Boy Scout Blue-winged...(HAS Boy Scout Woods, High Island, Texas): 5 April 2010

The afternoon in Boy Scout was superb. I stood with an appreciative crowd by the famous freshwater drip at Boy Scout Woods and watched on as birds dropped in and off the Gulf of Mexico, bathed, drank, and went on their way. Pick of the bunch was this scintillating Blue-winged Warbler that I have to admit was photographed by Iain Campbell (NOT me) with his shiny new Canon 7D that I am completely jealous of, and completely incapable of buying! Other choice migrants checking out the drip included Northern Parula, and a brace of "tanagers": Scarlet and Summer Tanagers (that are actually now classified as cardinals) sitting side-by-side in front of the grandstand crowd at Bot Scout. Brown Thrasher blustered its way into the drip every so often, although most people were more impressed by a Yellow-throated Warbler that lit up the tree behind...It was a great afternoon with a handsome tally of 17 warbler species by the end of it, and the first "big" day of the spring so far, although by no means the last.