High Island

Last spring as part of my birthday celebration (three friends of mine have birthdays close together and celebrate together every year), I visited High Island. I knew I was not there during the peak of the migration, but I still enjoyed wandering the trails and seeing the birds at the ponds there.

Hurricane Humberto slammed into High Island on September 12th. I had heard that it had done a lot of damage to the trees. I had a chance to visit High Island this week. I was worried about what I would see. Yes, there is a lot of damage. Most of the big trees at Boy Scout Woods were uprooted. But I was very impressed at how much clean up has been done. Most of the trails have been cleared, there is still plenty of thicket and small trees and shrubs to provide cover for the birds. Fallen trees had been chain sawed to clear the paths. There was a tremendous amount of work accomplished by dedicated volunteers.

I was going to put a post into TexBirds asking if the loss of the big trees would be a problem for the migrating birds, but I think I found my answer at the Houston Audubon Society High Island page. There are also links to photos of the damage before and after the clean up.

I am so grateful that this is still a beautiful place and that there are people dedicated to keeping it so.