2007 Tour Narrative
Our two weeks on the Upper Texas Coast were fun-filled and thrilling with a steady and varied stream of migrating waterbirds, songbirds, and variety of great “yard birds”. Each day was a little bit different: one day it was Little Blue Herons winging down the beach; another day was Cattle Egrets coming in flock after flock off the Gulf; another was Blue-winged Teal or Lesser Yellowlegs streaming by.
Highlights and memories of our time on the Texas Coast will include flocks of Orchard Orioles and Tennessee Warblers feeding on bottlebrush; incredibly close comparisons of Baird’s and White-rumped Sandpipers, “peeps”, and dowitchers in the oil fields. Incredible and nice studies of terns and plovers at Bolivar Flats; both godwits side by side at Anahuac; Magnificent Frigatebird and Pomarine Jaeger tending a feeding frenzy of gulls and terns; a pair of Painted Buntings posing beautifully at “The Willows”; and a Barn Owl. Our lists grew and grew as the weeks progressed, continuing with views of Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Sedge Wren, Yellow-breasted Chat, Dickcissel, Lark Sparrow, Bronzed Cowbird, and Yellow-headed Blackbird all in our back yard!
The absolute winner of all our highlights was the week we saw the fallout of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds. One day we estimated at least 1000 of them, mostly feeding on Texas paintbrush along Highway 87 (which we renamed “Hummingbird Highway!). Add this to excellent studies of shorebirds and terns, a thriving heronry, a resident Barn Owl at the lodge, an abundance of songbirds, 22 species of warblers and a beautiful setting on the Gulf of Mexico and without a doubt you know we had a spectacular time.
Updated: June 2007