High Island Oilfields
High Island Oilfields
There is one area I refer to as High Island Oilfields although the 'nodding donkey' pumps can be found scattered all around the island. To reach the area we visited take 5th Street away (south-west) from Boy Scout Woods (which itself is on 5th Street). After a short, twisty drive past the cemetery there is a gate which leads off the island and down to an open area of pools and scrub. Drive down the hill and along the track to the pools. At a T-junction turn left and then follow the track around to the right. The best wader pools are usually in this area.
On this visit, immediately following our trip to Bolivar Peninsula, we found lots of Least Sandpipers, Western Sandpiper, Helen's first Baird's Sandpiper and Black-necked Stilt. Roseate Spoonbills and Tricolored Herons flew overhead and a White-tailed Kite hunted over the scrubland, eventually alighting on a bush to survey the area. Also here we had Blue-winged and Green-winged Teals and, of course, Laughing Gulls
We returned to this site on the 19th April and waders were still easy to see as they fed in pools by the side of the road. This time we had Least, Semipalmated and Stilt Sandpipers, Long-billed and Short-billed Dowitchers, Black-necked Stilt and Semipalmated Plover. We also had flying Great and Snowy Egrets and Tricolored Heron.
Black-necked Stilt
Stilt Sandpiper
Short-billed Dowitcher
Long-billed Dowitcher