This was to be our final day in High Island for this spring, and so we were all hoping for great things out of it. The morning was slow burning, with no big numbers of birds, in that way pretty similar to what the rest of the week had been like. However, in among those few birds were some killer species, cool rarities to keep the weekenders happy (and us too). The "bluetastic" Black-throated Blue Warbler (male), that had been leading many of us a merry dance over the past few days, finally settled into some sort of routine and charmed the Sunday birders on-and-off throughout the day at Boy Scout Woods. Incredibly, three different individual BTBWs graced High Island today, a female in Smith Oaks early doors, and two separate groups of birders were glassing different males simultaneously in the vicinity of Prothonotary Pond in the afternoon. It has turned out to be quite a year for this handsome cobalt sprite on the Upper Texas Coast, with High Island having recorded 5 different birds during our final rarity packed week on The Dome. Continuing with the rarity theme a few Smithwalkers birding HAS Smith Oaks found at least 2, if not 3 separate Black-whiskered Vireos, that true to recent form once again went "underground" for the remainder of the day. However, Smith's other star attractions, the cool Cape Mays, continued to perform with style. For the most part the females being reliably found throughout the day (two different individuals), and some birders also enjoyed walkaway looks at a smoking hot male. Most of this all happened before the Houston Audubon morning walk was even over.

The afternoon saw a rise in migrant numbers as "Texmex" birds dropped in on The Dome in good numbers. A little flurry of birds in Boy Scout gave us the first inkling of what was to follow, when a little group containing Northern Parula, American Redstarts, Black-and-white Warbler, and a pair of Philadelphia Vireos dropped in above an ecstatic crowd that had just been feasting on one of the Black-throated Blues. Then on the walk over in Smith we were thrilled by the sight of hundreds of migrants swarming around the levee we were on. As we slowly walked along the narrow track, orange flashes greeted us regularly as American Redstarts leapt out from every corner. Magnolias also received a huge afternoon boost in numbers with birds flitting across our paths continually as we walked on. The pulse of migrants once again included a heavy load of Indigo Buntings, now with many females in their midst, although a number of Painteds did not go unnoticed, especially a magnificent male that fed out on the open path in our 'scope. Everywhere we stepped we ran into migrants - dozens of Gray Catbirds flushed from our path as we raced on, and stacks of Eastern Kingbirds massed along the trail, while Rose-breasted Grosbeaks landed with a thud in the trees above, and Baltimore and Orchard Orioles chattered noisily in the trees around us. Several Acadian Flycatchers called loudly and posed for us too, although the warblers and constant migrant movement was a little too distracting to spend a lot of time with these inconspicuous guys! Larger birds were also present too, and we enjoyed some crisp looks at cuckoos, of both Yellow-billed and at least two different red-eyeringed Black-billeds as well.

With this heavy flow of migrants waving along the levee in front of us, it was no surprise to find out that warbler diversity spiked again today, as we received a late season boost to keep the May birding fans tingling with excitement at what the next few days may yield, (and have the rest of us jealously looking over our shoulders as we head off into the sunset!) By the end of the day we had totaled at least 23 species of warbler, a very respectable total at this stage of the season. Amazingly, one of the "late season specials", Bay-breasted Warbler, was not one of them, as no reports were received at all today. Some real treats turned up in the late afternoon, aside from the general spectacle of mass migration that the Upper Texas Coast is world famous for, a male Cerulean dropped in at Smith, as did a female Canada Warbler (a bird that has not yet occurred in any real numbers this year, so May could still bring a load of them in later on), and one lucky birder clapped his eyes on a FOS male Mourning Warbler sneaking through the tangled undergrowth. Other warblers of note today included Nashville, Blackburnian, Black-throated Green, Chestnut-sided, Ovenbird, Blackpoll, and several Prothonotarys continue to sing for their property rights by their section of the levee. A couple of Golden-wingeds moving through with the "Mexican Wave" on the Smith levee caused quite a stir too.

It was a great day to end on for our season. The day began with some slick rarities to gorge on, and the afternoon continued on from this with the migrant "rush" that High Island is particularly special for, where migrants dropped in beside us fresh off the Gulf and quickly set about feeding and moving on, requiring some rapid fire binocular action. Classic UTC spring birding.