Upper Texas Gulf Coast

In the whole of Birding, migration is a time of importance and sheer enjoyment.

The importance is because birds are moving from the wintering grounds into areas of habitat where over 1000's of years each species has found a way to maintain populations. The enjoyment comes from our ability to find so many diverse species in a short period of time and often in a concentrated location.

High Island is a bump on an otherwise flat plain of coastal marsh and formerly prairie. There are photos that point this out in a marvelous way during a difficult time. After September 2008, when Hurricane Ike cleaned off the Bolivar Peninsula, High Island was photographed so beautifully.

The point of this is to show that from the air, which of course is what migrants see, High Island is the first big clump of trees appearing along the coast. Consequently, when conditions create a difficult night of migration, tired birds head straight for the first trees available.

In the early 1970's, my childhood friend, Peter, my house-mate Bob and I all piled into my Ford Galaxie 500 for an April trip to Texas. As I recall now our timing was slightly early to the upper coast and we continued on to great birds in the Rio Grande Valley.

In 1975, I returned with my wife Katie and we hit a wonderful fall out primarily consisting of Hooded, Swainson's, Black & White, Orange-crowned, and other migrants in smaller numbers. This again was an early fall out being near the 15th of the month.

1976 the Beaumont convention of the American Birding association. Fantastic birding in both Boy Scout woods as well as Smith Oaks. I think the one photo in the ABA of Ken Kaufmann and myself (both of us at that time with very long beards and hair) was taken in either 'the Cathedral' or in a part of Smith Oaks.

This year I raced back down to make sure the film 'The Big Year' would have actual fallout coverage. The rains and storms pretty much passed over with one day of semi-inclement weather. Fallouts were good but noting rivals the numbers found in the mid 1970's and then a spectacular fallout in April 1996.

April of 1996 was amazing. I had just purchased my Sony Digital Betacam in December of 1995 selling the fantastic BVW-400a to go with widescreen 16x9. So with some cash in my pocket the good old Ford Aerostar van and a new camera, Texas in April is golden.

But at High Island, I was able to film such a great number of birds. For a day or so, it truly felt like 20 years earlier. Huge numbers of American Redstart, Tennessee, Black-throated, Green, Magnolia, Chestnut-sided and Warblers mixed with early migrants like Hooded, Black & White Warblers, and smaller numbers of Yellow-throated and Swainson's Warblers. Blackpoll and Blackburnian Warblers were fairly easily found too. Baltimore and Orchard Orioles, Rose-breasted and Blue Grosbeak and Yellow-breasted Chat competed with Gray Catbirds, Swainson Thrushes and other later migrants Scarlet and Summer Tanagers. This footage is now on line at the Macaulay Library - part of Cornell's famous Lab of Ornithology.

So this year, 2010 I had hopes of repeating that golden year. I noted the movement of what looked like a major frontal system pushing in. Leaving Kansas I was pummeled by winds late on the afternoon. I made it only to Oklahoma City before the drive and accumulation of other long days from spring filming took its toll. The next morning found me swamped in Texas traffic needing to be in the woods where I finally arrived. The birds had come in and many reported good numbers and variety. I filmed little dealing with the 1100 miles and a tired body and brain. All the gear and supplies were here now to be ready for the next days.

Unlike 1996 where huge numbers of birds were everywhere, instead, I found myself working a few locations and getting lucky in other ways. There is a Mulberry tree after one enters the gate and before you even get to the Houston Audubon Society's temporary office area. The morning light hits it quite early, the berries were full and ripe so many common and hardy migrants were actively feeding. I got quite excited to see the male Painted Buntings feeding alongside, Rose-breasted Grosbeak. Over the next couple of days, my goal became to film everything that I could in this one tree as the "job" called for birds dripping from trees.

Most migrants passed over High Island moving inland- which is a good thing- But I still filmed species in the one tree.

Late on the day before the afternoon I was planning to leave I wandered over to the old barn. I had been told that all the spaces to photograph had been reserved so I had avoided going over anyway. But, I noticed that some non-photographers were going in and out. I decided to take a peek too. All of the photographers had left- it was about 4 in the afternoon. So I had time to see what might come in.

I slid into the largest window I could find and settled in. Before the gentle afternoon and evening light faded into a darkness deeper than my camera and f/1.7 lens can handle I filmed no fewer than 8 Canada Warblers, 3 Warbling Vireos, a dozen Swainson's, 3 Wood and a Grey-cheeked Thrush, Blue-headed and single Ovenbirds, Black and White Warbler, Hooded Warbler, 2 Kentuckys, and ...

Nashville Warbler, Yellow-breasted Chat, Scarlet Tanager, Indigo Bunting.

Quietly, I filmed the best Great Crested Flycatcher ever, the best shots of Painted Buntings and so many other clips of bathing warblers it was astonishing. I never made it to Sabine Woods this spring.

I think experiencing the chaos and excitement of migration is one of the ultimate highs of Life.

But these amazing migration points offer so much more than just another place to take a lot of photographs of a lot of birds in a short period of time, or in my case a lot of footage. They offer absorption in a movement of life, a great awakening, the opportunity to feel the humility of understanding things we humans have no possibility to do.

There is nothing like High Island, Texas for birding during migration. Well, Magee Marsh, Ohio... Point Pelee and others feature fabulous numbers of birds too but an entirely different mix. So I will say it again- There is nothing like High Island, Texas for birding during migration.

May 2010

How can it be May? Where did April vanish to?

From the blinds and the mini-helicopter to the quick trip to the upper Texas coast, the whole month of April was a blur.

One of the clearest/sharpest parts of that month was spent in blinds filming Greater Prairie Chickens in Kansas. After initially starting out on what was supposed to be the largest booming ground of these birds near Tecumseh, Nebraska, I shifted down to Kansas for logistical reasons after it became clear that there were just as many birds in Kansas and that the Nebraska booming grounds- for whatever reason- were all significantly smaller than either of the previous two years.

On a booming ground north of Emporia, I found a great location with good access and a nice number of males- 24. This seemed to be a good mix of location, nice size (in terms of number of males), only a few hours commute and good back drops. When on one day of shooting- 11 females arrived to look over the "boys", I was ecstatic. It became easy to make a commitment to a specific area.

In a marathon, one's mind needs focus to provide clarity, to monitor muscle and other bodily functions. In so much of the rest of our 'normal' lives this is done on an unconscious level. Becoming a marathoner, during the '90's changed some of this in my life, permanently.

Now my marathons are longer in nature. This film began in 2008 and I did not receive any funding until August of 2009. I made a commitment to this project by taking out a $30,000 loan thinking I would simply repay it immediately when the backer provided the first check. But then the recession kicked in. The first backer was unable to do anything at the time we had both talked about.

Free fall. I have never jumped out of a plane.

The courage and commitment to running those marathons has proved very useful to me in business. I've only made so much money because my heart out races my brain. But the steady pace comes through in the long run.

By mid-April, shooting the aerial footage of the extensive fires from the mini-Helicopter operated so well by Tabb Firchau was complete. Then the High speed camera arrived. This proved to be a major headache and an expensive lesson. I ended up with about 2 shooting days and fortunately the footage looked pretty good. Earlier a single worn-down battery (provided by the rental company) inside a proprietary box that controls important aspects of this beast allowed these horrible grainy bars across the image.

Finally, with only a few days left, after many emails and several phone calls, the problem was solved. Rain and poor weather delayed - I finally got the sunny conditions needed - perseverance furthers as the I-Ching advises. Steady pace- as I have learned.

Suddenly- in touch with post production supervisors from Fox Studios it rapidly became apparent that their advice was incompetent. The shooting for a new feature film the Big Year was due to begin in about 10 days but the contracted crew was not going to show up to a major location until well after the peak of migration had passed overhead.

I was somewhat dumbfounded by this and literally realized that if I hit the coast in time I could rescue the scene because the hired crew- supposed experts- were going to totally blow it.

Before I knew it, I was on my way to High Island, Texas... and that is where the next entry will begin.