At the beach...TEXAS 31 March

We (Scott Watson and I) began our day checking the Houston Audubon Society's Boy Scout Woods for any migrants that may have come in late the day before. With little inclement weather to encourage them to come down to the coastal mottes we held little real hope. However, we still managed to pull some quality migrant fare out of the fire as it were, with the help of some locals checking out the bushes a short time before we did (thanks Dave and Tom!): Yellow-throated Warbler, Blue-headed Vireo and Northern Parula being the clear highlights with the lack of competition in the woods.

However, a bad-middling warbler day at this time can be compensated for by a run down to the coast, which sure enough paid dividends...We mixed it up with a visit to Rollover Pass, followed by a run down to HAS Bolivar Flats, which combined produced a mass of shorebirds and coastal birds. Favorites (for me anyway) at Rollover included several confiding, enormous-beaked Long-billed Curlews, a smattering of American Avocets, all rusted-up for spring, and the usual dancing antics from the local Reddish Egrets that included both the traditional red forms, and scarcer white morphs too.

Down at the flats healthy numbers of Western Sandpipers were present, sporting the chestnut-tones of summer, particularly evident when buried in a flock of pallid Sanderlings there! Other highlights included half a dozen portly Piping Plovers, which seemed to stand by the car and shout "shoot me", which of course, I duly did!

On top of all of that Happy brought us a rather large, and much welcomed cake, and Julia turned up bearing brisket. So we will fatten up while we wait for the inevitable wave of migrants to come! Thanks

More from High Island imminently...

The Harbinger of spring...TEXAS (30 March)

What was meant to be a shorebird trip got a little sidetracked when this classic "American" bird appeared by the car. They say that pink is not a color but an attitude, and this quote seems so appropriate for this bird, the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher. One of the classic early spring birds, that I am all too happy to see while I wait for the "warbler rush" that happens later in the spring...

More from the Upper Texas Coast to come soon. Our walks at High Island start tomorrow, so here's hoping for some quality early spring movers, and some spectacular shorebird scenes to come...

Texas Gold....TEXAS 29 March

Went on an afternoon scouting shorebird sites around the Bolivar Peninsula with David Swaim, Scott Watson and Iain Campbell. After a stop for tacos we dodged rain showers and picked up a bunch of shorebirds, many of which were dappled with rain drops, but non-plussed by this of course, and busily fed away. We had some great birds, and great photo opps, though these were somewhat limited by the gray skies, and wet conditions, which left us marooned to the car. A stop at Rollover Pass yielded an ever so plump Piping Plover, the usual mass of Black Slimmers, and a mob of Marbled Godwits. Heading to Bob Road we were entertained by this absurdly confiding American Golden Plover, which had Wilson's Plovers and Least Sandpipers for company. Our final stop, as the rain lashed down was arguably the best, as sandpipers galore fed constantly along the side of Rettilon Road, the access road to the beach at Houston Audubon's Bolivar Flats sanctuary. Best among them was this sporting Pectoral Sandpiper, which was not going to let a car full of eager birders deter it from feeding in a ditch right by the road! Good numbers of Western and Semipalmated Sandpipers were also seen there.

More from Texas real soon...

We move in, they move out...TEXAS 29 March

Well our first proper moving in day was today back at the High Island house, and this meant unboarding the gazebo among other chores. Every year we do this we find various creatures that have moved in. This years squatters were this delightful pair: American Tree Frogs, who looked a little put out that we moved their favored boards, and soon disappeared into the brush somewhere.

The afternoon was spent scouring the coastline of the Bolivar Peninsula, dodging rain showers, and checking for the latest shorebird hotspots. We certainly found a few and these will be detailed next...

Back in Texas...28 March

In the wee, wee hours of the morning I traveled out of the Andes of Ecuador, and into the flatlands of Texas. Iain Campbell and I met up with Scott Watson, who was coming on from South Africa. Finally, in late afternoon we reached the legendary migration hot spot of High Island, where I will be based until early May. We wasted little time in checking out the new set ups at Houston Audubon's Smith Oaks sanctuary, where the staff had been busy in the off season constructing new, two-tier, viewing photography platforms that overlook the rookery there. This should avoid the problems we have seen in the past where photographers and birders clash, and obstruct each others views. Now photographers and birders can enjoy this annual spectacle without any trouble to each other. Good job! Of course while there we could not help but be absorbed by the breeding activity of the local herons, egrets, and spoonbills that are captivating each and every time. Cormorants croaked, egrets called in the guttural fashion that constitutes their song, and birds came and went bearing sticks and laying claim to precious areas of "turf" as their own on their vital nesting island on Claybottom Pond. All the while waterbirds like ibis, herons and others streamed in overhead to come in to roost, while we swatted away mosquitoes.

I look forward to much, much more of this, plus warblers and shorebirds besides. It is very good to be back in my second home!

March Madness...ECUADOR (March 1)

After the phenomenal feeders of the day before we could not have hoped for better the day after. Although it has to be said the feeders at Mirador Rio Blanco in Los Bancos ran them very close indeed. After a morning in the Milpe reserve (owned by the Mindo Cloudforest Foundation), where Laura and I got close ups of Club-winged Manakin in the throws of their "harmonica" displays, and Betty got intimate with Green-crowned Woodnymphs, White-whiskered Hermits and Green Thorntails at the feeders, we headed for a jar of juice and a tanager or two at the Mirador. In came the regular mob of Blue-gray Tanagers, interspersed with a visit from a Buff-rumped Warbler bounding across the floor below the feeder, while an Ecuadorian Thrush could not resist a fallen banana that some messy tanager had mislaid. Up on the feeder itself the scene was dominated by tanagers, with Silver-throated Tanager dropping in regularly, but outclassed by the Blackburnian-esque Flame-faced Tanager, and the final drop in of the afternoon by a Crimson-rumped Toucanet that lingered for an age just daring any other birds to even look at his precious banana!

Goatsuckers in the Andes...ECUADOR (29 Feb.)

A hot tip-off had Laura and I heading out with storm clouds gathering, from Tandayapa, to the entrance track to Paz de Aves, where earlier that day someone had seen the regular roosting male Lyre-tailed Nightjar. With a tail bringing the total body length to near a meter, it was well worth getting a little wet for! Luckily another Tropical Birding groupd led by Andres Vasquez were just ahead of us and confirmed it was still present, and helpfully laid vegetation in the shape of an arrow pointing at the well-hidden bird, making my life very easy! Thanks Andres.

More from Ecuador to come...