Migration/Utah

I'm super late on this post, as it came right in the middle of finals season and I was super sick afterwards. There are three smaller trips between April and May. I went to Sabine Woods, Provo,Utah, and then the Big Sit at Brison Park.

Indigo Bunting at Sabine Woods

Sabine Woods was supposed to be a huge day. Fallout occurs when a storm blows migrating birds off of the Gulf of Mexico and onto the first land they find. There are strategic fallout spots across Texas, from South Padre Island, to Blucher Park in Corpus, to High Island/Quintana in Houston, and finally Sabine Woods in Beaumont. Normally fallout occurs later in the afternoon, but there is always potential after a big storm. I've been to Quintana once last year and it was jaw dropping. Unfortunately, the weather conditions didn't line up and we missed a huge fallout, which probably occurred farther north in Louisiana. Although we missed on some great warblers, we had some solid shorebirds at Sea Rim State Park down the road.

Painted Bunting at Sabine Woods

I would suggest in the future to focus on High Island or Quintana. Sabine Woods is a little on the small side, and Galveston has Quintana and Lafitte's Cove within a close driving distance, which will allow you to really clean up on migrants. High Island is on the Bolivar Peninsula so it'll offer more shorebirds than Sea Rim did. Sabine Woods is a good spot, but it may be better to hit those up instead. Outside of migrants when I did Quitana I got every single kind of heron, and the only ibis we didn't get was Glossy Ibis. We had 66 species at Sabine Woods/Sea Rim, while hitting about 100 at Quintana just for reference

American Avocet at Sea Rim

American Golden Plover at Sea Rim

Black-necked Stilt, Sea Rim State Park

Blue Grosbeak, Sabine Woods

Dunlin, Sea Rim State Park

Semipalmated Plover, Sea Rim State Park

Next trip was to Provo, Utah for my boy Daniel's wedding. I came in super early to hang out, and we went on a hike to Millcreek Canyon, and then while he did wedding prep I snuck off to the Provo Airport. Utah is gorgeous, and it's canyons offer amazing diversity of habitat and species. I was there at the wrong time of year, as the mountains at super high elevations are still snowed over, but there are some amazing birds like Gray Jay and American Three-toed Woodpecker. We were at about 6600 feet, still in great shape to get some good birds. The biggest problem with Utah is that it is very underreported up in the canyons. There are tons of trails and routes, which makes it hard to keep track of everything.

We did the Desolation Trail of Millcreek Canyon. It's an amazing hike! It wasn't super birdy, but I think the lack of wind didn't favor Golden Eagles are known to soar in the canyon. Great birds, some were tough to ID because I'm not familiar with the birds. Of the birds we got an ID on, I got lifer Mountain Chickadee, my main target,  and Red-breasted Nuthatch, and then Hairy Woodpecker and Steller's Jay being the other notable birds. Not a huge quantity of birds, but really good quality.

While Daniel was doing wedding prep I snuck off and went to the Provo Airport, which is really well reported because it is easy to access. I only had time to go halfway around the airport, but wow it is such a great spot! Great birds including Great-horned Owl with chicks, Ring-necked Pheasant, Yellow-headed Blackbird, and the best bird of the trip, Brewer's Sparrow!

Barn Swallows, Provo Airport

Black-capped Chickadee, another lifer

Northern Harrier

Great-horned Owl with chicks, a great way to get a lifer

Yellow-headed Blackbird

Ring-necked Pheasant

Brewer's Sparrow, best bird of the trip

The last part of migration that was the Big Sit at Brison Park. I didn't get any good pictures, but I got one of my favorite birds of the year, Bay-breasted Warbler. Other highlights were American Redstart, Black-throated Green Warbler, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, and Chestnut-sided Warbler. It was a great way to end my migration, and even though I missed some good warblers, it was a solid end as I picked up some good ones and some of my favorite migrants. Next post will be up soon, and I'm beyond pumped for it. I'll outline the rest of the plans for the summer and moving up to 300 birds on the year!

Obviously not my picture, but this is one of my favorite birds on the year, Bay-breasted Warbler. Taken from allaboutbirds.com