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If I have learned anything from living in the northern half of the United States is that in order to survive winter with my sanity in tact is that I need to eat a lot of kale, take a daily 20 minute walk (no matter how cold) and plan a trip some place warm even [...]

Ok, let’s admit that there are many people out there who think of birding as a weird and eccentric pastime. But we’re not alone. Yay. I’m overlooking Aransas Bay from Fulton Harbor as I write this. We are here to film the local HummerBird Celebration for the towns of Rockport and Fulton, Texas. Although our focal point is undoubtably [...]

GLEN ROSE, TX,  MARCH 2007 – The Golden-cheeked Warbler (Dendroica chrysoparia) is one of the United States less accessible avian species. The golden-cheek closely resembles its cousin, the Black-throated Green Warbler, but its coloration is high contrast black, white, and brilliant yellow. This lovely little wood warbler winters in Mexico and Central America, migrating only [...]

Birding, like so many other things, is bigger in Texas. How else can you explain the 312 species the Swarovski Optik “Fabulous EL Fifties” racked up in a frenetic five days to win the 2011 Great Texas Birding Classic Big Week? As their driver for the Fabulous EL Fifties’ phenomenal first 48 hours, I was well [...]

On the first day of the Great Texas Birding Classic, the Swarovski Roadside Hawks racked up over 180 species on the Upper Coast. But one day does not a Big Week make. The team decided on an ambitious strategy that placed us in the Upper Rio Grande Valley before sunrise so we drove through the night, [...]

Boykin Spring. Jasper Fish Hatchery. Marvin Dies. Sabine Woods. High Island. Boy Scout Woods. Smith Oaks. Bolivar Flats. Rollover Pass. The Galveston ferry. Sea Rim State Park. Any of these bodacious Upper Texas Coast bird watching destinations deserve hours if not days in order to be fully appreciated. To visit them all should be the work [...]

Bird races, as anyone who’s competed in one knows, can be big fun. The addition of a competitive component adds a thrilling edge of urgency to the normally relaxed act of chasing birds. Even sitting around watching birds can be charged with adrenaline when team pride is on the line. Of course, the fun of a [...]

There is a reason why there is the “Survivor’s Party” at the end of each annual Rio Grande Birding Festival. Even though I’m not sure if a party that has the potential to incapacitate an already-compromised liver is the way to celebrate “survival”. Nonetheless it is the culmination of a week of hard-core birding, trade-shows [...]

I love heading down to South Texas. There’s something uniquely un-American about this part of the world. Even the acacia-like mesquite trees seem out of place here, like some throwback from a distant continent. And there is dust. Not quite the same red dust found in Africa, but dust nonetheless. On my first visit I [...]

I never got around to finishing up my Rio Grande Valley trip report, which is a crime because this last installment is packed with action. Imagine that after a delirious few days in the Rio Grande Valley, your trip was almost at an end. If you were me, this is how your final frenetic day [...]

You might think that after everything I’ve already written about my remarkable Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival 2008 experience that I’d be done by now. Far from it. If you’re lucky, I’m about halfway through the tale! Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park, with its anis, orioles, and fancy South Texas species, was mighty fine but [...]

Did you know that Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park is considered the crown jewel of Rio Grande Valley parks?  That’s what the press flaks at the World Birding Center say, and frankly, after visiting Bentsen, I’m not inclined to argue.  760 acres of Rio Grande floodplain forest and resaca woodland serve up some serious Valley [...]

My first day of birding at the 2008 Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival was pretty stupendous. Would the second day hold up? Considering that we were headed to the celebrated King Ranch, the Lone Star State’s largest ranch in Texas and a haven for birds for over a century, all signs pointed to yes. After [...]

Now that I’ve set the table by offering a glimpse into both the kinds of birds and kinds of birders one might see at the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival, let’s talk about trips. One of the main reasons the southernmost stretch of Texas is so essential to U.S. birders is that this is the [...]

I just flew in from the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival in Harlingen, TX and boy, are my arms tired. Actually, every bit of me is bone weary but it was worth it. The birding at this festival was epic, which is a term I don’t use lightly. This was due in no small part [...]

One of the most spectacular, important, and envy-inducing birding festivals in North America happens to be the one situated along the Mexican border in South Texas. The Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival in Harlingen, TX is the real deal, a birding festival by birders for birders with truly breath-taking birds. If you’ve ever dreamed of [...]

One endearing, some might say redeeming trait of sparrows is how the mix of species transforms dramatically based on geography and ecosystem. Sparrows,at least in North America, may always be there to bedevil you, but they won’t always be the devils you know. Travel widely enough and you may find a place where every sparrow [...]

I’ve made it to Texas. Yee-haw! The first thing I noticed as I touched down at DFW was how pretty the grounds are, at least for an international airport. Striking emerald swathes of short grass separating runways are actually broad enough to harbor birds, which explains why, in addition to expected species like Great-tailed Grackle [...]