This years trip was just a quick one, with the focus on Sabine Woods for most of the time. An excellent weather pattern formed on Friday night with a storm front comming down from the North AND a seperate one from the west. This pushed a lot of the migrating birds down into the Sabine area, Sabine Woods being the best I've ever seen them in the years I've been going there. Migrants of all kinds, Buntings, Tanagers and of course Warbler were all over the place with a record total of 26 species of warbler on one day! We did not wish to go anywhere else. The highlights of the trip were a Black-throated Blue Warbler at Sabine woods and not one, but TWO Cape May Warblers, a male and female, just down the road from Sea rim "willows", at a stand of mullberry trees.
Boy scout woods and Smith Oak woods were also visited but there really was no activity there compared to Sabine. Anuahac NWR was also visited where we picked up lots of Purple Gallinules, Herons, Fulvous Whistling ducks and various other water birds. Below is a species list of the Warblers seen on the Saturday -
Prothonotary, Blue-winged, Golden-winged, Tennessee, Orange-crowned, Northern Parula, Chestnut-sided, Cape May, Magnolia, Black & White, Black-throated Blue, Black-throated Green, Blackburnian, Prairie, Bay-breasted, Blackpoll, Palm, Yellow, Kentucky, Wilsons, Hooded, Worm-eating, Ovenbird, Northern Waterthrush, Common Yellowthroat, American Redstart.
Other species included Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, Scarlet and Summer Tanagers, Baltimore and Orchard Orioles, Yellow-billed & Black-billed Cuckoos, Indigo & Painted Buntings, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, Catbirds, Purple martins, Brown Thrasher, Swainsons, Grey-cheeked & Wood Thrush and Veery, Red-eyed and warbling Vireos and lots of other good stuff. Rain & Storms at High Island Spring migration definately makes a difference!