Volunteering at High Island
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April 15, 2007:
Yesterday I woke up early, very early. I got up about 5:45am and begrudgingly got myself ready for the nearly 2 hour drive to High Island, TX, a hotspot known all over the US and Europe for great springtime birds. I wasn't sure I wanted to go, since last time I went, I saw pretty much nothing (see the Featherfest entry), and even if I did, I was probably going to be stuck behind a booth.
I got there pretty early, so I did a little birding on my own. Right away I saw Orchard Orioles and Baltimore Orioles (a lifer) feeding on the mulberries. I was starting to feel a little better :) It was cloudy, but at least it was warm with a nice cool breeze.
Once others got there, we set up shop, and I was given the assignment of manning the merchandise booth with another woman whose name escapes me (I'm horrible with names). She had been birding just about as long I had. She said what's great about this job is that if we want to go off and bird, or leave the booth to see what everyone else is doing, then we can go right ahead as long as we keep an eye on the booth or let the other person know we're leaving.
Overall, I saw 52 species, 12 of them brand new to me. Almost all of the new birds were pretty spectacularly colored as well: Scarlet Tanager, Rose-Breasted Grosbeak, Baltimore Oriole, Yellow-breasted Chat, Blue-winged Warbler, Cerulean Warbler, American Redstart, Kentucky Warbler, Blackburnian Warbler, Red-eyed Vireo, Warbling Vireo, and Common Knighthawk.
Other spectacular birds that were prevalant that I had seen before were Indigo Bunting, Painted Bunting, Black and White Warbler, Hooded Warbler, Summer Tanager. This place was a songbird lover's dream!
There were three birds that I consider the high points because of how I found them. First was the Cerulean Warbler. For this bird, only me and one other man (who happened to be an expert) saw the entire day, so it was pretty special. The next was the Blackburnian Warbler. It had showed up once earlier in the day, but its still considered pretty uncommon. In the afternoon, I was just sitting at the booth, looking into the trees and saw a small bird flittering around. I knew what it was from earlier, a Blackburnian Warbler. I called it out and immediately a group of nearly 40 people formed to look for it :) Most of the people there hadn't seen it earlier in the day. The last was the Kentucky Warbler, because I really really had to work for it. It seems everytime I went out, I got a "you sould of been here 5 minutes ago." In a last-ditch effort, I took one more walk around before closing, and I spotted it right in the first place someone said they saw it, in the brush southeast of Prothonatary Pond.
Overall it was a great day. It got colder and windier as the day went on, but since it was a north wind, it kept the birds at bay. I'm going to be going back to High Island next weekend for the Houston Audubon to visit the other sanctuaries. This time I'll have Conan with me, so even if it's the same old birds to me, it will be new to him. I hope the weather will be good.
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| 2008-06-27 - | So very busy, but upcoming road trip! |
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| 2008-06-04 - | Gas prices have got me down |
| 2008-05-28 - | May Update |
| 2008-05-07 - | Dropping hobbies like bad habits |
| 2008-05-02 - | Stuck in the middle (random thought) |
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| 2008-03-25 - | Cell Phone Woes |
| 2008-03-01 - | Texas Independence Day 5k Run |
| 2008-02-29 - | Running Pains |
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| 2008-01-14 - | Aramco Houston Half Marathon |
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Entries from 2007 (click to view)
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Entries from 2005 (click to view)
Entries from 2004 (click to view)
