Our Summer Bird Camp is taking place on July 12th-16th this year and we are looking for volunteers! We need help checking in the kids, teaching them about birds, and helping them with activities.

If you're interested in helping out, contact Celeste at csilling@gcbo.org for more information or to sign up. We'd love to have you!

We have added a new "Resources" section to our website which features different informational pages about birds and related subjects. So far, we have pages about Native Plants, Birding During Migration, and What to Feed the Birds. On each page, you'll find helpful information on each of these topics, as well as links to other online resources that we found helpful. We will continue to add more resource pages over time, so stay tuned!

Our SPLASh program, created in partnership with American Bird Conservancy and Black Cat GIS, has been very busy over these past few months! Along with our monthly beach cleanups, we have also been working with local schools to educate students about marine debris. Recently, we've taught at Dickinson and Lamar High Schools and had field trips with Pines Middle School and AIM academy. These have been incredibly fun for us and the students have learned a lot! If you're interested in adding SPLASh programming to your school or summer camp curriculum, you can contact Celeste at csilling@gcbo.org. To learn more about SPLASh and our educational programming, visit our website here: https://www.splashtx.org/education

The Beach Nesting Bird Project is being led by our GCBO Coastal Biologist, Taylor Bennett, and assisting her this season is GCBO intern, Sarah Belles. We monitor and protect three species of beach nesting birds: Wilson’s Plover, Least Tern, and Black Skimmer. These species are considered species of high concern due to loss of habitat, climate change, and human disturbance. This year we are monitoring three sites: Matagorda Beach, Sargent Beach, and Dow Freeport Plant A.

The Wilson’s Plovers and Least Terns have been having a tough time due to recent high tides and storms. For the Wilson’s Plovers, we have located 10 nests and one brood with 2 chicks on Matagorda Beach and 10 nests on Sargent Beach. Unfortunately, due to all the storms this past month, only one nest has made it on Matagorda Beach. However, we did manage to find a pair with two chicks, but were unable to locate the nest. Luckily, the parents of this brood are already banded, female VV and male VH.

The Least Terns nest in colonies and we have located one colony along Matagorda Beach and three on Sargent Beach. All of them, unfortunately, got washed over with last month’s storms. But, both Wilson’s Plovers and Least Terns will re-nest after their nests have failed, so there is still hope. We have already noticed a couple of pairs trying to rebuild again. Within the next month or so we should be finding more nests and therefore more chicks. So far, we have banded only one adult Wilson’s Plover female, V5 which Sarah nicknamed “Violet”. We band Wilson’s Plover adults and chicks to help keep track of the pairs and broods. This year, all newly banded Wilson’s Plover adults and chicks will be available for symbolic adoption through our online nature store. There are also still chicks available from last year. All proceeds go towards the beach nesting bird project.

Due to the pandemic, we have been unable to check on the Dow Black Skimmer colony. Luckily, we have a few Dow employee volunteers to keep track of them. According to their data, there are currently 1470 Black Skimmer adults with around 36 nests. There are no Least Terns nesting there at the moment. We are in need of more volunteers and Dow escorts, so if you know someone who is an employee of Dow and is interested in learning about the Black Skimmer colony please email Taylor Bennett at tbennett@gcbo.org and Martin Hagne at mhagne@gcbo.org . As a reminder, please remember to share the beach. Drive slowly, keep dogs on a leash, avoid the dunes, and remember to fish, swim, and play 50 yards away from beach nesting birds and their chicks.

Photo captions:

WIPL F-V5: The first female adult Wilson’s Plover banded so far this season. Her band is V5, so Sarah nicknamed her “Violet”. She is available for symbolic adoption.

Thanks to everyone who made our Virtual Bird Bash event a success in May! This was such a fun event and we are so glad that we could connect with so many new bird-lovers! We owe special thanks to our sponsors: Vortex Optics, Zeiss Optics, Brome Bird Care, Bird Watchers Digest and Redstart Birding. As well, we want to thank all of the wonderful speakers who presented during the event. All of the presentation videos as well as the banding video are on our Facebook page and Youtube page.

And to everyone who tuned in or donated during the event, thank you so much for your support!

Our next SPLASh beach cleanup will be at Monument Inn Beach in La Porte TX on June 19th. This will be our second cleanup on this beach and we are hoping to get even more trash this time!

If you are interested in joining us, you can register with the link below. Please wear beach-ready attire, closed toed shoes, and bring plenty of water. We hope to see you there!

Did you know that many corporations have a donation matching program? Corporations can match their employees' volunteer hours and/or donations to nonprofit organizations like GCBO! These types of programs are great because they double your contributions to the causes that you care about! If you work (or are retired from) a corporation, ask them about their matching program today!

Come birding with GCBO and our Executive Director, Martin Hagne! Have a great time birding, exploring, enjoying some extraordinary scenery, dining on local cuisine, and of course seeing great birds! We always hook up with at least one local guide for the best experience. Here are our wonderful upcoming trips, but hurry, our trips are selling out fast!! You can get more information on or website or send Martin an email.

For all trips below with availability, please go to our website for trip information and to register.

Southeast Arizona Birding 

August 16-23, 2021 - SOLD OUT!

October 14-25, 2021 - SOLD OUT!

February 2-7, 2022 - SOLD OUT!

March 5-13, 2022 with Tikal Extension March 13-16 2022- Only One Spot Left!

June 2022 – SOLD OUT!

Our annual Xtreme Hummingbird Xtravaganza will be happening on Saturday September 18 and 25 this year. The event will be in-person at our our headquarters in Lake Jackson and we will also be broadcasting some of it on our Facebook page. As always, we will be banding hummingbirds, hosting speakers, and featuring various nature booths and activities. We hope to see you there!

The Wireless Alliance is a company that recovers and recycles cell phones, smart phones, tablets, and other consumer recyclables.

We will be collecting these items for Wireless Alliance to keep them out of landfills as well as raise money for our conservation efforts. If you have old technology such as a phone, charger, tablet, or other accessories, consider bringing it to GCBO!

We are trying to go as paperless as we can to save some trees and quite a bit on printing and mailing costs. We would love if you would let us email you instead of snail mailing a hard copy of any correspondence, including your future copies of the Gulf Crossings. Please email or call Tricia to say: “Hey, GCBO, please start emailing me things! Here is my email…”   Thanks!   

DONATE NOW on our website to support our conservation programs.

BECOME A MEMBER and receive our twice a year newsletter and a 10% discount in our nature store.

Get emails that matter to you. At the very bottom of this email there is an "update profile" or "unsubscribe" link that will take you to a page where you can make your selections. We now have specific lists for things like volunteering, events, bird of the month, and more. Please take a moment to update your preferences if you haven't already.

GCBO is a registered charity through Kroger's Community Rewards Program. This means that you can register your Kroger Plus Card online and select GCBO as the organization of your choice. Every time you use your Kroger Plus Card, Kroger will donate a portion back to GCBO! This is an easy way to support GCBO while you shop - your donations help us continue to protect birds and birding habitat around the Gulf Coast and beyond. To register your Plus Card, click here. Our charity number is #DN782.

Telephone: 979-480-0999 | Email Us