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One of Galveston's finest Resort Boutique Hotels
offering Bed and Breakfast Lodging Accommodations
Birding Galveston Island
"In a world that seems so very puzzling, is it any wonder birds have such appeal? Birds are, perhaps, the most eloquent expression of reality."
- ROGER TORY PETERSON, American Ornithologist
In North America, there are over 850 species of birds. Texas can boast having more bird species, nearly 600, than any other state or provence in North America. Some birds sighted in Texas occur nowhere else in the nation, and birdwatchers from around the world flock to see them. Galveston Island, and its checklist of over 320 species, is part of the Great Texas Birding Trail. Here you will find Roseate Spoonbills, with their bizarre spatulate beaks, Reddish Egrets that prance about in the surf in search of small fish and crustaceans, and Magnificent Frigatebirds that sail over bays and beaches on seven-foot wings. Not only do many warm-weather species nest on Galveston Island, but norhtern ones also pass through on their long migration flights. Many remain for the winter. When autumn approaches and some birds leave for Central and South America, others arrive to take their places. Even the hardiest birds from the far North turn up occasionally when ice and snow make food impossible to find at higher latitudes. Texas birds change with the seasons, but they are plentiful at any time of the year.
"Solitude...is essential to any depth of meditation or of character; and solitude in the presence of natural beauty and grandeur, is the cradle of thoughts and aspirations..."
-JOHN STUART MILL, Principles of Political Economy
Going Afield-Top Ten Birding Areas From Galveston Island
An effective birder is one who has a good idea of when and where to go looking, and who causes the birds a minimum of distubance.
A Celebration of Birds
  
The birds sing at dawn. What sounds to be awakened by! If only our sleep, our dreams, are such as to harmonize with the song, the warbling, of the birds, ushering in the day.
-HENRY DAVID THOREAU
 
The birds pour forth their souls in notes
Of rapture from a thousand throats.
-WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
"There is no sorrow in thy song, no winter in thy year."
-RALPH WALDO EMERSON
"I never for a day gave up listening to the songs of our birds, or watching their peculiar habits, or delineating them in the best way that I could."
-JOHN JAMES AUDUBON, American Artist and Ornithologist
JEWELS OF THE SKY
Audubon called them "glittering fragments of rainbows." Others have called them "flying jewels." Many species have been named for rubies, emeralds and other precious gems. Irridescence is the hummingbird's trademark.
For more information on Texas birding, go to: www.tpwd.state.tx.us/birdingtrails
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The Mermaid & Dolphin Resort
A Boutique Hotel & Spa Resort
1103 Thirty-Third Street
Galveston Island, Texas 77550
For Reservations 9:00 a.m.- 10:00 p.m. Daily
Call Toll Free: (800) 930-1866
(After 10 p.m. CST, please send a voice or email message for Reservation Inquiries)
General Inquiries, Weddings and Events 9:00 a.m.- 6:00 p.m. Daily
Phone: (409)762-1561 Toll Free: (888) 922-1866
FAX: (409)762-2077
info@mermaidanddolphin.com
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