2018 Spring Migration at High Island - Day 1

For the third year in a row I visited High Island to see the spring migration(April 21 and 22). I had been following the ebird report which was showing some amazing birds being reported this year at some of the sites in High Island. I was very eager to visit the place this year.

I was at South Padre Island the week before and there was lot of buzz about the spring migration at High Island. There were lot of folks making a trip to High Island directly from SPI. My initial plan was to push my visit to the last week of April but because of these reported sightings I planned to prepone my trip.

On April 21 morning I reached Boy Scout Woods sanctuary at around 7AM. There were already people busy focusing their cameras and binoculars on the winged friends. We saw the usual Tennesse Warbler, Nashville Warbler, Northern Parula, Indigo Bunting, Painted Bunting and Blue Grosbeaks.  The number of Ruby-throated Humming birds was amazing. It looked they were every where. We also saw Scarlet and Summer Tanager here. Got to see my first Prothonotary Warbler and the bird looked like it just flew to the place overnight. The bird was exhausted to even fly and was just walking on the ground and trying to feed on whatever food it could find on the ground.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

Indigo Bunting(Female)

Indigo Bunting

Northern Parula

Scarlet Tanager

Tennesse Warbler

Blackpoll Warbler

Indigo Bunting

Prothonotary Warbler

Inside the sanctuary near the Prothonotary pond we saw Green Heron, Yellow-crowned Night Heron, Little-Blue Heron and White Ibis. The Little-blue was pretty busy and was successful in catching crayfish more than once.  While other Herons were playing waiting game. We could see lot of Swainson's Thrush and Wood Thrush in the park. I did get to see couple of Worm-eating warblers and Grey-cheeked Thrush as well.

Near the pond at the entrance we saw an American redstart which was flying all over the place. There was also a Red-breasted Grosbeak, Baltimore Oriole and the Grey catbird.

White Ibis

Yellow-crowned Night Heron

Little Blue Heron

Swainson's Thrush

Wood Thrush

Summer Tanager

Prothonotary Warbler

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

American Redstart

White-eyed Vireo

At the parking lot got to see my first Black-billed Cuckoo along with Blue-headed Vireo. The mulberry trees had lot of birds in it. I saw Painted Bunting, Tanagers, Warblers and Viroes on these trees feasting on the fruits and some of them on insects.

Grey Catbird

Baltimore Oriole

Black-billed Cuckoo

Painted Bunting

Blue-headed Vireo

For the afternoon birding I headed towards Bolivar Flats Shorebird Sanctuary which is the best place to see the shorebirds. Here I could hundreds of American Avocets in the water and on the shores. I had never seen so many Avocets in my life, it was amazing. Along with the Avocets we could see different kind of Terns(Sandwich, Black, Royal, Common, Forster's and Caspian). And we also saw Dowitchers, Black-necked Stilt, Black-bellied and American Golden Plovers, Semi-palmated plover, Piping plover, Rudy Turnstone, Dunlin, Least Sandpiper, Stilt Sandpiper and others. And among the Gulls I got to see my first Galucous Gull. The bird was consistently seen at this place for past few days. There were some Mottled ducks and Scaups in the water too.

Piping Plover

Yellowlegs

American Avocet

Avocet and Dunlin

Sanderling

Willet

Royal Tern

Semi-palmated Plover

Piping Plover

Red Knot

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

After this I headed towards the Rollover pass to try my luck with shorebirds again. Here again we saw lot of Avocets and terns but we did get to see some Marbled Godwits along with Clapper Rail. We also saw few Whimbrel and lot of Black-skimmers. We did see some Brown Pelicans and American-white Pelicans. Both variants of Willets were seen here. I got to picture my first Boat-tailed Grackle identified by its black Iris.

Black Skimmer

Marbled Godwit

Willer

Skimmer and Laughing Gull

Forster's Tern

American Avocet

Ring-billed Gull

Tri-colored Heron

Royal, Caspian and Common Tern

Common, Black and Royal Tern

Common, Sandwich and Royal Tern

Great Blue Heron

Brown Pelican

Whimbrel

Willet

Black-bellied Plover

Semi-palmated Plover

Yellow Warbler

Black-necked Stilt

Dowitcher

Clapper Rail

Whimbrel

Boat-tailed Grackle

Yellowlegs

For the evening walk we visited Smith Oaks Sanctuary. In the rookery we saw all the 3 Egrets(Snowy, Cattle and Great) along with Roseatte Spoonbills. We also Purple and Common Gallinules. There were atleast 3 Alligators that we could find on the mud banks. We did see some Little Blue and Tri-colored Herons here. We saw the same warblers as we saw at Boy Scouts Woods Sanctuary. It was a great day filled with birds and I got to see 2 new birds.

Ruby-Throated Humminbird

Orchard Oriole

Rose-Breasted Grosbeak(Female)

Blue Grosbeak

ebird : 

Boy Scouts Woods Sanctuary : https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S44901435
Bolivar Flats Shorebird Sanctuary : https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S44901762
Rollover Pass : https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S44902081

List of birds seen during the day :

1	American Avocet
2	American Golden-Plover
3	American Redstart
4	American White Pelican
5	Baltimore Oriole
6	Barn Swallow
7	Black Skimmer
8	Black Tern
9	Black-and-white Warbler
10	Black-bellied Plover
11	Black-billed Cuckoo
12	Blackburnian Warbler
13	Black-necked Stilt
14	Blackpoll Warbler
15	Black-throated Green Warbler
16	Blue Grosbeak
17	Blue Jay
18	Blue-headed Vireo
19	Blue-winged Warbler
20	Broad-winged Hawk
21	Brown Pelican
22	Carolina Wren
23	Caspian Tern
24	Cedar Wawing
25	Clapper Rail
26	Common Tern
27	Common Yellowthroat
28	Dunlin
29	Eurasian Collared-Dove
30	Forster's Tern
31	Glaucous Gull
32	Gray Catbird
33	Gray-cheeked Thrush
34	Great Blue Heron
35	Great Crested Flycatcher
36	Great Egret
37	Greater/Lesser Yellowlegs
38	Great-tailed Grackle
39	Green Heron
40	Hooded Warbler
41	Indigo Bunting
42	Killdeer
43	Laughing Gull
44	Least Sandpiper
45	Least Tern
46	Lesser Scaup
47	Little Blue Heron
48	Louisiana Waterthrush
49	Marbled Godwit
50	Mottled Duck
51	Mourning Dove
52	Nashville Warbler
53	Neotropic Cormorant
54	Northern Cardinal
55	Northern Mockingbird
56	Northern Parula
57	Northern Waterthrush
58	Orange-crowned Warbler
59	Orchard Oriole
60	Painted Bunting
61	Piping Plover
62	Prothonotary Warbler
63	Red Knot
64	Reddish Egret
65	Red-winged Blackbird
66	Ring-billed Gull
67	Rose-breasted Grosbeak
68	Royal Tern
69	Ruby-throated Hummingbird
70	Ruddy Turnstone
71	Sanderling
72	Sandwich Tern
73	Scarlet Tanager
74	Semipalmated Plover
75	Short-billed/Long-billed Dowitcher
76	Stilt Sandpiper
77	Summer Tanager
78	Swainson's Thrush
79	Tennessee Warbler
80	Turkey Vulture
81	Veery
82	Whimbrel
83	White Ibis
84	White-eyed Vireo
85	Willet
86	Wood Thrush
87	Worm-eating Warbler
88	Yellow Warbler
89	Yellow-billed Cuckoo
90	Yellow-throated Vireo