April 12-18, 2025 with John Coons
Springtime in East and Coastal Texas is always an exciting time of year. Birds are streaming in from parts south and heading north to the nearby piney woods, midwestern woodlands, spruce/fir forests of Canada, and the arctic. In our week of birding, we managed to get a good sampling of these migrants as they stopped off along the Texas Coast as well as seeing many breeding birds in East Texas.
After meeting up in the evening in Houston, we headed out our first morning to Jones State Forest where we found and had great views of the rare Red-cockaded Woodpecker along with another southeast US specialty, Brown-headed Nuthatch. We then headed east and further into the piney woods where we ended up finding and getting nice looks at singing Northern Parula, Prothonotary Warbler, Hooded Warbler, Kentucky Warbler, and the very special Swainson’s Warbler. All of these were recently arrived birds on their breeding grounds. After lunch we headed north toward Jasper with a few stops along the way, and a fantastic soaring Swallow-tailed Kite at the BA Steinhagen Lake.
The next day was full of varied habitats. We started just north of Jasper where we first heard, then scoped, a wonderful singing Bachman’s Sparrow, one of the iconic birds of the pine/savanna habitat of the southeast. We watched this bird singing for several minutes. A stop along the roadside gave us great views of a Prairie Warbler before making a gas stop where we watched a Northern Mockingbird diving on a Red-shouldered Hawk that was perched on a powerline right in town. We found our first water birds at Cattail Marsh near Beaumont. Here, we encountered many Purple Gallinules, a distant Bald Eagle nest with a pair and young present, and both species of whistling-ducks. After lunch we made a stop at a turf farm where there was a rather close group of 15 Buff-breasted Sandpipers, with about 10 Upland Sandpipers and several Black-bellied Plovers. We did a quick check-in to our motel in Winnie, then headed south to High Island to see what migrants were in. We stopped at both Boy Scout and Smith Oaks Woods where we found our first Scarlet and Summer tanagers, Baltimore and Orchard Orioles, Swainson’s and Wood thrushes, grosbeaks, buntings, and Northern Waterthrush and Tennessee warblers.
The next morning we birded the Bolivar Peninsula, essentially a barrier island of the Gulf of Mexico. There were a lot of shorebirds, gulls, and terns at Rollover Pass, where highlights were a large group of Black Skimmers, several Reddish Egrets, Dunlin in breeding plumage, Marbled Godwits, a pair of Wilson’s Plovers, American Oystercatchers, and a great view of a confiding Clapper Rail. We then headed further down the peninsula and walked the beach at the Bolivar Flats Shorebird Sanctuary. This was great, with views of all of the single-banded plovers, Semipalmated, Piping, Snowy, and Wilson’s. Black, Gull-billed, Sandwich, Caspian, Royal, Common, Forster’s, and Least terns were all present. We headed back to High Island after lunch and stopped for a pair of Scissor-tailed Flycatchers and good views of Seaside Sparrows. Arriving at Boy Scout Woods, we found migration rather slow in the afternoon, so we headed to Smith Oaks and visited the Rookery where Great, Snowy, and Western Cattle-Egrets were all nesting along with many Neotropic Cormorants and exquisite Roseate Spoonbills. Additionally, we saw male and female Blue Grosbeaks, Indigo Buntings, and a late remaining Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. We headed back to Winnie to clean up before going to dinner.
On Wednesday, we deviated from our normal birding at Anahuac NWR (now called Jocelyn Nangaray NWR) to have a chance to see the mega-rarity Amur Stonechat in a private part of the refuge. This wanderer from eastern Asia had been seen by birders for a few weeks, but only on a specially guided tour through The Friends of Anahuac to this restricted part of the refuge. We joined several other birders at the refuge and walked about a mile along levees to a fallow rice field where we quickly had scope views of this bird. We spent about 20 minutes enjoying this rarity, along with a bonus American Bittern, before returning and visiting the public part of the refuge. After checking the marsh with more Fulvous and Black-bellied whistling-ducks, Stilt Sandpiper, many Dunlin and a Sora, we stopped at a woodlot that turned out to be great. We spent quite a bit of time here, seeing a number of migrant warblers coming to bathe at a water drip. These included Worm-eating, Prothonotary, Hooded, Yellow, Tennessee, Yellow-throated, Blue-winged, Black-and-white, Northern Parula, American Redstart, Louisiana Waterthrush, and Common Yellowthroat, as well as a White-tailed Kite flying over. We then headed to a well-earned lunch and a short break at the motel before returning to High Island for the afternoon arrivals. This visit turned out to be quite good, with our first Magnolia, Blackpoll, and Black-throated Green warblers. Over at Smith Woods we added a male Blackburnian Warbler, a bathing Yellow-breasted Chat, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, more tanagers and orioles and a surprise Red-headed Woodpecker, which is quite rare in this coastal woodland.
Thursday found us heading east near the Texas/Louisiana border to bird the Sabine Pass area, including the noted Sabine Woods. We saw Clapper Rail again, as well as flushing a couple of Least Bitterns in a large coastal marsh. Arriving at Sabine Woods, we were greeted by a good number of migrants. We had tremendous views of a Swainson’s Warbler on the ground, along with as many as 10 Prothonotary Warblers, Ovenbird, Great Crested Flycatcher, and a Great Kiskadee that had been eluding many of the other birders there. Visiting Sea Rim State park for a picnic lunch, we checked out the beach for our best views of Sandwich Terns, and a swarm of American Avocets in a coastal pond. We returned to Sabine Woods after lunch where we enjoyed more of the colorful migrants, including Painted Bunting, before heading back to Winnie.
We had to pack up the next morning to head back to Houston, but we had a few stops in mind. Going back to the rice fields and pastures southwest of Winnie, we had a great look at a King Rail that came out of the wet meadow as we were viewing shorebirds, which included another Buff-breasted and a few Pectoral sandpipers. We stopped at a bridge and eventually had views of a couple of Cave Swallows in comparison with the more common Cliff Swallows. A perched Bald Eagle on a power pole was at one of our last stops before making the drive to Houston.
During our trip we also got to experience the relaxed culture of east Texas. We had a chance to sample a diverse cuisine that all had one thing in common…. huge portions. It was great fun birding with all of you and seeing the spectacle of migration.
Mammals encountered on our trip included:
Virginia Opossum (Didelphis virginiana)
Swamp Rabbit (Sylvilagus aquaticus)
Eastern Gray Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis)
Eastern Fox Squirrel (Sciurus niger)
White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus)
A few of the herps we saw were:
American Bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus)
Chicken Turtle (Deirochelys reticularis)
Red-eared Slider (Trachemys scripta elegans)
American Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis)
Green Anole (Anolis carolinensis)
You can see my complete trip report on eBird at this link: https://ebird.org/tripreport/353616
You can download a combined PDF of this page and the eBird report at this link: https://fieldguides.com/triplists/mig25aTRIPLIST.pdf
--John Coons