Birds in Flight...TEXAS (5 April)

Unfortunately yesterday's front passed through so quickly that today we had to console ourselves with a foray for shorebirds and long sessions shooting birds at the marvelous Smith Oaks rookery. The warblers may have scuppered our plans, although the shorebirds were in fine fettle. A venture into some boggy fields to the north of Winnie saw us with a healthy contingent of American Golden Plovers and Pectoral Sandpipers, a mass of Whimbrel and a handful of rich buffy Buff-breasted Sandpipers. The skies above were dominated by some low-flying Swainson's Hawks, and another distinctly drier field held upwards of 30 Upland Sandpipers too. Highlights in the woods today included Yellow-throated Warbler and Blue-headed Vireo, and continuing Eastern Towhees showing off by the Boy Scout Woods grandstand (High Island). The day finished with some typically excellent views of Roseate Spoonbills swooping low past the platforms overlooking the claybottom Pond rookery at Smith.