Today we returned to High Island . . . prepared. The day started out well because we got to check out of the odious La Quinta. We skipped their lousy breakfast, and headed straight to Gander Mountain. Pole wanted to get some of that new-fangled clothing that’s impregnated with bug repellent. They didn’t have it, so instead, we got long-legged, long-sleeved sunblock outfits (UPF 30) that we changed into at the store. Of course, with our sensible pants and shirts, we now looked like the typical dorky birder I ridiculed in yesterday’s post. Pole is particular about how she dresses, and she wasn’t happy about her outfit. And I was kind of disappointed in her, too. The good thing about birding with Pole is that if there are no birds around, I can at least look at her.

After our dork transformation, we headed to the Waffle House for breakfast. The place is a bit of a dive, but we had the best waitress of our lives: someone name Taesheba. (I’m not sure on the spelling, but she pronounced it like “Toshiba”.) She got our food to us real quick, and she kept topping off our drinks before we even finished them. And when we left, she told us to have a “blessed day.”

We didn’t see anything new on the way to High Island — in contrast to yesterday’s bounty — so we went straight to Boy Scout Woods. In the parking lot we saw a bunch of birds on the ground which turned out to be INCA DOVES. A lifer 2x, so a good start. Needless to say, before we started, we coated ourselves with DEET. Walking down the street toward the entrance, we saw an ORCHARD ORIOLE.

Once inside, we each paid our $5 fee (somehow we missed that yesterday) and right away we saw a LOUISIANA WATERTHRUSH, a PAINTED BUNTING (wow), and a ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK. Other birds we spotted in the sanctuary were:

NASHVILLE WARBLER
EASTERN WOOD PEWEE
SUMMER TANAGER
PHILADELPHIA VIREO
WARBLING VIREO
PROTHONOTARY WARBLER

We left to explore Smith Oaks, another spot run by the Houston Audubon Society. Before we got there, Pole jotted a quick post card. I ran it into the local post office for her, and got in line behind a local who was buying a book of stamps. She didn’t care what kind of stamps, she said, “as long as they don’t have any birds on ’em.” I guess they’re sick of us on High Island. I wish Taesheba had been there to kick the woman’s blessed ass.

Smith Oaks ought to be called Sweltering Oaks, or maybe just Sweltering Hellhole. The point I’m trying to make here, you see, is that it was hot. I was wearing this snooty floppy hat made by Filson’s. It’s treated with wax to be waterproof, so it probably wasn’t the best choice for birding in a fiery furnace. The heat caused the wax to be extruded from the fabric, and combined with large amount of DEET and birder sweat, well, that there hat was just about the most repulsive object you could imagine. And it was on my frigging head.

Back to birding. In the woods we saw a COMMON YELLOWTHROAT and a BALTIMORE ORIOLE, but our goal was a place called the Rookery, which was just that. When we got there, we saw hundreds of cranes, spoonbills, and herons. Alligators, too. An extraordinary sight. Added to our list were TRICOLORED HERONS and BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT-HERONS, along with an INDIGO BUNTING.

We left High Island and headed south to Bolivar Flats. You’re allowed to drive you car on the beach, and it looked like they don’t really care if you dump your trash there, either. You had to walk the last stretch of beach (which is an actual bird sanctuary), so it least they got that part right. But it is amazing that people or the government or whoever is willing to put up with so much pollution. It was like the Third World. Still, we did see quite a few birds:

RUDDY TURNSTONE
CASPIAN TERN
SANDERLING
LEAST TERN
ROYAL TERN
BROWN PELICAN
SANDWICH TERN
RED KNOT
DUNLIN
REDDISH EGRET
AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN

Our last trip was a little south, walking the jetty at the end of Jetty Road. One the drive there, we saw some EURASIAN COLLARED DOVES. On the jetty itself we spotted — as a local birder told us we would — thousands of AMERICAN AVOCETS. Also got a MARBLED GODWIT and an AMERICAN OYSTERCATCHER.

Another big day for Little Year: 31 new birds, 18 lifers for me, 16 for Pole.