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5/8/2022

First us big day post

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272 species of birds in a single day, in the United States, between two, college-aged birders from the Midwest, who would have thought? 
 
How the Idea Started:
 
To be honest, this crazy, adventurous plan was crafted within the last couple of months, mostly in the last month. To introduce ourselves, I’m Colin Dobson, a 21-year-old birder from Central Illinois and my teammate is Ben Lucking, a 23-year-old birder from Southern Michigan. While I was gone on a birding vacation in Mexico in the middle of March, Ben and I were texting about birding and travel in general. We eventually go to the subjects on big days, knowing we’ve both done them and have birding big days within our states coming up this year. 
           
Through this conversation, the subject of “big days” became much broader. I’ll admit, Ben first brought up the idea when he dropped the “have you ever thought about doing a United States Big Day” line the day after I flew back from Mexico as I was sitting in my 11 am Ornithology class on the 21st of March, basically a month exactly from when we did conquer this idea. At first, I thought it was a general idea, or perhaps a thought for next year since it WAS already mid-March, and typically country big days occur mid to late April and take months of networking and planning. Then the idea of this year was brought up, and after some quick thinking and a very quick look at the calendar, it seemed like this COULD be an option.
 
To be clear, to those who may not know, a birding big day is when a group of people (can be alone as well) set out to bird most of the day (or the whole day) to see as many species as they can. There are different levels for this and how specific a region is to do this as well. Anything as broad as a world big day to as specific as a county park or local National Wildlife Refuge big days are done annually throughout the globe. Most common are state or countywide big days, and sometimes there are even big day birding competitions (like the Birding Blitz here in Illinois) for big day groups! 
 
After this idea was brought up, both of us then spent the rest of the day looking into eBird and into plans. We both have a million other things going on, but we still were focused on thinking if this was even plausible for this coming spring. After my Champaign County Audubon Board Meeting that night, Ben and myself hopped on Zoom and talked for several hours, until I realized it was passed 2 am and it was time to get some sleep, but ending the call we both agreed, that we are doing a big day this spring. 

Initial Big Day Thoughts:
 
 
Our ideas came from that a United States birding big day had not occurred in quite some time. Looking at previous big day runs, most were done in Texas, a great start to thinking about a route. Texas has such a rich bird diversity between eastern and western bird species, so it is a great place to do a big day, although other states like Arizona and California were obviously on the table as well, as these two are also very rich in bird diversity.
 
The main big day technique we were trying to accomplish was the aspect of drive time. With doing plenty of big days in Illinois, the amount of time driving can be crucial in determining how much birding time one gets during a day, and in theory, less travel time and more birding time should equal more birds. But just because more time is available, doesn’t necessarily mean this either, one must go to completely different habitats, if not completely different regions during a big day to maximize the potential for the highest species totals possible at the end of the day. If you want a high number if not a record-breaking day, you must go to many different areas but also try to limit the amount of travel time as well, it goes both ways! 
 
Most of the United States big days, or at least those with the higher species totals, typically had a route from Central Texas over to the Southeastern Coast of Texas to end the day. A great route but also required at least a four-hour drive during the middle of the day just to get from Central Texas to near Houston. Now, with that drive time, what if we took that amount of driving time and flew somewhere completely different, theoretically seeing a completely different bird group? Yes, therefore the past big day groups had this drive, but still the Hill Country of Texas and the Gulf Coast are not completely different as opposed to flying to somewhere out west, a truly different group of birds. Although I’m aware of one unsuccessful attempt in Illinois with flying during an instate big day, I am unaware of a United States attempt. The closest to this is when Team Sapsucker did a big day from Arizona to California back in 2014 with a species total of 275 in two completely different regions (found after the fact, I was not aware of this species total until I was typing this post-trip report).
 
Early on Route Ideas:

The first area we were targeting was SoCal, flying into San Diego and birding Southern California for the remaining parts of the day. We had our minds set on starting in the High Island area in the morning and flying elsewhere during the day. Thankfully, that area is not far from major airports (Houston) but also had a rather large bird diversity for being such a small area, between amazing coastal birding, migrants flocking to the small community every spring, and nearby rice fields and prairies make this ideal for a big day, especially one like ours. It was figuring out where to go the rest of the day. 
 
After spending a whole day plotting out this whole route, Ben came up with the idea that an afternoon in Arizona or California would be better. Between less flight time, same time zone, much more in terms of passerine diversity, and potentially summering waterfowl, among other factors, made this route more appealing to us. So, the next day we decided to focus on seeing if this (Arizona) was a better route, which ended up being the case. 
 
Since all of this was practically last minute, any changes had to be thoroughly discussed and plotted out quickly, so we had enough time to thoroughly plan the day itself. Thankfully our major changes occurred very early on, and we could focus on planning for the day itself for weeks before the day itself. After spending a whole day planning the south from Tucson shooting straight east towards the magical Chiricahua Mountains, I then noticed a reliable male White-eared Hummingbird at the newly opened Ramsey Cabins in the Huachucas near Sierra Vista, way off our route. I then jokingly sent a screenshot of the report with a picture to Ben saying, “this would be great to see during the trip,” and alas, I received a response not even an hour later saying, “I believe that route could even be better”. Since that day on March 23rd, we stuck to that route for the rest of the planning period and for the day itself.
           
Then it really was to the drawing board, which places do we cover or not cover along or near the route. I want to go ahead and thank all of the local intel we received from these areas because between our knowledge of birding these areas in the past and eBird alone, it was not enough to fulfill our planning needs, especially including Leo Miller in Arizona and Ian Davies in Texas, among others with smaller suggestions, we thank you very much to the help and guidance given to us for our big day! 
 
The following weeks were spent texting back and forth with Ben, spending multiple nights a week on zoom with each other for several hours during the nighttime hours planning, scouting over eBird reports, and making changes to the itinerary and tiered lists, amongst other ideas. 
 
The main question first was, what flight would we take and when from Houston and Tucson, as this very heavily relied on how we planned our itinerary. We were first leaning towards a 12:15 departure from Tucson but after noticing a Southwest flight that departed (daily during our time) out of the smaller airport, William P. Hobby Airport, at 11:45 am with even a shorter flight time, making it the ideal flight for our big day. Since we figured out the flight, now it was time to plan the route out, on top of making tiered lists and picking which day(s) to do this adventure! 
 
Picture
A map with the locations we were planning on hitting on the day
Timing:
 
Timing is always key for a big day, in terms of when it is conducted based on the time of year. For Illinois Big Days, they are best run around the middle of May. As mentioned before, most US Big Days have taken place in the latter half of April and into May. Ben brought up early on that the timeframe that we should think about running our route would be from April 19th to April 26th, but based on our schedules, the earlier timing would be the best. The main problem was that because of our schedules, there only ended up being one day that worked for us, April 20th.
 
Although this date was within our range, there were a lot of problems with only picking ONE date for a big day. To put it in perspective, the previous big day tallies revolved around 4-6 birders within a group, scouting for a span of nearly a week, with having about 4-7 days open for their big day, picking the day with the best weather and best chances in seeing the greatest number of birds. For us, with only picking one day, it really was luck if birds and the weather both cooperated with us, which thankfully both were fairly cooperative. Just more challenges to be brought up for us and still having an astronomical species total in one day in the United States, quite astonishing with all that was against us compared to previous big day runs.
 
Getting Around on the Day:
 
Now we have the general route set up with information flooding in about birds along the route, date marked, flights booked, and THE day was coming closer and closer. Now, some of y’all may have some questions about HOW we did this. Ben and I drove down on the 18th, throughout the night, scouted all day Tuesday, the 19th, and used his car for transportation on the Texas portion. But how did we get around Arizona? Through the gracious generosity of Ben’s parents, they flew down to Tucson before the day, Ben’s father offered to rent a car, and drive us around to all our spots during the afternoon. This was amazing and I am very thankful for this! Our idea was if we had someone, likely a non-birder, driving us at least in the Arizona section, we would not have to worry about driving, we both would be focused on birds as we went, and making quick planning decisions as we drove, which was key in spotting birds like Western Kingbird and Chihuahuan Raven that we didn’t have to spend extra time looking for off of the route.
 
One other MAJOR thing to key in on is the concept of time. More time birding should equal more birds as I have mentioned before. Thankfully with our route, there was fairly a low amount of driving attributed to it. Due to this, we had NO added time for gas stops or food stops. All the food was, and water was packed before had, and the filled-up vehicles before so no gas stops were needed throughout the day, we got gas right after the end of the day, at Safford Arizona at 12:10 am after our last two additions, with about 30 miles to E, so close and thankfully worked in our favor. This would give us at least 30 minutes of more birding times because we did not have to stop ONCE, which usually on big days one usually must make at least one gas stop, so this was also key.
 
Tiered Species Ideas:
 
Now we had all the driving and traveling during the day set up, what else needs to be done? Throughout the time we had been making itineraries repeatedly, along with an advanced A/B/C tiered bird list. Birds in group A would be birds we should see during the day but will miss some with how time-constrained we would be at each spot, plus there are always those few birds that always get away. Birds in group B are birds we would possibly see or may require more effort; we should see at least some of the birds in this group but not most of them. Finally, birds in group C are birds that we are unlikely to see, likely only see a few from this category on the day.
 
We had to revise this list many times, and there was probably not a day in the last few weeks we weren’t moving birds around from category to category, occasionally adding birds to the list. Of course, there was probably a bird or two we may not see on our list, but for the most part, everything is on this list. This list ended up having around 425 species that were “possible” throughout the route, with obviously a lot of birds in our B and C categories. Still, we ended up feeling fairly confident with 294 species in our “group A” list, the United States big day record number surprisingly. You may ask, are we expected to see all of these? The answer is simply no. As stated before, there will be plenty even in this category that will be missed, before the day I strategized we would see 90% of these (we ended up with 85% of group A). In group B, we ended up with 72 species, and with this list, I was expecting about 25% (ended with 24%) and in group C, we had 50 species and I was expecting 5% (ended up with 4%). The list is below, please note that these are not in order, as we were moving and changing this list throughout the time, and I ended up making a more spot-specific list to use during the day itself. 
Group A:
  1. Blue-winged Teal
  2. Cinnamon Teal
  3. Northern Shoveler
  4. Gadwall
  5. American Wigeon
  6. Mallard
  7. Green-winged Teal
  8. Mexican Duck
  9. Ruddy Duck
  10. Gambel’s Quail 
  11. Pied-billed Grebe
  12. Eared Grebe
  13. Feral Pigeon
  14. Eurasian Collared Dove
  15. White-winged Dove
  16. Mourning Dove
  17. Virginia Rail
  18. Sora
  19. Common Gallinule
  20. American Coot
  21. Black-necked Stilt
  22. American Avocet
  23. Black-bellied Plover
  24. Snowy Plover
  25. Semipalmated Plover
  26. Killdeer
  27. Whimbrel
  28. Long-billed Curlew
  29. Marbled Godwit
  30. Ruddy Turnstone
  31. Sanderling
  32. Dunlin
  33. Least Sandpiper
  34. Western Sandpiper
  35. Semipalmated Sandpiper
  36. Short-billed Dowitcher
  37. Long-billed Dowitcher
  38. Spotted Sandpiper
  39. Solitary Sandpiper
  40. Greater Yellowlegs
  41. Willet
  42. Lesser Yellowlegs
  43. Herring Gull
  44. Ring-billed Gull
  45. Least Tern
  46. Gull-billed Tern
  47. Caspian Tern
  48. Black Tern
  49. Forster’s Tern
  50. Royal Tern
  51. Black Skimmer
  52. Double-crested Cormorant
  53. Neotropic Cormorant
  54. American White Pelican
  55. Brown Pelican
  56. Least Bittern
  57. Great Blue Heron
  58. Great Egret
  59. Snowy Egret
  60. Little Blue Heron
  61. Tricolored Heron
  62. Reddish Egret
  63. Cattle Egret
  64. Green Heron
  65. Yellow-crowned Night Heron
  66. White-faced Ibis
  67. Turkey Vulture
  68. Osprey
  69. Northern Harrier
  70. Cooper’s Hawk
  71. Red-shouldered Hawk
  72. Red-tailed Hawk
  73. Great Horned Owl
  74. Belted Kingfisher
  75. Downy Woodpecker
  76. Northern Flicker
  77. American Kestrel
  78. Warbling Vireo
  79. Loggerhead Shrike
  80. American Crow
  81. Northern Rough-winged Swallow
  82. Purple Martin
  83. Tree Swallow
  84. Barn Swallow
  85. Cliff Swallow
  86. White-breasted Nuthatch
  87. Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher
  88. House Wren
  89. Marsh Wren
  90. European Starling
  91. Northern Mockingbird
  92. American Robin
  93. Cedar Waxwing
  94. House Sparrow
  95. House Finch
  96. Chipping Sparrow
  97. Dark-eyed Junco
  98. White-crowned Sparrow
  99. Song Sparrow
  100. Savannah Sparrow
  101. Abert’s Towhee
  102. Yellow-breasted Chat
  103. Red-winged Blackbird
  104. Orange-crowned Warbler
  105. Nashville Warbler
  106. Common Yellowthroat
  107. Yellow Warbler
  108. Yellow-rumped Warbler
  109. Wilson’s Warbler
  110. Blue Grosbeak
  111. Black-bellied Whistling Duck
  112. Fulvous Whistling Duck
  113. Mottled Duck
  114. Common Nighthawk
  115. Chimney Swift
  116. Ruby-throated Hummingbird
  117. King Rail
  118. Clapper Rail
  119. Purple Gallinule
  120. American Oystercatcher
  121. Wilson’s Plover
  122. Piping Plover
  123. Pectoral Sandpiper
  124. Laughing Gull
  125. Common Tern
  126. Sandwich Tern
  127. Anhinga
  128. White Ibis
  129. Roseate Spoonbill
  130. Black Vulture
  131. Eastern Screech Owl
  132. Barred Owl
  133. Red-bellied Woodpecker
  134. Crested Caracara
  135. Eastern Wood-Pewee
  136. Acadian Flycatcher
  137. Great Crested Flycatcher
  138. Eastern Kingbird
  139. Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
  140. White-eyed Vireo
  141. Yellow-throated Vireo
  142. Philadelphia Vireo
  143. Red-eyed Vireo
  144. Blue Jay
  145. Carolina Chickadee
  146. Tufted Titmouse
  147. Sedge Wren
  148. Carolina Wren
  149. Gray Catbird
  150. Brown Thrasher
  151. Eastern Bluebird
  152. Veery
  153. Gray-cheeked Thrush
  154. Swainson’s Thrush
  155. Wood Thrush
  156. White-throated Sparrow
  157. Swamp Sparrow
  158. Eastern Meadowlark
  159. Orchard Oriole
  160. Baltimore Oriole
  161. Brown-headed Cowbird
  162. Common Grackle
  163. Boat-tailed Grackle
  164. Ovenbird
  165. Worm-eating Warbler
  166. Louisiana Waterthrush
  167. Northern Waterthrush
  168. Blue-winged Warbler
  169. Black-and-White Warbler
  170. Prothonotary Warbler
  171. Tennessee Warbler
  172. Kentucky Warbler
  173. Hooded Warbler
  174. American Redstart
  175. Northern Parula
  176. Magnolia Warbler
  177. Bay-breasted Warbler
  178. Blackburnian Warbler
  179. Chestnut-sided Warbler
  180. Pine Warbler
  181. Black-throated Green Warbler
  182. Summer Tanager
  183. Scarlet Tanager
  184. Northern Cardinal
  185. Rose-breasted Grosbeak
  186. Indigo Bunting
  187. Painted Bunting
  188. Seaside Sparrow
  189. Redhead
  190. Lesser Scaup
  191. Ring-necked Duck
  192. Scaled Quail
  193. Canada Goose
  194. Wild Turkey
  195. Band-tailed Pigeon
  196. Inca Dove
  197. Common Ground Dove
  198. Greater Roadrunner
  199. Lesser Nighthawk
  200. Common Poorwill
  201. Mexican Whippoorwill
  202. White-throated Swift
  203. Rivoli’s Hummingbird
  204. Black-chinned Hummingbird
  205. Costa’s Hummingbird
  206. Rufous Hummingbird
  207. Broad-tailed Hummingbird
  208. Broad-billed Hummingbird
  209. Harris’s Hawk
  210. Swainson’s Hawk
  211. Whiskered Screech Owl
  212. Western Screech Owl
  213. Elf Owl
  214. Gila Woodpecker
  215. Ladder-backed Woodpecker
  216. Hairy Woodpecker
  217. Arizona Woodpecker
  218. Buff-breasted Flycatcher
  219. Western Wood-Pewee
  220. Hammond’s Flycatcher
  221. Pacific-slope Flycatcher
  222. Black Phoebe
  223. Say’s Phoebe
  224. Vermillion Flycatcher
  225. Dusky-capped Flycatcher
  226. Ash-throated Flycatcher
  227. Cassin’s Kingbird
  228. Western Kingbird
  229. Bell’s Vireo
  230. Hutton’s Vireo
  231. Plumbeous Vireo
  232. Steller's Jay
  233. Mexican Jay
  234. Common Raven
  235. Chihuahuan Raven
  236. Bridled Titmouse
  237. Verdin
  238. Violet-Green Swallow
  239. Bushtit
  240. Ruby-crowned Kinglet
  241. Black-tailed Gnatcatcher
  242. Canyon Wren
  243. Bewick’s Wren
  244. Cactus Wren
  245. Curve-billed Thrasher
  246. Western Bluebird
  247. Phainopepla
  248. Pine Siskin
  249. Lesser Goldfinch
  250. Rufous-winged Sparrow
  251. Brewer’s Sparrow
  252. Black-throated Sparrow
  253. Lark Sparrow
  254. Yellow-eyed Junco
  255. Lincoln’s Sparrow
  256. Canyon Towhee
  257. Green-tailed Towhee
  258. Spotted Towhee
  259. Yellow-headed Blackbird
  260. Hooded Oriole
  261. Bullock’s Oriole
  262. Scott’s Oriole
  263. Great-tailed Grackle
  264. Lucy’s Warbler
  265. Grace’s Warbler
  266. Black-throated Gray Warbler
  267. Red-faced Warbler
  268. Painted Redstart
  269. Hepatic Tanager
  270. Western Tanager
  271. Pyrrhuloxia
  272. Lazuli Bunting
  273. Greater White-fronted Goose
  274. Horned Lark
  275. Vesper Sparrow
  276. Cave Swallow
  277. Dickcissel
  278. Rose-throated Becard
  279. Northern Beardless Tyrannulet
  280. Violet-crowned hummingbird
  281. Cassin’s Vireo
  282. Gray Hawk
  283. Brewer’s Blackbird
  284. Brown-crested Flycatcher
  285. Zone-tailed Hawk
  286. Hermit Warbler
  287. Barn Owl
  288. Stilt Sandpiper
  289. Anna’s Hummingbird
  290. Black-headed Grosbeak
  291. Acorn Woodpecker 
  292. Black-crowned Night-Heron
  293. Townsend’s Warbler
  294. Spotted Owl

    Group B:
  295. American Bittern
  296. Sharp-shinned Hawk
  297. Bald Eagle
  298. Peregrine Falcon
  299. Dusky Flycatcher
  300. Bank Swallow
  301. Hermit Thrush
  302. Yellow-billed Cuckoo
  303. Black Rail
  304. Upland Sandpiper
  305. Baird’s Sandpiper
  306. White-rumped Sandpiper
  307. Buff-breasted Sandpiper
  308. Mississippi Kite
  309. Broad-winged Hawk
  310. Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
  311. Red-headed Woodpecker
  312. Pileated Woodpecker
  313. Olive-sided Flycatcher
  314. Least Flycatcher
  315. Eastern Phoebe
  316. Blue-headed Vireo
  317. Nelson’s Sparrow
  318. Bronzed Cowbird
  319. Golden-winged Warbler
  320. Swainson’s Warbler
  321. Cerulean Warbler
  322. Blackpoll Warbler
  323. Yellow-throated Warbler
  324. Canada Warbler
  325. Lucifer Hummingbird
  326. Calliope Hummingbird
  327. Golden Eagle
  328. Flammulated Owl
  329. Northern Pygmy Owl
  330. Red-breasted Nuthatch
  331. Townsend’s Solitaire
  332. Olive Warbler
  333. Lark Bunting
  334. Rufous-crowned Sparrow
  335. Virginia Warbler
  336. MacGilivray’s Warbler
  337. American Golden Plover
  338. American Pipit
  339. Gray Flycatcher
  340. Greater Pewee
  341. Northern Pintail
  342. Rock Wren
  343. Glossy Ibis
  344. Chuck-Will’s Widow
  345. Wilson’s Phalarope
  346. Elegant Trogon
  347. Woodhouse’s Scrub Jay
  348. Ruddy Ground Dove
  349. Thick-billed Kingbird
  350. Lawrence’s Goldfinch
  351. Blue-throated Mountain-gem
  352. Pygmy Nuthatch
  353. Clay-colored Sparrow
  354. Green Kingfisher
  355. White-eared Hummingbird
  356. Brown Creeper
  357. American Goldfinch
  358. Lewis’s Woodpecker
  359. Bufflehead
  360. Red-naped Sapsucker
  361. Red Knot
  362. Gilded Flicker
  363. White-tailed Kite
  364. Limpkin
  365. Hudsonian Godwit
  366. Red-breasted Merganser 

    Group C
  367. Greater Scaup
  368. Yellow Rail
  369. Wilson’s Snipe
  370. Bonaparte’s Gull
  371. Franklin’s Gull
  372. Common Loon
  373. Merlin
  374. Black-billed Cuckoo
  375. Lesser Black-backed Gull
  376. Swallow-tailed Kite
  377. White-tailed Hawk
  378. Yellow-bellied Flycatcher
  379. Willow Flycatcher
  380. Eastern Towhee
  381. Bobolink
  382. Cape May Warbler
  383. Black-throated Blue Warbler
  384. Palm Warbler
  385. Western Grebe
  386. Canvasback
  387. Montezuma Quail
  388. Vaux’s Swift
  389. Northern Goshawk
  390. Northern Saw-Whet Owl
  391. Williamson’s Sapsucker
  392. Prairie Falcon
  393. Cassin’s Finch
  394. Botteri’s Sparrow
  395. Five-striped Sparrow
  396. Western Meadowlark
  397. Common Merganser
  398. Snow Goose
  399. Bendire’s Thrasher
  400. Cordilleran Flycatcher
  401. Crissal Thrasher
  402. Red Crossbill
  403. Grasshopper Sparrow
  404. Thick-billed Longspur
  405. Baird’s Sparrow
  406. Northern Gannet
  407. Monk Parakeet
  408. Black-chinned Sparrow
  409. Burrowing Owl
  410. Cassin’s Sparrow
  411. Wood Duck
  412. Hooded Merganser
  413. Northern Bobwhite
  414. LeConte’s Sparrow
  415. Iceland Gull
  416. Rufous-backed Robin
Spot-specific Bird List
 
            So that’s what I did next, on the Monday, the day we left and since the tiered list was mostly finalized, I thought it was best to go spot by spot, creating an excel checklist sheet to see what we should see at each location as we went throughout the day instead of just making a general checklist for the day. By doing this, as we go along, we can see what we were missing for the day at each site and make it easier not just knowing what’s missing, but what we have in general. We tried hard not to count to see where we were standing for the day, but we obviously had to for the flight as we went through this list extensively to see what was still missing from our Texas portion, which included birds like Mallard, Northern Rough-winged Swallow, Song Sparrow, and many others still birds we would likely see in Arizona.
 
            I will also provide screenshots of this list below, but the general idea is to label each site with the time we were expected to leave with the tiered list of species listed below the location, so I can highlight them as we go throughout the day. This was also very helpful because this required more specific knowledge of where each possible species on the route we should or possibly have a chance to see the species, so to even know exactly where to get the common birds along the route, plus cleaning up some holes of information on where certain birds were. This list is below.

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One more thing before we leave, with two birders from the upper Midwest, how would we know how to identify the birds along the route if we do not live in these areas? Thankfully both of us have been to most of the locations on the route, so the birds seen throughout the day are not completely foreign to us and because of this, we had a basic knowledge of what habitats each species should be seen in. For weeks leading up to the day, we spent learning bird calls and making sure we had our visual identification down. It was much easier with the Texas birds as most of these birds were birds seen in the Eastern United States, birds we’re more familiar with. We obviously had the challenge of learning about the birds of southwestern Arizona, which we still did fairly well with, although I am sure we missed a few birds calling throughout the afternoon which is something to look into for the future.
 
The Drive Down:
 
We have all our plans set in stone, have spent dozens of hours planning and making sure everything was cleaned up, and it was Monday the 18th, the day we left for Texas. Ben had to work most of the day Monday, and I of course had surveys and classes here, along with a board meeting. It worked perfectly as Ben had a 5ish hour drive to here, was leaving at around 3/4ET, and I would be done with my meeting by 8:30 pm, have all my stuff ready to go, and leave by 9:00 for the 13+ hour drive. Thankfully the day went very smoothly, Ben got to my place with no problems, and we were off by 9:15 pm!
 
I started out driving since Ben had just driven the last 5 hours to get to my place. Our whole drive down went very smoothly without any problems, we switched a few hours in once we got into the bootheel of Missouri, then switched again about an hour outside Little Rock, and then I continued to drive throughout the day after this point. As the sun came up, we found ourselves driving in far Southwestern Arkansas, just north of Shreveport with a stunning sunrise to our east. We kept chugging along and reached the rice fields just north of High Island t around 10:30 am. We then spent the afternoon between these fields, Anahuac, High Island, and spots closer to Houston. We figured not to do the Bolivar Peninsula because most of that stuff was either at night or like the Bolivar flats, the shorebirds and other water birds will either be there or not.
 
Scouting:

We scouted the fields nearby, finding plenty of goodies from our B like American Golden-Plover, White-rumped Sandpiper, Hudsonian Godwit, Glossy Ibis, etc., and key birds within Anahuac like Fulvous Whistling-Duck, other ducks, and wading birds, as some are pictured below! High Island was fairly good. I’d never been there so all of this was new to me. We tried a faster pace of scouting to see how quickly we would have to be but also took enough time to make sure we had most of the birds scouted out for. It was still apparent that migration was slightly lacking and behind, which caused a little alarm, but still, a majority of the migrants were still around. Although it is important to note the lack of flycatchers that were there at the current time, something key for our big day. Seeing both cuckoo species were fun as well! I figured I would run into at least one person I knew, and I did! At Boy Scout Woods we ran into Pat Lueders and Yvonne Homeyer from Central Missouri! You never know who you will see at this birding mecca! 
Picture
Fulvous Whistling-Duck
Picture
Common Gallinule
Picture
Black-necked Stilt
Picture
Rice Fields (hundreds of shorebirds somewhere in the pic)
Picture
Herd of cattle blocking the road at the rice fields, can not have this happen on the big day!
Picture
Black-billed Cuckoo
Picture
Hooded Warbler
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Deck at Boy Scout Woods
Picture
Summer Tanager
Picture
Kentucky Warbler
The Final Hours:

We then drove towards Houston, making two quick stops to look for more truly Eastern birds like Carolina Chickadee and Pine Warbler, birds that we can not see at High Island at White Park just off of the interstate, and a quick check for Limpkin at the north end of Sheldon Lake, which we planned to do at night since we learned that Limpkins are active and call often at night! We finished the evening by checking a couple of sites in Western Houston, most importantly scouting out Least Grebe that we last second found out about in a small park just west of downtown!

We sat down for dinner at around 8:00 pm, knowing this was our last actual meal for over 24 hours and THE day, that we have been prepping for weeks, was just a few hours ahead of us. We got to the hotel by 9:00 and had about 4.5 hours to make finalized plans and get SOME rest before our day as we were planning on leaving the hotel by 1:45am (due to Arizona being two hours behind, we had to start at 2am) and I was in bed by 10:30, full of both stress and excitement about what was to come the next day!

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