Leica binoculars rooted to my face, and elbows tired from the constant action unfolding before our eyes. A Swainson's Warbler dropped into the drip, causing more than a little excitement as he also had Kentucky Warbler, Louisiana Warterthrush, and Blue-winged Warbler for company at the time. When migrants rush the drp like this there is no time for rest or comprehension of the insane scenes that unfold. Some of those birds left and then were merely replaced by Worm-eating and Prothonotary Warblers, and then later a black-and-scarlet American Redstart. The warbler regularly adorned the edges of the pool like Christmas lights that clashed badly with another due to their vastly different color schemes. This was one color clash that would have been supported by all present, fashionistas or not!

More to come from the migration Mecca soon..

Easter Egg Hunt...TEXAS (8 April)

While others searched for eggs today I spent the day hunting warblers in High Island...and with some notable successes...

I started my day as normal on the Houston Audubon walk in Boy Scout Woods, where some of the warblers artfully dodged me for a while, and suggested it might be a day to frustrate more than delight: a Worm-eating slinked away before I could see the tiger-striped head, a Blue-winged glowed yellow, but refused to show me the realm of features to ensure a satisfying view, and the Yellow-throated Warblers just plain avoided me! However, returning to the famed Grandstand there my luck took a turn, and I never looked back. The changing tide brought me a good long look at the often furtive Swainson's Warbler that worked its way to the drip there.

In the afternoon, the trip swapped venue to Smith Oaks, and meeting people in the woods with dire news of migrants (i.e. there are none) I feared the worst. However, in spite of muted expectations, with a southerly wind blowing, and the early afternoon news creeping out of the woods, moments later we were eyeballing a sky-backed male Cerulean Warbler, only my second of this, my fifth spring season, in High Island. There would have been a distinct spring in our step had we walked off, although with regular action in the early-fruiting mulberries, and leafed out Live Oaks overhead, we stood rooted to the spot for at least an hour. The mulberry vibrated with the motions of visiting tanagers, with both male Summer Tanager, and "neon" male Scarlet Tanagers adoring the tree, which also held the odd Tennessee Warbler, which had clearly not read the book that dictated that they feed on insects! Then a movement above revealed a few Northern Parulas moving through the Oaks, with a stunning pair of Yellow-throated Warblers for company. Red-eyed Vireo also moved through the trees with the usual, slow deliberate movements characteristic to vireos.

After all the satisfying warbler action, I wound down at the end of it all with first flight shots of Roseate Spoonbills at Smith Oaks famous rookery, a Hooded Warbler back at Boy Scout, and washed it all down with a good Texas beer - Shiner - with other "Tropical Birders" back on 5th Street.

More to come from High Island very soon...

High Times...TEXAS (4 April)

After yesterday's deathly quite woods in High Island, our morning walk produced more of the same scenario in general, although glimmers of hope were provided by a Palm Warbler and a Louisiana Waterthrush "dipping" along the edge of Prothonotary Pond in HAS Boy Scout Woods. A menacing Merlin was also seen perched at the edge of the pond there too.

I also saw this cool mushroom in Boy Scout, of which I have no idea of what it is...please let me know if you do?

Our daily coastal foray down to the coast was notable for "award-winning" tacos (if awards were given out by Tropical Birding guides that is), and a trio of Franklin's Gulls and Black Terns, among the hordes of more common coastal birds at Rollover Pass. Rain stopped play early and had us checking the woodlots eagerly for new arrivals which duly came....a short stint in the Boy Scout photo blind saw me watching my first of season Ovenbird creeping past, along with this skittish Brown Thrasher (thrashers have been especially abundant and conspicuous of late in High Island). A return to the Boy Scout drip saw another season first occur when a male Kentucky Warbler made a celebrity appearance during the afternoon, which was later followed by groups of Orchard Orioles, a young male Wilson's Warbler showing hints of the skullcap to come, a handful of Northern Parulas, and the odd Black-and-white Warbler.

A call from Scott Watson patrolling Smith Oaks woods alerted us to lots of Tennessee Warblers, the first flame-throated male Blackburnian of the season (which I missed) and brought us several Yellow-throated Warblers too.

A tern for the worse...TEXAS (3 April)

With all the talk of fronts, tornadoes, and the resulting "fallout" along the Gulf Coast, today in High Island was one of the worst teases in history. This was arguably the quietest day in the woods I have ever known there! After four hours of daylight we had yet to see a single warbler, with the collective effort of all visiting birders yielding one species in total! The only bright spot was provided when Scott and I ventured to Highway 1985, before the warbler walk, and found a couple of Buff-breasted Sandpipers, sharing the only flooded field in the area with masses of Pectoral Sandpipers, and a handful of American Golden Plovers. Unfortunately though when we returned at lunchtime with a group of eager Buff-breast "hunters" there was no sign of them. It was just that kind of day!

The afternoon Houston Audubon walk around Smith Oaks on High Island started off equally dull and we feared the worst. By 4.30pm we were noting that we had still to produce a single warbler on the walks. However, Scott squeezed a Northern Parula out of one of the Oaks, and soon after Black-and-white Warbler and Yellow-rumped Warbler followed. OK so we had not broken any records, with just four individual warblers, but we had broken our duck and at least we were not walking home, tail between legs with no warblers at all! Best sighting of the afternoon though was a challenging kingbird, either Couch's/Tropical Kingbird, which shared a mulberry with a gaudy male Baltimore Oriole. On balance structurally it was edging the way of Couch's. Sadly the bird refused to call, and so left itself with the tag "probable".

The photo above is a non-breeding Forster's Tern from the coast the other day - no photos today as you might have guessed, so I had dip into the archive!

Let's hope for more out of this migrant hotspot tomorrow...

The spring has sprung...TEXAS (2 April)

After a decidedly gloomy start, brought about by gray skies followed by prolonged heavy rain, and no birds the day improved markedly for me in High Island. I went for a quick jaunt around Houston Audubon's Boy Scout Woods, pre-lunch, and pre-shorebirding, and found myself eyeballing three different Louisiana Waterthrushes that were new in today. On returning to the entrance I also got news of a Worm-eating Warbler, and so hurried over there with just a few minutes to spare, and managed to squeeze in this dead leaf specialist before lunch.

Lunch was spent birding along the Bolivar Peninsula, with my first of season Black Terns (1 full jet adult, and a non-breeding bird), and two pink-flushed Franklin's Gulls being the clear highlights. The latter always intuitively feel like they should be more common along the Gulf Coast, although as their broad migration pattern largely takes an inland route they are not too numerous and were much appreciated by me. A surprise came on Bob Road, where a winter plumage Common Loon probably reveals just how much water is lying around the peninsula right now.

Back in the woodlots in the afternoon I saw my FOS Blue-winged Warbler sharing a tree with my FOS Tennessee Warbler, and a nuthatching Black-and-white Warbler too. Before long duty called and I was walking the trails in Houston Audubon's Smith Oaks sanctuary for the afternoon bird walk. Sometimes these can be challenging near birdless affairs (if no migrants have arrived in town), although the bird Gods were smiling today, with rarely a dull moment and plenty to fill a notebook. We knew things were looking good when a party of three Black-throated Green Warblers appeared overhead, loosely associating with another Black-and-white Warbler, and a male Northern Parula. A mulberry tree led me to a mulberry-stained Rose-breasted Grosbeak loafing with intent nearby. Things turned even better when a Worm-eating Warbler (my second of the day no less) appeared unusually high in the Oak overhead. This was followed by a crimson male Summer Tanager, a superb pair of Scissor-tailed Flycatchers that lit up my scope, and a pair of Yellow-throated Warblers.

The day finished in traditional High Island fashion with the fly in at the rookery, where Roseate Spoonbills, as ever, were the headline stealers, although a healthy crop of Louisiana Herons (isn't that name so much better than Tricolored?!) were also much appreciated. My day finished, much as the day before, with a Hermit Thrush bathing thoroughly in the Boy Scout drip.

Storms on the way for High Island, and I await with baited breath...

Gulf Coast shorebirding...TEXAS 1 April

Anyone projecting a fallout today must have been pulling an April fool. There was clearly no 'big" movement going on today, although there was a trickle of arrivals in the afternoon, preceded by a good run along the coast for me. Our morning folly around Houston Audubon's Boy Scout Woods was generally quiet but punctuated with two bright birds from the migrant crop: a young male Baltimore Oriole comprising my first of season, and followed by yesterday's Yellow-throated Warbler, helpfully "glued" to the same tree.

In the afternoon Scott Watson and I took a trip down to the coast where we swept the small plovers (Wilson's, Snowy, Piping, and Semipalmated) between Rollover Pass and Bolivar Flats, and also admired the healthy crop of Western Sandpipers on the flats. Best of all though was this super-confiding Long-billed Curlew, showing off its most famed feature on the beach, while Least Terns sat unconcerned as our car rolled within feet of them.

Despite a trickle of new birds for most in the afternoon my only "FOS" (first of season) was a Red-eyed Vireo in Boy Scout Woods. My day closed with a Hermit Thrush giving itself a thorough wash at the drip there before I retired to a hearty plate full of brisket, which Scott and I were determined to finish!