Road Trip Reports

High Island - Hits & Misses
by Jerry Vanbebber

My wife and I left Saturday April 23, 2005 for High Island .  First stop was the W.G. Jones forest north of Houston to try to locate the red-cockaded woodpecker.  We searched for a couple of hours with no luck - our first miss!!  In a nearby pasture, I saw what appeared to be a couple of waterfowl make a circle and return.  I spun the scope around and was treated to six black-bellied whistling ducks - my first hit and lifer of the trip.  Brown headed nuthatches seemed to be everywhere as we walked through the forest.  We gave up on the red-cockaded and headed for High Island .  We rolled into town around four o'clock and went straight to Smith Oaks.  A tri-colored heron was quickly found at the rookery as well as many other herons, egrets, and spoonbills.   It was pretty amazing to see all the nests and chicks so close.  The Discovery channel was there filming as well.  We stayed for an hour or so and headed to a new spot on 1st street in High Island , and boy, what a great spot it turned out to be. There I picked up cerulian, blackburnian, worm-eating, and blue-winged warblers.  Gray catbird, rose-breasted grosbeak, Acadian flycatcher, & wood thrush were also lifers for me there.  Leaving there, we took a quick trip down the beach and found brown pelicans, sanderlings, and ruddy turnstones for the life list.  Total lifers for the first day - 12!! 

Sunday 4/24 took us to Boy Scout woods.  No lifers to be found early so we headed out to find more shorebirds.  At Rollover Pass , we found royal terns ( number 300 on my life list), sandwich terns, black skimmers, a clapper rail, dunlin, and marbled godwit.  Some locals had given us places to go off the highway on some local roads.  There we picked up a seaside sparrow, fulvous whistling duck, and mottled duck.  These were found on Bob's road, Tuna Road , and Yacht basin road.  Total lifers for 2nd day - 10. 

Monday, 4/25 - The famous Anahuac .   Wow, what a treat that was.  On highway 1985 in the flooded rice fields, I picked up whimbrels and buff-breasted sandpipers.  Then around Shoveler's lake, we saw Wilson 's phalaropes, white-rumped SP and purple gallinules.  Traveling on around the 2 1/2 mile loop there were least bitterns, king rails, a boat-tailed grackle, sedge wren, and northern waterthrush.  Alligators were not in short supply either.  Total lifers for day 3 - 10.

Tuesday, 4/26 - back to High Island .  First street was better for me that Boy Scout woods or Smith Oaks.  There is an area similar to the drip at Boy Scout woods but you're closer and it was more productive.  We got excellent looks at bay-breasted, chestnut-sided, and golden-winged warblers.  There were gray-cheeked thrushes and veery as well to round out my list of five lifers on the 4th day.  

Wednesday 4/27 - one more trip to Anahuac to find a Hudsonian godwit - got it in the rice fields.  Lots of birds were at the Willows and a Magnolia warbler was very cooperative in getting us good looks at it.  Back to High Island and the 1st Street boardwalk.  Pretty amazing to see golden-winged warblers and worm-eating warblers bathing side by side 30 feet in front of you!!  5th day - 2 lifers 

Thursday 4/28 - Jimmy had called and told me about a king eider at Galveston .  Took a quick run over but no luck - another miss.  He had also told me of a black-whiskered vireo at Sabine Woods.  I beat a path over there around 8:00 am and it wasn't seen until 11:30 am .  Of course, I was on  the other side of the woods from it.  I got over to where it was seen around 10 minutes later.  The south wind was howling and it made seeing movement in the trees almost impossible.  Another birder and I headed to where it had flown and quickly found a red-eyed vireo.  We were looking straight up at it in bad light.  He though it was the black-whiskered, I didn't.  I got pretty good look at it and never saw whiskers.  It went on his life list but not mine. Another miss!!!  On my way back home, took another trip down Tuna road and found a black tern.  Total lifers for this day - 1. 

Friday 4/29.  Another very strong south wind day.  Not much was moving but was treated to many of the same warblers I'd been seeing over the last few days.  Worm-eating warblers are commonplace - wow!  Took one more trip to Sabine Woods to look for the vireo but no luck again this day.  Total lifers - 0 - my first goose egg. 

Although there were a few misses, 40 lifers is quite a HIT for me.  Total count for the trip was 169.  Total lifelist: 327