Field trip locations will be almost entirely weather driven, variable, and adjusted as needed on a daily basis. We may not visit all of the sites below (and may also visit others not listed!) as our schedule will be flexible to produce the maximum numbers and diversity. We will also be visiting rice fields and various places along the coast.

Please note that although accompanying adults will be birding the same basic areas, they will not be birding on the same daily trips with the young birder participants. This is to enable the young birders to enjoy the camaraderie of their peer group, and for the adults to have their own experience as well.

Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge
This 43,388 acre refuge on the shores of three Bays has a mixture of saline and non-saline prairies, salt/mud flats, fresh and salt water marshes, numerous potholes, several saltwater lakes, and an intermittent fresh water stream. It is conveniently situated to get "fallouts" during the spring in the small wood lots dotting the refuge.

We'll look for late wintering raptors and hopefully pick up some coastal prairie species like White-tailed Kite, Crested Caracara, and White-tailed Hawk. Northern Bobwhite, Eastern Meadowlarks, Northern Mockingbird, and Loggerhead Shrike are present year round and Common Nighthawk might be found roosting on the fence posts. There is a thick hedgerow around Gator Nest Pond that should yield many migrants and more common passerines. Almost any of ducks found on the Texas coast can be expected in the refuge, with Masked Ducks regularly sighted here. The mud flats can be covered with migrating shorebirds. All six species of North American rails can be present and we shouldn't miss Common Moorhen and Purple Gallinule. Clapper Rail and King Rail should not be difficult but Sora and Virginia Rail will be more challenging.

Bolivar Flats
Bolivar Flats is one of the best spots for shorebirds in Texas. Created by the 100 year old jetties that protect the entrance to Galveston Bay, it is a great expanse of accessible mud flats. Thousand of sandpipers, plovers, terns, gulls, and herons are either resident, winter, or stop on migration.

Thousands upon thousands of terns, gulls, and shorebirds come to roost each evening along this peninsula. The pace of the birding could be frantic as we comb these massive mobs on the shoreline for our target species: elegant American Avocet, Long-billed Curlew and Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrow. Year round Reddish Egrets, Roseate Spoonbills, and pelicans can be found and during migration sandpipers of several kinds can blanket the flats. Willet, Red Knot, Dunlin, Ruddy Turnstone, Western, Semipalmated, and Least Sandpipers are usually abundant, with good numbers of dowitchers, Stilt Sandpiper, and Marbled Godwit expected at times.

Boy Scout Woods
This outstanding reserve is the core of the Houston Audubon Society's sanctuary system on High Island. A combination of hackberry and oak mottes rising above the surrounding coastal prairie and wetlands, this sanctuary lies one mile from the Gulf of Mexico providing a convenient resting place for weary neotropical migrants. The Boy Scout Woods (Louis B. Smith Bird Sanctuary) has extensive boardwalks and a new covered picnic shelter.

We'll hope for a few rarities amongst the loads of small migrating passerines including Mourning Warbler, Painted Bunting, Swainson's Warbler, Prothonotary Warbler, Blue Grosbeak, Kentucky Warbler, Hooded Warbler, Yellow-throated and White-eyed Vireo. We'll also be checking these woods daily as they are just a short hop from our campground!

Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge
Anahuac is a fantastic site for shorebirds and waterfowl as well as other marsh animals. We'll be on the lookout for Long-billed Dowitcher, Hudsonian Godwits, and Buff-breasted Sandpipers alongside more common birds such as Roseate Spoonbill, White Ibis, and five elusive rail species. Surrounded by flooded rice fields, the refuge can hold swarms of shorebirds in the spring.

Smith Oaks Reserve
Smith Oaks, on the north edge of High Island, is the larger of the two sanctuaries and can host remarkable numbers of migrating passerines in the spring. Tanagers, Orioles, warblers, buntings and vireos drop into the trees as they finish their flights over the Gulf of Mexico. Smith Oaks also has a heron rookery, and Claybottom Pond can hold good numbers of egrets, spoonbills, and herons. We'll hope for a few rarities amongst loads of small passerines including Mourning Warbler, Painted Bunting, Swainson's Warbler, Prothonotary Warbler, Blue Grosbeak, Kentucky Warbler, Hooded Warbler, Yellow-throated and White-eyed Vireo.

GUIDES/INSTRUCTORS

JEN BRUMFIELD
Jen hails from Akron, Ohio, where she presently gets great kicks working for Cleveland Metroparks as a scientific illustrator and naturalist. Heavily involved in young birder education, she is the editorial advisor for the ABA's youth birder newsletter, A Bird's-Eye View. Jen's natural history illustrations have appeared in throngs of journals, newsletters, books, and even on greeting cards. Birding is innate for this gal, who ventures to say she's gone way beyond the "interest." It's simply a way of life

MOEZ ALI
Moez grew up in Nairobi, birding and exploring Kenya's world-famous Rift Valley. He spent most of his early years in the wild, climbing trees with monkeys, searching for bird nests, and chasing and learning about all the wildlife he could find. After traveling all over Africa looking for flycatchers, weavers, and sunbirds, Moez moved to the U.S. as a student in 1999. He now lives in Tucson where he coordinates research on the birds of Arizona's sky islands and riparian areas for the University of Arizona.