Hi Louise!

I'm a former Washingtonian currently living in the Houston area. I would recommend that you either subscribe to Texbirds, our Tweeters equivalent, or read the archives (which are current) online in the weeks prior to your trip. http://lists.texbirds.org/texbirds.html April birding is very weather dependent and these posts will help you locate the hotspots at the moment. There's a series of birding maps available http://beta-www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/wildlife/wildlife-trails/. I recommend that you purchase the Upper Texas Coast map. This map provides brief information about a number of great birding locations.

Galveston's annual Featherfest is April 7 to 10. If your conference is close to those dates, you may want to arrive early and take advantage of this event. In any case, if you read the conference information, that will also give you a good idea of the birding possibilities in the area. http://www.galvestonfeatherfest.com/

Most of the major birding locations are recovering well from the hurricanes (although many oaks were killed), so you should find good birds at the locations already recommended to you: High Island, Bolivar Flats, Sabine Woods. Lafitte's Cove in Galveston can also be excellent. I live on the southwest side of Houston, so I frequently bird in Brazoria County. It's within your "90 minutes" limit so you may want to try some of the areas there (also on the Upper Texas Coast map).

I'll probably be home at that time, so if you have further questions, feel free to email me.

Margaret Sloan
Missouri City, Texas

---------- Original Message ----------
From: "Louise Rutter" <louise.rutter at eelpi.gotdns.org>
To: <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Subject: [Tweeters] Texas Galveston Birding
Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2011 19:09:56 -0800


A work conference is putting me on Galveston Island, TX in mid-April &ndash; could be worse! I&rsquo;m considering which books to invest in, and looking on Amazon, I&rsquo;m debating:

Finding Birds on the Great Texas Birding Trail: Houston, Galveston and Upper Texas, by Ted L Eubanks Jr
Exploring the Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail, by Mel White (Falcon Guide)
Birdlife of Houston, Galveston and the Upper Texas Coast, by Ted L Eubanks Jr
Birding Texas, by Roland H Wauer (Falcon Guide)

If anyone has experience using these books, particularly in the Galveston Island area, I would appreciate your comments. Of course, if you know of better books, I&rsquo;d love to hear that too. I will be hiring a car, but I&rsquo;m not looking to drive more than about 90 minutes from Galveston Island to bird, so if anyone has recommendations for good bird spots in that radius, please fill me in!

Louise Rutter
Kirkland