Photo credit: Dana Nelson, Cattail Marsh, December 18, 2018. Credit for Website Design: Jeff Pittman.
You are welcome to attend monthly meetings, featuring speakers on birding and natural history topics, and including a delicious member-provided evening meal -- with desserts! Our monthly field trips are fun and educational, and focus on locations along the coast, marshes, prairies, and forests of the area.
Membership Meeting
Thursday August 21, 2025 7:00 p.m.
Garden Center, Tyrrell Park, Beaumont
Beyond the Birds of Texas
Interesting things that won’t fit in a Field Guide
David Sarkozi
The "Birds of Texas" is big, 614 pages, but the truth is that's not enough space to tell the full story of the amazing birds of Texas. There are just so many interesting things that just don't fit in the format of a field guide. For example, one of the most common ducks in Texas is mostly nocturnal and just who was Rivoli and Anna of hummingbird fame and how does that connect with Bond, James Bond?
David Sarkozi starting birding as a teenager in central Texas. College distracted from that but after college it soon became an obsession. He has been birding for more than 30 years now and still has his first field guide.
David has served as Chairman of the Houston Outdoor Nature Club – Ornithology Group, President of the Friends of Anahuac Refuge, and President of the Texas Ornithological Society. He served on the board of TOS for 16 years.
David has been an active leader of field trips across the state. He has a special interest in Belize and has organized more than 30 birding trips to Belize under the name KoziBirding.com
David has completed two Texas Big Years, recording 500 species in 2015 and 509 species in 2017. In 2019 David completed the challenge of birding in every one of Texas’ 254 counties in a single year.
In 2016 David retired after 35 years with the University of Houston where he was Manager of Public Safety Systems.
We plan to have the doors open no later than 6:00 p.m., and have light refreshments available by about 6:15 p.m.
Field Trip to Bolivar Flats.
Saturday August 23, 2025
Meet the leaders at the vehicle barrier at Bolivar Flats at 8:30 a.m. Take Highway 124 south from Winnie about 20 miles through High Island. At the shoreline, turn right along Highway 87 and proceed approximately 25 miles through Gilchrist and Crystal Beach until you come to the intersection with Loop 108. At that intersection, turn left (south – the opposite direction from Loop 108) on Rettilon Road to the beach. If conditions permit, drive onto the sand and turn right to the vehicle barrier (about 1/2 mile). It is about a 90-minute drive from Beaumont or mid-County to the Flats (if you don't stop to bird on the way!)
Depending on the tide -- high tide is forecast forearly afternoon.-- it may be a long walk to the water's edge!
Often, after birding the flats, the group proceeds to the Big Store or to Fort Travis to use the facilities and eat lunch. Many participants will bring their lunch, as options to purchase are limited.
The group has usually stopped at Rollover Pass and may possibly visit High Island on the way home, checking there for very early southbound migrants
** * To park on the beach, you will need a Galveston County Beach Parking Permit, obtainable for $10 from most merchants on the Peninsula. (The Big Store opens at 7:00 a.m.)***