2021-04-02 Back to South Padre Island

Hooded Warbler - Setophaga citrina
Hooded Warblers spend winters in Mexico and Central America. Those I met here are just passing through and will continue north to the southeastern USA. With spring migration on South Padre Island (Texas) picking up, there’s no other place I’d rather be in April.

If you are passionate about birds, I believe there is no better place to hang out than South Padre Island during spring migration. As a kid growing up near the Southern California coast, eastern birds seemed out of reach for me. But here in south Texas, most of these unreachable species pass through as they travel between their summer and winter homes.

I split my time between two lovely locations on this Friday morning; the Sheepshead Bird Sanctuary and the South Padre Island Convention Centre. Each rewarded me with meeting bird species for the first time. My encounters included three new species; Yellow-Throated Vireo, Yellow-Throated Warbler, and Worm-Eating Warbler.

We do not expect migration to reach its high point for two or three weeks. But the number of birds on the move here was encouraging. I only spent four and a half hours on the island, but in those few hours I captured the Black-and-White Warbler, Golden-Fronted Woodpecker, Great Kiskadee, Hooded Oriole, Hooded Warbler, Indigo Bunting, Lincoln’s Sparrow, Nashville Warbler, Orange-Crowned Warbler, Orchard Oriole, Ovenbird, Painted Bunting, Worm-Eating Warbler, Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker, Yellow-Rumped Warbler, Yellow-Throated Vireo, and Yellow-Throated Warbler.

To be sure, I shall return (apologies to Douglas MacArthur).

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