The Migration Celebration at the San Bernard National Wildlife Refuge Headquarters Campus at San Bernard includes a Birds of Prey show, air rifle target shooting, bow and arrow target shooting, butterfly encounters, fishing, a touch tank, kayaking, and more. The Migration Celebration is a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service event from the Texas Mid-coast National Wildlife Complex underwritten by the Friends of the Brazoria Wildlife Refuges. (Brazoria County)

https://www.migrationcelebration.org/

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Bird City Surfside is hosting its 4th Annual “Wings Over Surfside” birding event on Saturday, April 1, 2023, from 10:00 am -2:00 pm. Events include scheduled speakers, live birds of prey program, crafts, art, wine tasting, and other activities. The event will be held at the Surfside Bird and Butterfly Trail at 418 Parkview, Surfside, TX.

Featured Speakers:

Beach Nesting Birds of the Texas Coast: Taylor Bennett GCBO

The Quest for 500: A Texas Big Year: Mike Williams

Light Out and Audubon Texas 100 Years: Yvette Stewart

https://www.visitsurfsidebeachtx.org/

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Join us on April 1st for FREE admission at all of Houston Audubon’s High Island sanctuaries. This is no April Fool’s joke! We’re inviting the community out to explore our sanctuaries and immerse yourselves in nature. Walk the treetop Kathrine G. McGovern Canopy Walkway at Smith Oaks for a bird’s-eye view of the bustling Rookery full of nesting excitement. Visit the drip by Purkey’s Pond in Boy Scout Woods to be captured by the colorful migratory warblers stopping for a drink or a bath. Join us for a Rookery Talk at 11 AM with Houston Audubon’s Conservation Director, chat with our friendly and knowledgeable volunteers about birds and wildlife, and hike our scenic trails to connect with nature. We will be selling patches and merchandise, but your daily admission is on us. Hope to see you in High Island this spring!

Boy Scout Woods: 2088 5th St, High Island, TX 77623
Smith Oaks Bird Sanctuary: 2205 Old Mexico Road, High Island, TX 77623

About High Island

Houston Audubon owns and manages four nature sanctuaries at High Island – Boy Scout Woods, Smith Oaks, Eubanks Woods, and S.E. Gast Red Bay – totaling over 250 acres. Our High Island sanctuaries are a haven for birds and visitors, especially during spring migration! We welcome visitors from all 50 states and over 20 countries who flock to the Upper Texas Coast for the best birdwatching. Our sanctuaries are critical habitat for migrating birds and there have been nearly 400 species documented on our properties, including several species never before seen in the United States. Peak spring bird migration is from mid-March to mid-May.

The community of High Island sits atop a hill surrounded by miles of marsh. This rare real estate has been important for humans and wildlife for thousands of years. While no archaeological site has been excavated on the island, shell middens, pieces of black pottery, and arrow points dating from as far back as 1200 A.D. have been found on Bolivar Peninsula and around Galveston Bay. The area including High Island was undoubtedly inhabited by Native American hunter-gatherers who roamed the region collecting shellfish and hunting the abundant wildlife.

Stories passed down suggest the pirate Jean Lafitte and crew sometimes had parties and even buried treasure in the oak groves in the early 1800s. One of the early settlers of High Island was Martin Dunman, who arrived in 1845. He received a league of land (three square miles) that included part of High Island for his role in the Texas Revolution. Reportedly, there was at least one house on High Island when Dunman arrived with his family. The house was built by Charles Cronea, one of Lafitte’s cabin boys. A historical marker, erected in Cronea’s honor, can be found in the High Island cemetery.

Visitor Information: https://houstonaudubon.org/sanctuaries/high-island/

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Thousands of birds take wing to our island each spring during an arduous northward migration across the Gulf from Central and South America. And hundreds of tourists and neighbors follow suit to see more than 200 species of brightly-colored birds strut their stuff around our hometown – a prime location along the Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail.

FeatherFest is a fun four days of excellent birding and nature photography field trips. Make plans to enjoy spring migration on Galveston Island at FeatherFest. This event is scheduled annually in April

Click Here to Register

Galveston Island is one of the top locations in the country for birding. It has a rich variety of habitats – beaches, wetlands, grasslands, woods, ponds, and bays – in a small area that are home to many common year-round species, as well as numerous others that visit briefly or for part of the year.

Birds visit en-route from and to Central and South America, north in the spring, south in the fall. Most pass through after stopping for food, water and rest, as very few spend their summers on the Island and breed locally. While Galveston is on the western edge of the Gulf of Mexico, it is in the epicenter of the spring migration, as trade winds bring them right to our doorstep.

The Island is also an important wintering ground for numerous species that spend most of the year farther north. More than 300 bird species may be seen throughout the year somewhere on the Island. During FeatherFest, over 200 species are typical, such as common year-round birds, spring migrants and late wintering birds.

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