Imagine you are a tiny songbird perched in a tree located on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. One day in April, just before sunset, you feel a sudden urge to get up and go.
So you fly to the north, staying aloft for 18 to 24 hours without drinking, eating, or stopping. If you’re lucky, you might have a tail wind to push you along. If you’re unlucky, you might encounter a gale pushing you backwards and forcing you to drop exhausted into the chilly waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Fish food.
It’s one of the greatest migration events on earth and it takes place every spring just like clockwork.
From Mexico and South America, some two billion birds move through Texas, about one-third of the total migration across the United States. They fly across some 700 miles of open water where to stop is to die.
When they finally reach the limit of their endurance, and have burned up the stored fat which fueled their flight, the birds reach landfall.
One of the major landing spots is the Sabine Woods Bird Sanctuary, created by the Texas Ornithological Society. Folks come from all around the world to see the migrant fallout when birds arrive after their arduous journey across the Gulf.
Other landing sites include Sea Rim State Park six miles west of Sabine Woods. Sea Rim is home to the Gambusia Nature Trail, one of the state’s best marsh boardwalks. You might spot alligators, coyotes and bobcats at the park, but most folks come to see the masses of shorebirds – avocets, phalaropes, spoonbills, plovers and sandpipers.
Farther west, High Island is a favorite stopping place for migrating birds; it has four distinct bird sanctuaries – Boy Scout Woods, Eubanks Woods, Smith Oaks and S. E. Gast Red Bay. Birds will also find refuge at the Bolivar Flats Shorebird Sanctuary.
All in all, it is a small miracle that birds can make the difficult flight over a treacherous ocean and arrive at these welcome sanctuaries. But I’m sure glad they do.
