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 Jon Dunn, a leading expert on the identification and distribution of North American birds, for a birding tour of Bolivar Peninsula. Jon co-authored the sixth and seventh editions of National Geographic Society’s Field Guide to the Birds of North America. He was the Chief Consultant/Editor for the first five editions. He is the co-writer and host...

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 Cullen Ondracek and Jeff Sexton for this open-ended trip geared for those who come to the Texas Gulf Coast to focus on bird species with range limits in this area. These include local specialties such as Roseate Spoonbill, Wilson’s Plovers, Horned Lark, Seaside Sparrow, and White-tailed Kite. We will also attempt to find any...

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.

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...

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.

Join author Jennifer Bristol on an exploration of the historic cemeteries of Galveston. These unexpected birding spaces offer easy walking and quality bird watching, while diving deep into the human history of the island. Participants will explore three cemeteries on this outing, each offering a variety of habitats attractive to birds and birders alike. There is...

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...

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.