It was a good day to be in the field with somewhat cooler temps, mostly cloudy skies, spotting rain and mild breeze. The birds cooperated too. I had 98 species traveling between Palacios and Matagorda and back. All data is loaded to eBird. Shorebirds and raptors were the stars. Here are a few highlights: Black and White Warbler - 1 lonesome bird at Carl Park on FM 521 Buff-breasted Sandpiper - over 250 at the sod farm near STP, another 40+ off of FM 1468 and at least 30 more at the Oyster Lake Rd fish farms. They seemed to be everywhere. Also had a couple dozen Dicksissel feeding in the wild sunflowers around the corner. Upland Sandpiper - 17 in a short grass field just off of FM 1468 about 4 miles north of STP Peregrine Falcon - 1 at the Salla fish farm near STP. Otherwise this fish farm was relatively quiet with small numbers of Least, Western and Stilt Sandpiper. White-tailed Kite(1), Mississippi Kite(5) and Swallow-tailed Kite (2) - all within 1 mile of each other near the STP wetland on FM 521. This kite trifecta was the best part of the day for me. Also had Red-tailed Hawk, White-tailed Hawk, and Swainson's Hawk scattered along the route for the day 6 plover species at the Matagorda beach pier - Snowy Plover, Piping Plover, Semi-palmated Plover, Wilson's Plover, Black-bellied Plover and Killdeer. One of the Piping Plover had 3 leg bands; a yellow and pink on the right leg and red one of the left leg. I have a photo if interested. Wilson's Phalarope - over 200 at the fish farm on Machalik Rd. Many we're spinning in the puddles. Pretty cool. Migration is definitely picking up with significant numbers of some shorebirds showing where there is some water. Thanks, Bob Friedrichs Houston (currently Palacios)Edit your Freelists account settings for TEXBIRDS at //www.freelists.org/list/texbirds Reposting of traffic from TEXBIRDS is prohibited without seeking permission from the List Owner