High Island, TX
I'm lucky enough to have a sister-in-law who's studying Mottled Ducks at Anahuac NWR in Texas, ten miles as the warbler flies from High Island, one of the greatest migration spots on the continent. So of course we had to time a visit to coincide with migration.

Since I've done almost all of my birding in the west, lots of what easterners consider to be common backyard birds were lifers for me -- Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Scarlet Tanager, Indigo Bunting. It's hard to pick a highlight -- a tree with more than a dozen Orchard Orioles gorging on mulberries? Hooded and Kentucky Warblers posing side-by-side at the water-drip feature?

It wasn't just about the passerines, either. High Island has a really amazing rookery for herons of all kinds, and we got a chance to go on a rail walk at Anahuac -- about 70 birders lined up in the marsh, slogging through waist-high grass and two-inch-deep water at a fast walk to flush elusive rails. (That was a resounding success, too -- I had a Yellow Rail fly up two feet in front of me, and got decent looks at Black Rail, Virginia Rail, and Sora, too! Five rails in a day, if you count the Clapper I heard calling earlier. Eight if you count American Coot, Common Moorhen, and Purple Gallinule.)

We ended up with 99 species for the weekend -- three days of birding -- without really trying; we never started earlier than 8:30 and had a fair bit of downtime. A trip to Bolivar Flats Shorebird Sanctuary, could have easily added another dozen or more, and more time with the warblers would have added a few species as well. Try as we might, though, we couldn't spot an Osprey or something else identifiable at 60 mph on the drive back to the airport to make a round 100.

A few pictures, and the trip list, are behind the cut.



Great Egret:



Roseate Spoonbill:



Scarlet Tanager:







Bird list in taxonomic order, with lifers in all caps:

FULVOUS WHISTLING-DUCK
MOTTLED DUCK
Blue-winged Teal
Northern Shoveler
Pied-billed Grebe
Brown Pelican
Double-crested Cormorant
ANHINGA
LEAST BITTERN
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
LITTLE BLUE HERON
TRICOLORED HERON
Cattle Egret
Green Heron
Black-crowned Night-Heron
YELLOW-CROWNED NIGHT-HERON
WHITE IBIS
White-faced Ibis
ROSEATE SPOONBILL
White-tailed Kite
Northern Harrier
Red-tailed Hawk
YELLOW RAIL
BLACK RAIL
CLAPPER RAIL (heard only)
VIRGINIA RAIL
Sora
PURPLE GALLINULE
Common Moorhen
American Coot
Black-bellied Plover
Killdeer
Black-necked Stilt
Willet
Whimbrel
Ruddy Turnstone
Sanderling
Semipalmated or Western Sandpiper
PECTORAL SANDPIPER
Wilson's Phalarope
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Caspian Tern
Forster's Tern
Rock Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Mourning Dove
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Common Nighthawk
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Downy Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Western Kingbird
Eastern Kingbird
SCISSOR-TAILED FLYCATCHER
Loggerhead Shrike
WHITE-EYED VIREO
BLUE-HEADED VIREO
WARBLING VIREO
Blue Jay
Purple Martin
Cliff Swallow
Barn Swallow
Tufted Titmouse
Carolina Wren (heard only)
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Swainson's Thrush
Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
BLUE-WINGED WARBLER
TENNESSEE WARBLER
NORTHERN PARULA
BLACK-THROATED GREEN WARBLER
Palm Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
AMERICAN REDSTART
PROTHONOTARY WARBLER
LOUISIANA WATERTHRUSH
KENTUCKY WARBLER
Common Yellowthroat
HOODED WARBLER
Summer Tanager
SCARLET TANAGER
Savannah Sparrow
SEASIDE SPARROW
Northern Cardinal
ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK
INDIGO BUNTING
Red-winged Blackbird
Eastern Meadowlark
Great-tailed Grackle
BOAT-TAILED GRACKLE
Brown-headed Cowbird
ORCHARD ORIOLE
Baltimore Oriole
House Sparrow