Roseate Spoonbill displaying at rookery in Smith Oaks Sanctuary, High Island, Texas.

SPRING ROAD TRIP TO TEXAS AND ARIZONA (PART ONE)  

17-21 April 2023

Having completed a big writing project in early April, I celebrated this accomplishment with a three-week-long solo driving trip to the Arid Southwest (and back). I combined birding and camping with some pre-planned nature talks to local Audubon societies and visits with friends and relatives along the way.

It was a great relief to unchain myself from the desktop computer in my basement office and to head out onto the open road, parts south and west. This trip would take me, by car, through sixteen states, totaling 6,279 road miles over 23 days.

      Spring in all its glory in downtown Asheville, North Carolina

The first leg of my travels took me down to Asheville, North Carolina, where I visited Marianne Mooney and her husband Joe Sasfy, and gave a talk to the Blue Ridge Audubon Society. The drive to Asheville, down Interstate 81 and the interior valleys of Virginia and Tennessee, was 467 miles. Highlights of the drive were banks of roadside Redbud in flower and my first-ever peek at the summit of Mount Mitchell, the highest mountain in the East (a smidgen higher than Mountain Washington). I glimpsed Mount Mitchell from Interstate 26, which cuts due south through the mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina—very picturesque.

     Marianne and Joe in Hickory Nut Gorge, amongst the trillium.

 On the morning before my Audubon talk, my hosts took me on a hike down the Trombatore Trail, through Hickory Nut Gorge, southeast of Asheville. We started high on a ridge, where the morning temperature was in the forties. The walk through the forest gorge was enriched by the array of wildflowers in full bloom across the shady forest floor.

 

                             Southern Blueflag (an iris)

The birdlife in territorial song included Ovenbird and various additional warblers: Hooded, Worm-eating, Black-throated Blue, Black-throated Green, and Black-and-white. Also Blue-headed and Red-eyed Vireo.

    Large-flower Trillium
 

    Jack-in-the-Pulpit

After to nights in Asheville, I next drove south to Gautier, Mississippi, down on the Gulf Coast, where I camped at Shepard State Park. This drive of 576 miles took me through Atlanta, Auburn, Montgomery, and Mobile, and five different states, following a western route through the Smokies that skirted South Carolina. I camped in piney woods that verged a swampy estuary of the Gulf of Mexico. Setting up my tent in the evening gloaming, I was serenaded by Pine Warbler, Great Crested Flycatcher, and Eastern Towhee. 

     historic wall poster in Sunday Diner, Clayton, Georgia (where I got a down home breakfast)

     Shepard State Park, Gautier, Mississippi--first night camping

The next morning, in the thick cool coastal mist, I broke camp easly and drove east to Ocean Springs to have breakfast with Mary LeCroy, a colleague from the American Museum of Natural History and noted expert on birds of New Guinea. She had recently returned to Mississippi. After a fun breakfast at Lancaster’s spent chatting about all manner of museum people and ornithological politics, I dropped Mary at her home and headed west to Scott, Louisiana, where I could have a late lunch of boudin and other cajun goodies at Billy’s, just off Interstate 10. The shrimp roll-up was particularly tasty. But the two flavors of boudin did not disappoint…

     Billy's Boudin and Cracklins, Scott, Louisiana

2.5 hours more driving west on the dread I-10 got me to Winnie Texas, where I filled my cooler with camping food and then headed south of Texas 124 to High Island, where I would be camping for four nights. The High Island RV Park was under new management and was a perfect base of operations for me. From here I could launch out to White's Ranch Road, Smith Oaks Sanctuary, Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge, or Fort Travis County Park down the Bolivar Peninsula toward Galveston. So many great birding venues that are bursting with birds in late April!

 

     the tenting lawn at the High Island RV Park, High Island, Texas (before the first night's flood)

My first evening featured a series of noisy thunderstorms and heavy rain that flooded the tenting lawn of the RV park. The interior of my tent remained dry but outside was a bay of standing water surrounding my tent. The crash of thunder and flash of lightning went on for what seemed like hours. Welcome to the Gulf Coast in spring! 

     adult male Red-winged Blackbird displaying on territory at Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge

     Boat-tailed Grackle adult male displaying at Anahuac (wildlife drive)

    Neotropical Cormorant group, Anahuac NWR

An early morning visit to Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge was productive for shore- and marsh birds. The birding loop is always a good bet in the morning.

     A slider (?) wearing a dorsal covering of algae

    An Alligator having a meaty breakfast

     A Purple Gallincule showing off its oversized feet

    A pair of Black-necked Stilts; left bird sitting upon its soggy nest.

A late morning visit to Fort Travis County Park was worthy for the many shorebirds frequenting the vast mowed lawns of the Fort’s interior. I saw a single Hudsonian Godwit and dozens of Marbled Godwits, and plenty of Whimbrels, turnstones, and dowitchers…

     Spring-plumaged Spotted Sandpiper on the walkway.

    A Western Sandpiper showing off its chestnut shoulder patch.

     Marbled Godwits were hanging out at Fort Travis County Park in good numbers.

I visited Smith Oaks sanctuary on High Island in the afternoon and bumped into my New Jersey friends  Michael O’Brien and Louise Zemaitis, who are leading a VENT tour, and Cliff and Julie Shackelford, famous Texas birders and conservationists. The wonderful canopy walk is filled with eager birders, hoping for a strong arrival of songbirds in the late afternoon. 

     Birders spotting warblers from the comfort of the canopy walkway at Smith Oaks sanctuary.

I was just getting going here in East Texas. Stay tuned for my next blog, which will show and tell more about the High Island area birding and its particular highlights of Spring 2023.

     Birder's sitting at Don's Drip are visited by an overly-confiding White-tailed Deer (at Smith Oaks).