This is bird note.

Each spring, millions of songbirds migrate north from the tropics to North America.

They're coming to nest. Many birds bound for the eastern half of

the continent fly directly across the Gulf of Mexico. It takes about 15 hours to cross the roughly 500 miles of open water.

If wind or rain slows the crossing, the birds are worn out and famished when they reach land.

What will they find upon gaming the coast?

Along the upper Gulf Coast of Texas,

arriving birds find essential migratory stopover points. Best known are the well-managed

sanctuaries of High Island. High Island is a curious name because it's not an

island and it's not very high.

The little town of High Island and its wooded sanctuaries sit atop a geologic dome.

A massive intrusion of salt below ground forced land land surface upward like the dome of a pie crust.

High islands raised area measures a mile across and rises 30 feet above the grass and

scrub of the coastal plain, just high enough to support large

groves of oak that give migrating birds a place to stop, rest, and refuel.

To a migrating bird approaching land after many hours over open ocean, High island must look like Paradise.

For Bird Note, I'm Mary McCann. You're going to be.