The long windy winter is over. Hooray for Spring ! I returned to Texas to pick up my truck at my friend's house and started south. High Island is southeast of Houston and is well known to birders as a good place to see migrating birds in the Spring. I camped 2 nights at an RV park across the street from the entrance to the bird sanctuary. Unfortunately, warblers, vireos, orioles, buntings, and their friends were not visiting High Island in large numbers this Spring. I saw a few birds, but not like this place can be on a Spring day.
Further south on Bolivar Peninsula, shorebirds were gathering in large noisy groups. I saw 7 species of Terns, Black Skimmers, Gulls, Ruddy Turnstones, Marbled Godwits, and more. The following day, at a different location, I saw another Tern species (species # 8). It did surprise me that many of the Terns, Dunlins, Plovers are not yet in breeding plumage. Then it was time to find the big highway. I had originally planned to go north thru Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska, before turning west toward Wyoming. Big wildfires in Oklahoma, a snowstorm and unsettled weather in Kansas and Nebraska caused me to re-think my route. I headed west on highway 10 across Texas, and into New Mexico.
Photos of Roseate Spoonbills from a rookery on land owned by Houston Audubon as part of their network of Bird Sanctuaries. Great Egrets already had little chicks in the nests. Photo to the right could be titled "Mixed Company." Black Skimmers, Royal Terns, Laughing Gulls standing on a beach together.
