This can be spring migration at its finest in the ABA region. When conditions are right, fallouts of thousands of neotropcal songbirds can fly off the ocean and use High Island for foraging and resting after their long flight from the Yucatan Peninsula.
In the early morning, we will search the woodlands around the village of High Island; these areas can be simply full of migrant land birds. Warbler diversity can be astonishing, up to almost 30 species, all in resplendent summer plumage. There can be flocks of commoner species such as Yellow, Magnolia, Chestnut-sided, Blackpoll, Bay-breasted, Tennessee, Black-throated Green, Blackburnian, Nashville and Black-and-white Warblers, Northern Parula, American Redstart, Ovenbird, Northern Waterthrush and Common Yellowthroat and these flocks can also include scarcer species such as Blue-winged, Golden-winged, Cerulean, Prothonotary, Hooded, Kentucky, Worm-eating, Swainson’s and Wilson’s Warblers, and Louisiana Waterthrush.
Mixed species flocks could contain a wealth of exciting species from Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, Gray-cheeked Thrush, Veery, Gray Catbird, Philadelphia and Blue-headed Vireos, Scarlet and Summer Tanagers to Indigo Bunting, Orchard and Baltimore Orioles, and Rose-breasted and Blue Grosbeaks. Yellow-billed Cuckoos should have arrived, along with Common Nighthawks and Chimney Swifts.
The coastal marshes and wetlands at Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge are a haven for huge numbers of waterbirds. Pied-billed Grebe, waterfowl including Fulvous Whistling-Duck, Mottled and Ruddy Ducks, Green-winged and Blue-winged Teals and Redhead, Black Tern, and Common and Purple Gallinules. Marshes support American and Least Bitterns, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, White-faced Ibis, Sora, Clapper and King Rails, and flooded areas are a magnet for migrating shorebirds from American Golden Plover, Long-billed Dowitcher, Hudsonian Godwit, and Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs to Buff-breasted, Upland, Pectoral, Solitary and Stilt Sandpipers, Wilson’s Phalarope, as well as resident Black-necked Stilts.
Raptors include Swainson’s and Broad-winged Hawks, Northern Harrier, Osprey, American Kestrel and Peregrine Falcon, and maybe an evening sighting of a Barn Owl. Songbirds here include 5 or more species of swallows, Seaside and Nelson’s Sparrows and Dickcissel.
South of High Island lie the superb Bolivar Flats, a wonderfully productive wildlife area. Shorebirds abound. Plovers include Black-bellied, Snowy, Wilson’s, Piping and Semipalmated, sandpipers include Whimbrel, Short-billed Dowitcher, Red Knot, Sanderling, Dunlin, and lots of peeps - Semipalmated, Western, Least, White-rumped and Baird’s Sandpipers. Flying over the flats will be terns - Common, Least and Sandwich – and foraging on the flats will be egrets – Great, Snowy and Reddish. This is also an area along the Gulf Coast where ranges of Boat-tailed and Great-tailed Grackles overlap. Nights in Winnie.
