Eleven hardy HAS members braved a rainy morning to join guide Mike Austin for a birding tour of the Quintana area on Saturday, April 26. We started at the Quintana Neotropical Sanctuary where the birding was slow in a light rain. We then moved to the jetty where a flock of terns, gulls and sandpipers provided better birding views. All 8 of the common terns and the 3 common gulls were seen. A nearby pond and marsh area produced more species including Wilson’s Phalarope, Stilt Sandpiper, Pectoral Sandpiper, Baird’s and the three ‘peep’ sandpipers. The rain stopped about 11:00 but was replaced by strong offshore winds. We returned to the Neotropical sanctuary and found a weak Cerulean Warbler on the ground but happily it made a miraculous recovery over the next hour. We added a few more warbler species including Yellow, Black-and-white and Redstart before breaking for lunch at the adjacent picnic pavilion. A drive down Bryan Beach produced Northern Gannet and a late Redhead duck. Another weather change brought sunny skies and calming winds and the jackets started coming off. Some of us ended the day at Brazoria NWR where Olney and Rodgers Ponds contained an astounding number of sandpipers and wading birds. We ended the day with about 110 species seen.

Photo courtesy of Bill Saulmon