Don’t miss this popular field trip to the Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge, which is designated an Internationally Significant Shorebird site and contains more water than land within its 44,000+ acres. We’ll leave dark and early on our bus trip to the refuge, crossing San Luis Pass at sunrise and making a quick stop to check for rails in the lagoons. As we continue westward along the Bluewater Highway, we’ll check the small lagoons along the way for nesting herons and keep an eye out over the wetlands for raptors.  We’ll continue along the levee road that follows Oyster Creek, offering the possibility of Ospreys, White Pelicans, and lingering winter waterfowl.

The estuaries of Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge are an important nursery for the fish and shellfish species found in the Gulf of Mexico. Beyond the estuaries, the saltwater marshes ease inland. Fresh water from an occasional storm and the inflow from rivers and creeks helps to keep saltwater out of the freshwater marshes, as well...

Boy Scout Woods, Smith Oaks, The Rookery, and more! From under an ancient sea, a salt dome emerged. After a few thousand years the dome reached 38-feet above a pancake-flat coastal plain; the highest point-of-land on the immediate coast from Mobile Bay to the Yucatan Peninsula. This is High Island, which is now a wooded...

Join Greg and local birder David Hanson on a trip guaranteed to expose you to many island habitats and what ought to be a significant variety of species! Well known by the locals, these less familiar hot spots have proved fruitful time and again. We’ll begin at Lafitte’s Cove walking the paths in search of...

Join us for a trip to one of the largest migrant traps on the East end of Galveston Island. The Texas A&M Wetlands Center hosts mature oaks, hackberry, and mulberry trees as well as small freshwater and retention ponds. This attracts dozens of neo-tropic migrants including warblers, buntings, tanagers, and orioles.

Join us on this exclusive trip for 6 to experience nesting birds up close. The spectacle of a water bird nesting rookery is a birder “must see.” North Deer Island has 1.7 miles of protected shoreline which supports nesting habitat for the threatened Reddish Egret and 16 other bird species. Rookeries dot the Texas Gulf...

Join two competitive birders, Cullen Ondracek and Jeff Sexton, in this fast-paced, fun tour of top birding sites on Galveston Island and Bolivar Peninsula. This whirlwind birding trip will mimic the experience of competing in a Big Day challenge, without the pressure of battling another team for bragging rights. Cullen and Jeff will lead the...

Galveston’s West End has drawn birders from all over the world for nearly 100 years. In addition to estuarial saltwater marsh, it contains freshwater ponds, pockets of scrubland, mudflats, and sandy beach habitat. This combination attracts a wide variety of shorebirds, waterfowl, raptors, songbirds, and more. We will begin the trip by viewing tidal pools...

The spectacle of a water bird nesting rookery is a birder “must see.” North Deer Island has 1.7 miles of protected shoreline which supports nesting habitat for the threatened Reddish Egret and 16 other bird species. Rookeries dot the Texas Gulf coast. Among the best in Texas is 144-acre North Deer Island shared by nesting...

Drive your own car to the Galveston Island State Park for a delightful, natural experience. Enjoy paddling in a provided kayak while slowly exploring the open lagoons and marshes of Galveston Island State Park, one of the area’s premier ecological jewels. This 2,000-acre public park offers a multitude of habitats that support a wide variety of birds: waders like herons, egrets, Roseate Spoonbill and shorebirds; waterfowl and overhead raptors like Osprey; White-tailed Kite and Northern Harrier.

This trip takes you to one of the best locales for finding numerous varieties of waterbirds, East Beach. We begin with a drive down Boddecker Rd through the East End Lagoon Nature Preserve, catching views of a precious and increasingly rare ecosystem. We will explore 684 acres of Galveston’s largest undeveloped habitat including one of...

Join Kevin Karlson, one of North America's most knowledgeable ornithologists, for a birding tour of the Bolivar Peninsula. This peninsula stretches east of the confluence of the Galveston Bay system and the Gulf of Mexico. This barrier peninsula is the result of natural processes and human activity. Its natural features pull in fisherman, beach combers,...

Focusing on discovering migrating songbirds on Galveston’s West End, this trip will feature warblers, vireos, tanagers, orioles, grosbeaks, and buntings. Located at the intersection of two important migratory flyways, Galveston Island provides critical resources and cover for birds as they journey northward. During stormy weather, fallout events are common, as birds seek shelter and much-needed...

This is your opportunity to explore “the other side” of Galveston Bay. We head over the causeway bridge to explore birding areas on the Mainland side of Galveston Bay in the Tiki Island, Texas City, and La Marque areas. One of our best kept secrets and most under explored areas, participants will be surprised at...

Bird Galveston’s East End with one of the world’s most famous birders! In 1998, Greg zig-zagged 130,000 miles across the USA hoping to reach at least 700 species of birds in one calendar year.

From under an ancient sea, a salt dome emerged. After a few thousand years the dome reached 38-feet above a pancake-flat coastal plain; the highest point-of-land on the immediate coast from Mobile Bay to the Yucatan Peninsula. This is High Island, which is now a wooded beacon amongst the coastal marshland providing food, water, and...

This trip takes you to a private property owned by the Galveston Bay Foundation (GBF) and not generally open to the public. GBF has conserved over 13,000 acres of critical coastal habitat in and around Galveston Bay. For decades, groundwater pumping in the region caused massive subsidence and contributed to the loss of wetlands. That coastal erosion meant wetlands around the bay sank into the water. Like many parts of Galveston Island, Sweetwater Preserve has sustained severe erosion. A 1,000-foot oyster reef project is part of larger restoration efforts in which the foundation has planted marsh along the shoreline. The reef protects the marsh from more degradation and protects the 464-acre property. This property includes a mixture of habitats including coastal prairie, estuarine marsh, salt flats, freshwater wetlands, brackish wetlands, and coastal woodlots.