Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Spring migration: A trip to the coast.

The Texas Gulf Coast is a bird watcher's paradise each spring. Second half April, first half of May about 40 million a night cross the Gulf of Mexico from the Yucatan, others fly up the not a whole lot more hospitable arid Mexican/Texas coastline.

Thursday when a strong cold front went through was the best time to be there. Most of them are doing good if they can manage a sustained 30 mph, meaning about a 24 hour flight to cross the Gulf. A 15mph or more headwind from a front can double that or, worse yet, stop 'em dead in their tracks over open water.

Likely millions went down, those that did make landfall were so exhausted they were sitting around on the ground everywhere in droves Friday morning. Still, they disperse inland pretty quick and things were back to normal today, which still means pretty darn spectacular.

Port Aransas, having some trees and a fresh water drip pipe set out in a wooded pocket of land attracts many songbirds working their way up the arid 100 mile-plus Padre Island/Barrier Island strip.

OK, in approximate order seen, most cases so close binoculars are superfluous, so anxious are the birds to feed and refuel at that time. In a perfect world for them they'd be another 150-300 miles inland by tomorrow morning.

These pics not mine but lifted off of the 'net.

Magnolia Warbler: On their way to the spruce/fir North Woods, always odd to see species like this out on the Island...



Catbird. Droves, all over the place...



Approximate order from South to North, Wood Thrush breeding in broadleaf hardwoods, Veery northern hardwoods mixed coniferous, Swainson's Thrush in spruce/fir and Gray-cheeks way the heck up along the Tundra treeline....






Blue-winged Warbler: Second growth and forest edges, from the Southeast all the way up to Upstate New York...

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v148/Sharpshin/birds/blue-wing_zps83610e61.jpg[/img]

More later....

Black and White Warblers and Yellow Warblers, these are species that have a wide breeding range, especially the Yellow, and their numbers on migration reflect that. Black and Whites creep along trunk and main branches, Yellows are your stereotypical streamside and riparian margin warbler.





Closely related to the Yellow, the Chestnut-sided Warbler breeds in regenerating woodlands across the Eastern States, I usually see a ton in Vermont in summer when I go up there, most of the population winters in Honduras.



Tennessee Warblers, drab among the other warblers, this one also breed in spruce/fir and mixed Northwoods. On the wintering grounds in the Tropics it specializes in nectar, having a long brush-like tongue for the purpose. Actually an important pollinator in the Tropics....



More colorful, the Northern Parula Warbler, nests in tall trees close to water across the Eastern states, especially the South...



And one of these showed up, the odd Worm-eating Warbler (which doesn't eat worms)



Adults and young of this species of both sexes all have the same plumage. In summer it sings its simple trill in woodlands on steep, dry slopes across the Northeast, in winter its a feeding specialist, prying apart clusters of dead leaves in the Tropical forest canopy.

And last in this post, Hooded Warblers were all over. An active warbler of wooded swamps and riparian vegetation across the Old South, north to the Ohio Valley and Southern New York.

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v148/Sharpshin/birds/hooded_warbler385_zpsb5ac0d03.gif[/img]

More later....

I hope you can tell me what bird comes through in the late fall and spring. We see a rare few in west texas, but many more came through the woods and thickets of east texas.

The are the smallest bird I have ever seen except for hummingbirds. They resemble the Tennessee warbler but have a greenish tinge similar to the pic of the worm eating warbler picture you posted above and are darker on top. Thanks, eye.

And now the warblers that walk around on the ground...

Ovenbirds everywhere, the loud 'TEACHER TEACHER TEACHER" song of this species being one of the characteristic sounds of the Eastern Hardwood Forest in summer....

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/ovenbird/sounds



Walking around everywhere too, one of my favorites, the Kentucky Warbler; wet areas and dense brush in summer across the South north to the Ohio Country, Here's the song....

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/kentucky_warbler/sounds



And while we're on the topic of little yellow birds in dense, wet vegetation with loud, repetitive songs, might as well throw in the very widely distributed Common Yellowthroat, there were a bunch of these of course...

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/common_yellowthroat/sounds



The last warbler walking around was this, the Northern Waterthrush....



Spends the winter in Tropical mangrove swamps, breeds along wooded streams in the Northeastern US and Canadian Northwoods.

One of my favorites songs...

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/northern_waterthrush/sounds

Just heard one yesterday singing from a ditch near my house. In Port A today this normally elusive species were walking around on people's lawns.

More later...

Very impressive, Mike!

Thank you for taking the time and effort to share your passion.

I sat on the porch at sundown tonight, listening to the frogs and the Whippoorwills.

Good stuff.

Ed

Well, you're welcome but point of interest them whippoorwills are most likely Chuck-will's-widows.

Whippoorwills are a tad smaller'n a blue jay and sound like this...

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/whip-poor-will/id

Chuck-will's-widows are pigeon-sized and sound like this...

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Chuck-wills-widow/id

If you're in the Piney Woods, you have Chuck-wills-widows.

Anyhoo... next warbler seen, one of these, a Blackpoll, though a bit far west of the main spring route from Northern South America...



Thick as fleas in the Northwoods in summer from Alaska to Newfoundland. Lets guess the one I saw was from the Western portion of the breeding range up around Anchorage, if so it would be on a 6,000 mile trip from the South American Rain Forest to that location, prob'ly be on territory up ther by late May.

In August after breeding it'll migrate 3,400 miles southeast across the Boreal Zone to the coastal Northeastern United States, joining with others breeding all across those North Woods. From there in September enormous hordes of these things fly about 400 miles further southeast out over the Atlantic, far enough south to pick up the Northeast Trade Winds somewhere out over open water which they then allow to carry them to the coast of South America. 1,900 miles over open water, four days in the air, maybe 25-30 mph true air speed, at altitudes of 1,000 to 12,000 feet depending on where the most favorable winds are found.

We know all that because these fall flocks are large enough to pick up on radar.

Amazing thing is, adult warblers that survive all this will find their previous mate on the breeding grounds more'n 10,000 miles after they parted company the previous August, maybe nesting again in the same tree.

Birdwatcher

hey mike what are you doing sneaking around down here and not calling me? we could of took the boat out.

Rog,

I woulda done but I was meeting two different groups of students and teachers down there to help ID birds for 'em. Had to get back the same day. Left here before 4am, got there by first light, five hours on site, rolled out of Port A. for home by noon, didn't even take time to break for a meal just ate on the fly.

Next time I'll contact you anyway, heck with your outdoor skills and resources just having the option of contacting you is a priviledge, and I ain't bullsh$tting.

Birdwatcher

i'll take you down to the land cut this summer, lots of birds down there.

Mike,

You are right once again.

It is definitely a Chuck-Will's-Widow.

Neat website! Thanks.

Ed

Ya, but that was an easy one Birdwatching 101.

Actually though the most whippoorwills I have heard at one time was five, just outside of College Station TX, just as darkness fell one evening in early May. Clearly a flight of some sort had come in the night before and these birds were about to pick up and move on.

Anyhoo, some bling birds, all of which are edge/open woodland species and all of which are likely more common now than they were before settlement of the Continent.

Doesn't matter what they look like, to birders on the Texas coast in spring they generally draw yawns on account of being so common.

The Rose-Breasted Grosbeak, like Mickey Coleman just had at his feeder....



The Baltimore Oriole. Actually, if you go to the Tropics, you realize that "our" familiar migratory birds are just tropical birds on loan for the breeding season. Most of the birds in this thread spend more time down there than they do up here, and since we send about three billion of 'em south every fall it ain't surprising that these birds are also integral and important parts of tropical ecosystems dwon there.

There's a tree in Central America for example, that is pollinated largely by Baltimore Orioles, the petals being that exact same shade of yellow/orange. But in summer you can find 'em all over the Eastern and Central United States.



Another bling bird, the Indigo Bunting, common as dirt in summer across two thirds of the Continent. They sing all summer too on account of they raise two or three broods each year, present in hordes on the Texas coast in spring....



And finally, the ultimate bling bird that always blows newbies away. And testament to the perversities of human nature that veteran birders down here merely yawn when one of these show up, even though they must be among the most the spectacular of God's creations. That they can be found all over two thirds of Texas in summer is the cause of the ennui.

The Painted Bunting, like the Indigo adult males anly attaining full bling at two years of age, which only about 25% of males ever survive to see.



Birdwatcher