After a restful night, I woke up on Tuesday to overcast skies and a breeze. Going downstairs to the hotel’s free breakfast, a man in the hallway said, “You must be the other birder here!”, indicating the reception staff had told him of another person (me) who was here for birdwatching. As we both gathered breakfast food, he introduced himself as a birding tour guide from Northern California, guiding a group of four people here and headed to High Island. The Texas coast is somewhat of a birder’s Mecca in the springtime.
After breakfast, I met my guide for the day, Kristine Rivers, the owner of the local company Birding for Fun. She was waiting for me just outside the hotel lobby before 8 a.m. We took off in her van, headed toward Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge, located on the mainland northwest of Galveston Island. Before we left the island, however, we stopped at Corps Woods, a small woodsy area across the road from the Army Corps of Engineers Galveston District office. I was interested to see the office, albeit from a distance, since I had worked for the Corps’ Seattle District before I retired. As we walked the path around the small area, Kristine pointed out a northern parula warbler, a new species I hadn’t seen before and not found in the western half of the U.S. It was the first of many “lifers” of the day for me, birds I had never seen before. The only snake we encountered during the day (thankfully) was here too, a tiny, dark, 6-inch long snake that scrambled off the path in front of Kristine.
Thus a great birding day commenced, with Kristine using her longtime Galveston knowledge to know just where to stop to find birds. We drove through the refuge, stopping along the way to see birds, alligators, and even to rescue a large turtle that was in danger of getting run over while crossing the highway. We went to so many different habitats, including wetlands, estuarine areas, lake shores, a sandy Gulf of Mexico beach, soccer fields, and ponds next to the road, all with different birds. Kristine was a fantastic guide and naturalist with wide-ranging knowledge of birds, plants, natural history and all things about Galveston. She was really fun and interesting to talk to and she made sure I was comfortable and seeing as many birds as possible. It was a thoroughly enjoyable day despite cloudy conditions and high wind at times, and we saw 75 bird species, many of them being lifers for me.
The trip ended about 4 p.m. when Kristine returned me to my hotel, leaving me with recommendations for dinner and next-day birding locations. The time spent with her was definitely the highlight of my time in Texas.
In the evening, I went to dinner at Gypsy Joynt, a restaurant and bakery Kristine had suggested, where I enjoyed a really great fish sandwich on freshly-baked bread with a little indulgent mac and cheese on the side. And I found a self-service car wash to remove the dried-on salt spray from the Bolivar-Galveston ferry ride that was making it nearly impossible to see out the side windows.
Lori's Travels 