The Everglades provided the only photo opportunities of Wood Storks along the Gulf Coast route.
Colorful Purple Gallinules were encountered at Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge in Florida and Smith Oaks Bird Sanctuary in Texas.
Some Roseate Spoonbills were observed at an Everglades rookery, but most photo opportunities of the impressive big pink birds were provided at the Smith Oaks Rookery.
A true mystery bird provided a special opportunity to document its physical attributes, but its identity remains a point of debate that likely includes a rare hybrid pairing.
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On the road for exactly one month – from St. Patrick’s Day, March 17th to April 16th – 31 days (4 weeks and 3 days); I had an absolutely wonderful trip with a multitude of super birding experiences along the way at so many great birding hotspots! Would you believe I drove 8,001 miles?! I passed through 10 states, twice, preferring to cover the Gulf Coast region twice, a couple weeks apart, with the hope of catching the beginning of songbird migration north during my second swing through High Island, Texas. During my trip I drove as far south as I could within the United States twice – once in Texas – to the Rio Grande River at the border of Mexico, and at the southern edge of mainland Florida in Everglades National Park.
I had a rough plan of what I intended to do, but I also had to work around the variables of weather, sunlight periods, timing of photography periods with relation to available sunlight, as well as travel time from location to location – sometimes hundreds of miles. Along the way there were a number of places I definitely wanted to revisit and spend time more at, other sites I simply wanted to visit to get the lay of the land and monitor the birds on hand during a short stop, and there were also locations that have long been on my list of potentially great birding sites that I was really looking forward to exploring. There were also a couple locations I stopped at that were completely unplanned, which is always part of the fun of such as grand birding trip as this.
But I was not only birding and traveling; I was also producing an issue of The Birding Wire each week – writing, photographing, editing, and proofing – all requiring a considerable amount of time and concentration. I’ve shared the highlights of my trip week by week in the past 4 issues of The Birding Wire, but wanted to provide this short overview, and list all the public access lands I enjoyed birding at along the way:
Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, Texas
Rockport Coastline, Texas
Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, Texas
Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, Texas
Resaca de la Palma World Birding Center, Texas
Edinburg World Birding Center, Texas
Estero Llanos Grande World Birding Center, Texas
Smith Oaks Bird Sanctuary, High Island, Texas
Boy Scout Woods Bird Sanctuary, High Island, Texas
Ted Eubanks Sanctuary, High Island, Texas
Bolivar Peninsula, Texas
Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge, Texas
Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Florida
Cape Canaveral National Seashore, Florida
Venice Rookery (Audubon), Florida
Sanibel Island, Florida
Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge, Florida
Everglades National Park, Florida
Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, Florida
Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida
St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge, Florida
Wakulla Springs State Park, Florida
Dauphin Island Audubon Sanctuary, Alabama
Big Branch Marsh National Wildlife Refuge, Louisiana
Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge, Louisiana
Sabine National Wildlife Refuge, Louisiana
and back to the greater High Island area of Texas
Actually, I did take a few different forays beyond the Gulf Coast – 2 in Florida – to Merritt Island and Loxahatchee, plus I ventured inland from South Padre Island along the Rio Grande region as far west as Santa Ana Refuge and the World Birding Centers, all close to McAllen, Texas. And I spent a couple hours along the Platte River Valley in central Nebraska on my way south. My favorite locations were obviously Smith Oaks Bird Sanctuary in High Island, Texas, and the southern reaches of Everglades National Park.
Record Birds
Along the way I found 2 New Life Birds – Mexican Ducks at Estero Llanos Grande World Birding Center in south Texas, and Red-cockaded Woodpeckers at Big Branch Marsh National Wildlife Refuge in southeast Louisiana. I also found a New North American Bird for my list – a Common Crane east of Kearney, Nebraska, which likely originated from Russian Siberia. And I was able to photograph an exceptional “Mystery Bird” at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge adjacent to the Atlantic Coast in central Florida. Plus, I was able to photograph endangered Whooping Cranes at close quarters from a ship I boarded at Rockport, Texas – a primary interest in the planning and timing of this trip.
Normally, this grand excursion would have been 2 trips – 1 to Texas and 1 to Florida – but it worked out great to combine them as one extended road trip. This time I figured once I was in Texas, it was closer to Florida than to Dakota, so I just kept on going. It was the right thing to do to rid myself of all that pent-up pandemic wanderlust (after being vaccinated), and I never tired of the traveling process – in fact, I reveled in it all.
Archives List – If you would like to refer back to my weekly on-the-road birding articles, check on the Birding Lifestyles, Editor Afield, and Bird Photography articles in this issue and the past 4 issues in The Birding Wire Archives, which you can access at the top of any issue, and at the links listed below:
March 24 Issue – https://www.birdingwire.com/archives/2021-03-24
March 31 Issue – https://www.birdingwire.com/archives/2021-03-31
April 7 Issue – https://www.birdingwire.com/archives/2021-04-07
April 14 Issue – https://www.birdingwire.com/archives/2021-04-14
Article and photographs by Paul Konrad
Share your birding experiences and photos at editorstbw2@gmail.com