Thanks to many of the Tweeters who responded to my request for advice for
advice a couple of months ago, my Galveston, Texas trip was a great success.
Four and a half days of birding netted me 157 species, including 42 life
birds. I appreciate that 157 is not such a remarkable total, given that the
Big Day record is around 260, but it was good enough for me!



High Island was fabulous. The team from Tropical Birding who led the free
guided walks were all charming and endlessly helpful, and I recommend them
highly to anyone unfamiliar with the birds of the area. The guys would
always go out of their way to try and find you a bird if they knew you were
looking for something in particular, and they made every effort to make sure
everyone got a chance to see a bird, even when dealing with large groups of
20 people or so. The large numbers of people at High Island meant that word
got around fast of what was being seen and where, a plus point to counteract
the less than entirely peaceful birding environment! (Crowds were not
exclusive to High Island, I will point out - Quintana and Lafitte's Cove
both had their super-busy times too.) Sunday was a 19 warbler day for me (or
18, depending where you stand on the yellow-breasted chat debate). I didn't
get out to Sabine Woods, which some people recommended as an alternative,
purely because of distance.



Brazoria Wildlife Reserve was a total contrast. I spent a little over 2
hours on their auto tour route, and saw one other car. On the walking
trails, I was entirely alone. A large, quiet park, with fantastic habitat,
though the best shorebird ponds were dry as Texas is having a drought this
spring. It was a particularly good place to study gull-billed terns, which
swooped down to the roadside ditches just 6 feet from the car. It also seems
to be a good place for sora - I saw as many in an hour as I have in 5 years
of birding in Washington, with four right out in the open and posing for
photos. Sadly, the local rails weren't feeling as cooperative.



Galveston Island State Park was generally quieter for birds, though it did
turn up both crested caracara and white-tailed kite. The Texas A&M wetlands
at Pelican Island were a small-ish but delightful spot that I zipped to at a
lunch break one day during the convention, and wished I had had more time
for. More white-tailed kites there, and it also turned up a yellow-headed
blackbird.



Bolivar flats was the best shorebirding spot of the trip. Rollover Pass
looked promising, but the tides were wrong, with low tide in the early
afternoon when the warblers were quiet. Bolivar had both piping and snowy
plover, at one time in the same scope view for a nice comparison, plus
long-billed curlew and a big mix of others.



Margaret Sloan gave me a great tour of Brazos Bend State Park, and even fed
me after I foolishly left my lunch at the hotel. After all the coastal
birding, this inland wetland make a pleasant change. Definitely the place to
go if you want to see yellow-crowned night herons close-up and personal,
less so if you don't fancy tip-toeing around the tails of basking
alligators.



So thank you once again to everyone who took the time to reply to my
original query, all your advice was very much appreciated.



Louise Rutter

Kirkland