Day 1: San Antonio to Rockport

Arrivals into San Antonio international airport this morning. From here we will drive southeast to Rockport/Fulton for a two-night stay, no doubt stopping from time to time as we see our first Texan birds, including Red-winged Blackbird, Great-tailed Grackle, Eastern Meadowlark, Black and Turkey Vultures, and Red-tailed Hawk. We should arrive in time for some afternoon birding around Aransas Bay, either along Rockport Beach or at Goose Island State Park, where we might encounter Sandhill Crane, Black Skimmer, Royal and Forster’s Terns, Laughing Gull, American Oystercatcher, Clapper Rail and Northern Harrier.

Day 2: Aransas National  Wildlife Refuge

This morning we will take a boat trip into Aransas National Wildlife Refuge looking for any Whooping Cranes, now numbering over 500 from a low of 21 wild birds in the 1940’s, still lingering here before departing for their breeding grounds in subarctic Canada. We will spend the rest of the day exploring the refuge on land from the motorable sanctuary ‘loop’ road, where we can expect variety and numbers of waterbirds and shorebirds such as American White and Brown Pelicans, White and White-faced Ibises, Little Blue and Tricoloured Herons, Snowy and Reddish Egrets, Long-billed Curlew, Marbled Godwit, Willet, Black-necked Stilt, Spotted, Upland and Buff-breasted Sandpipers, Mottled Duck and Seaside Sparrow.

Day 3: Rockport to Harlingen

This morning we will head across to Port Aransas at the northern end of Mustang Island, one of a chain of barrier islands extending along the Texas coastline. At Paradise Pond and Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center we will look for Wood Thrush, Hooded, Blue-winged, Blackpoll, Prothonotary and Swainson’s Warblers, Wilson’s Phalarope, Virginia Rail and Sora. Later, we will drive south to Harlingen at the southernmost point of the United States for a four-night stay. The drive will take us across parts of King Ranch, among the largest ranches in the world today and well-managed for wildlife. Pausing at several rest stops to break our journey will give us the chance to see species such as Hooded Oriole, Brewer’s Blackbird, both Northern and Tropical Parulas, and Green Jay, and to scan for birds of prey that may include less common species such as White-tailed Kite. We will arrive in Harlingen in time to begin our exploration of the lower Rio Grande Valley this afternoon.

Day 4-6: Lower Rio Grande Valley

We have three days to visit a variety of sites within the Rio Grande Valley, including Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, Bentsen-Rio Grande State Park, Laguna Atacosa, Sabal Palm Grove, Estero Llano Grande State Park, Anzalduas County Park and Brownsville. As we explore arid scrub, palm groves, subtropical woodlands, lakes and sandy beaches the proximity to Mexico will be evident in the local birdlife, and we will add numerous southern specialities, and possibly some more unusual Mexican vagrants during our time here. Among the more interesting species we will be looking for here are Long-billed Thrasher, Black-crested Titmouse, Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet, Buff-bellied Hummingbird, White-tipped and Inca Doves, Common Ground Dove, Golden-fronted Woodpecker, Altamira Oriole, Cassin’s and Tropical Kingbirds, Clay-coloured Thrush, Black Phoebe, Bronzed Cowbird, Plain Chachalaca, Ringed Kingfisher, waterbirds including Black-bellied Whistling Duck, Ring-billed Duck, Redhead and Least Grebe, and numerous birds of prey such as Grey Hawk, Hook-billed Kite and Aplomado Falcon. Tamaulipas Crow, a northeast Mexican endemic, is sporadically seen, and we will make an effort to see any that have been reported from the area. One evening, we will visit Oliveira Park for roosting Green Parakeet and Red-crowned Parrot, both of which have recolonized the lower Rio Grande Valley, and will make a special effort to look for night birds including Eastern Screech-Owl, Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl, Common Pauraque and Lesser Nighthawk. We’ll also see a selection of mammals, including Coyote, Common Racoon and Collared Peccary.

Day 7: Upper Rio Grande Valley

Today, we will make our way inland into the upper Rio Grande Valley in search of several specialities either absent from or less easily seen in the lower parts of the valley. At Salineno Wildlife Preserve, San Ygnacio and the area around Falcon Dam we’ll look for Muscovy Duck, Red-billed Pigeon, Ladder-backed Woodpecker, Audubon’s Oriole, Pyrrhuloxia, Brown Jay, Vermillion Flycatcher, Rufous-crowned Sparrow and the localised Morelet’s Seedeater in riverside habitat. Night in Laredo.

Day 8: Laredo to Del Rio

We continue our journey inland, heading for the border town of Del Rio for an overnight stay. We will spend the day at Kickapoo Cavern State Park on the western edge of the Texas Hill Country, or Edwards Plateau. Here, species of east and west coincide in the woodlands and scrub of the scenic limestone plateau, making for excellent birding. We will be looking for species such as Cave Swallow, Scott’s Oriole, Painted and Indigo Buntings, Summer Tanager, Verdin, Canyon and Bewick’s Wrens, and Cedar Waxwing. In the mesquite brush around Del Rio, we may find Northern Bobwhite, Olive Sparrow, Couch’s Kingbird, Great Kiskadee, Chichuahan Raven, Harris’s Hawk, and Crested Caracara.

Day 9-11: Davis Mountains

In the morning of day 9, we will travel into the Chihuahuan Desert and refreshingly cool mountains of far western Texas, for a three-night stay at Alpine/Fort Davis in the Davis Mountain range. Here we’ll encounter a rich species of desert and of the higher elevations, including some restricted range species and others at the extreme eastern limit of their distribution. Among the most interesting possibilities are Montezuma and Scaled Quails, Greater Roadrunner, Common Poorwill, Elf Owl, Band-tailed Pigeon, Acorn Woodpecker, Mexican Jay, Crissal Thrasher, Cactus Wren, Phainopepla, Hepatic Tanager, Varied Bunting, Blue-throated Mountain-gem, and the restricted range Lucifer Hummingbird and Colima Warbler, the latter may take some effort to locate.

Day 12-13: Edwards Plateau and Lost Maples

Today we begin our journey back east, spending two nights at Concan in the heart of the Edwards Plateau. We will visit various localities here, but most of our time will be spent among the rugged plateaus and wooded canyons of Lost Maples State Park. We’ll be looking for Eastern Bluebird, Blue Grosbeak, Carolina Chickadee, Yellow-throated Vireo, Yellow-breasted Chat, Black-chinned and Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, the smart black-backed race of Lesser Goldfinch, Louisiana Waterthrush, Green Kingfisher along the Sabinal River, Wild Turkey and Great Horned Owl. In particular, we hope to see Golden-cheeked Warbler and Black-capped Vireo, both habitat specialists that breed in the oak-juniper forests and laurels of the plateau’s canyons and hilltops, and the range-restricted Grey Vireo and Black-crested Titmouse.

Day 14: Concan to High Island via Attwater National  Wildlife Refuge

We drive east to the upper Texas coast to High Island for a four-night stay. Although mostly a travel day, we will break our journey at Attwater National Wildlife Refuge, where we may see Anhinga, Roseate Spoonbill, Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, Dickcissel, numerous sparrows, Sprague’s Pipit and White-tailed Hawk, plus White-tailed Deer and Black-tailed Jackrabbit in the native prairie and seasonal ‘pothole’ wetlands. We will arrive in time for some initial birding in what will arguably be the highlight destination of our tour.

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Day 15-17: High Island and surroundings

Together with Cape May, and Point Pelee in Canada, the High Island area offers the most exciting birding in North America during spring migration. Wooded groves along the Gulf Coast attract vireos, thrushes, tanagers, orioles and a huge variety of wood-warblers in stunning fresh breeding plumage as they move north to breed in the southeastern US or the boreal forests of Canada. In unfavourable ‘fall’ conditions, the sheer number of birds that drop in here after crossing the Gulf of Mexico can be mind-blowing, but in any conditions there is always a steady influx of migrants each afternoon until dusk.  The extensive list of species we may encounter here in Boy Scout Woods, Smith Oaks and Hook Woods includes Bay-breasted, Black-and-White, Black-throated Green, Blackburnian, Cerulean, Chestnut-sided, Kentucky, Magnolia, Wilson’s and Worm-eating Warblers, American Redstart, Ovenbird, Northern Waterthrush, Common Yellowthroat, Veery, Grey-cheeked and Swainson’s Thrushes, vireos including Philadelphia, several Empidonax flycatchers, Ruby-crowned Kinglet,  Scarlet Tanager, Baltimore and Orchard Orioles, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Yellow-billed Cuckoo and Eastern Whip-poor-will. The coastal oak and cypress woods of High Island are surrounded by prairie, flooded rice fields, freshwater marshes and tidal flats, and these Neotropical passerines are accompanied by an amazing assortment of migrating and breeding shorebirds, wading birds and other waterbirds, making for a truly diverse birding experience.  In and around Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge we’ll look for American and Least Bitterns, Purple Gallinule, American Wigeon, Pied-billed Grebe, Black Tern, Belted Kingfisher, Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, Boat-tailed Grackle, Loggerhead Shrike, Sedge Wren, Swamp Sparrow, and Tree and Cliff Swallows. Joining a ‘rail-flushing’ walk through these marshlands will give us the chance of King and possibly Yellow Rails. Bolivar Flats will be alive with thousands of coastal species including American Avocet, Short-billed Dowitcher, Snowy, Wilson’s and Piping Plovers, several smaller waders including all five North American ‘peeps’, gulls including Ring-billed and Bonaparte’s, Least Tern, and Neotropic Cormorant. Our time here will be flexible, allowing us to capitalise on migrant movements, but we will visit the woods of High Island each afternoon. One morning, we’ll drive inland into the pine forests of the Jasper area to look for pine specialists Red-cockaded Woodpecker, Brown-headed Nuthatch and Bachmann’s Sparrow, among Pine and Prairie Warblers, Pileated Woodpecker and Blue Jay. 

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Day 18: Depart Houston

Departures from Houston international airport today.

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