Mike Austin

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Mike-AustinMike grew up in southwestern Ontario, Canada where, since retiring from active medical practice 4 years ago, he lives in the summer next to his beloved Point Pelee. His winters are still spent on the Upper Texas Coast where he’s lived since 1978.

Birding for sixty-one years, he’s an avid lister with over 850 North American birds & over 60 Texas state birds.  He has now visited 25 countries & has a world list of 5000.

Mike is also a very active eBirder and serves as the reviewer for several counties on the Texas coast and east Texas. He’s a frequent CBC participant and co-compiler of the Freeport count.  He’s lectured & led field trips for many local and national groups and festivals. His favorite is Galveston’s Feather Fest where he’s led trips since its’ inception. Previously he ran the North American Rare Bird Alert for the Houston Audubon Society for 14 years.

He’s very accomplished in recognizing bird vocalizations and, since retiring, has become a very avid nature photographer.

Upcoming Events

April 2023
$90

Birding Bolivar with Richard Gibbons

April 21 @ 6:00 am - 2:00 pm

Join Richard Gibbons, Gulf Coast Program Manager for the American Bird Conservancy, on a trip to one of the finest migratory locations in North America – the western end of the Bolivar Peninsula. Here are the Houston Audubon Horseshoe Marsh and Bolivar Flats bird sanctuaries. This combination of salt marsh, mud flats and beachfront hold the highest rated designation in the birding world as a Globally Important Bird Area and is an International Site in the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve…

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$80

From Bay to Gulf and in Between with Greg Miller

April 22 @ 7:00 am - 12:00 pm

Join Greg and local birder Mike Austin on a trip guaranteed to expose you to many island habitats and what ought to be a significant variety of species! Well known by the locals, these less familiar hot spots have proved fruitful time and again. We’ll begin at Lafitte’s Cove walking the paths in search of migrating and nesting songbirds in the oaks and wading birds in the ponds. From there, we journey east to pick up herons and egrets, migrating…

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$65

Warbler Watching with Glenn Olsen #2

April 23 @ 7:30 am - 11:30 am

Back by popular demand, for this trip, you will be guided by one of our most experienced birders and all-around nature lover, Glenn Olsen. Glenn leads nature tours in the US and overseas but he calls the upper Texas coast home. His extensive knowledge of local birding areas is sure to yield excellent views of migrating warblers as they move through our area on their way to nesting habitat. As a bonus, Glenn is also a Texas Master Naturalist and has served as the president of the Native Plant Society of Texas. His knowledge in these areas should greatly enhance your trip experience. Our group will focus on techniques for improving field identification skills. We will be traveling by bus and places visited will depend on weather patterns and reports from the previous day’s birding activities.

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