Hello All!
A few bird buddies and I are planning a Gulf of Mexico road trip in early January to celebrate us all finishing up our university degree. Very exciting!
The problem is that there are SO many places to go, and we only have around 14 to 17 days with the car that we are getting lent.
We are hoping to drive first to Louisiana, work our way along the coast through to Texas, then maybe head west to Arizona.
Are there any destination that you can suggest that we simply can not miss? This would be greatly appreciated as we are simply overwhelmed by everywhere we can explore!
As well, if there are any cheap camping places that you can suggest, that will be appreciated as well!
Good birding!
Hi Nicole,
You are doomed to having a wonderful time, no matter which route you pick.
That said, you need to plug in a few fixed points, for can't miss birds.
My $0.02, not knowing where you are staring from, would be to start with Corpus Christi, to pick up Whooping Cranes, various TX endemics and anything that spills over from Mexico.
Corpus is very bird friendly, plus a great jump off point for the rest of TX. .
The only other caution is that the distances are really painful. Plan your trip carefully, you are covering a space similar to the Gaspe/Toronto drive.
Are you driving all the way from Nova Scotia, or flying into Louisiana? If the former, given the vast distances I would suggest spending all the time you have in Texas rather than try to make it all the way to Arizona. There are some really great birds and birding spots down in the Rio Grande Valley. Bentson Rio Grande State Park is one of my favorites. There is tent camping within the park, and since they've closed the park to vehicles (other than a tram that runs from the parking lot into the park), it's nice and quiet at night and offers great owling. Falcon Dam state park also has a decent camground, and it's a little farther inland so you start to get into more western birds like Green-tailed Towhee, Black-throated Sparrow, etc.
I once did a road trip through Texas over the course of about two weeks, starting in Ohio and ending at Ft. Hood where I was to work as a seasonal field assistant. I began by working my way down the coast, starting with Galveston and ending at Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, then worked my way up through the river valley visitng Bentson, Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, Brownsville (for the Tamaulipas crows at the dump), and San Ygnacio for White-collared Seedeater, then turned north inland to hit desert scrub and hill country birds. I can dig out my notes if you are interested in more details about some of these sites, and I highly recommend the book Birding Texas (Falcon Guide series).