With the weather finally cooling, this weekend is likely to provide serious natural drama. Migration takes everything that birds have, and after flying south over the Atlantic, all sorts of them plop exhausted and starving onto Texas’ Gulf Coast, to rest up before continuing onward.
At Smith Point on the Bolivar Peninsula, raptors of all sorts cruise ashore, conserving their energy by riding the ocean’s air currents. Go to the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory’s 40’-tall viewing platform, advises Suzanne Simpson, co-author of the upcoming book “Wild Houston.” Point your binoculars at the sky, and expect to get a crick in your neck as you stare, awed. “If you’re lucky,” she says, “you’ll have a good birder next to you who can tell you what you’re seeing.”
This weekend, that’ll likely include some of the sexiest raptors, such as bald eagles and peregrines. But the best reason to go now is that you might catch an enormous swirling flock of broad-wing hawks. A “kettle,” as those flocks are called, is a thrill.
You can’t count on a kettle: “The birds are going to do what the birds are going to do,” says Susan Heath, the observatory’s research director. But luck is on your side now – and if you’re really, really lucky, says Simpson, “the birds will cloud the sky.”
Free. No reservations needed. For directions and other info, check out the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory.
