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Spring is a good time to see the great egrets courting and nesting at the Houston Audubon's Smith Oaks Santuary in High Island, Texas.

The new Kathrine G. McGovern Canopy Walkway leads birdwatchers through the treetops at Houston Audubon's Smith Oaks Sanctuary in High Island, Texas.

Great egrets and other colonial nesting birds are putting on a show at the High Island Water Bird Rookery this spring.

The breeding roseate spoonbills are displaying their feathered finery at the rookery in Houston Audubon Society’s Smith Oaks Bird Sanctuary at High Island this spring.

Handsome roseate spoonbill males will select a nest location and attempt to attract a female by bobbing his head up-and-down. See the show at the rookery in High Island.

Brightly colored birds, like this roseate spoonbill, are easy to see at the rookery in the Houston Audubon Society's Smith Oaks Bird Sanctuary at High Island.

You could get tongue-tied describing the elegantly plumaged wading birds like egrets and herons in breeding finery at Houston Audubon Society’s Smith Oaks Bird Sanctuary in High Island.

The stately birds are courting and building stick nests in bunched-up scrawny trees or atop wooden platforms on a U-shaped island called a rookery in Clay Bottom Pond. Surrounded by water patrolled by alligators, the rookery serves as a fortress protecting eggs and chicks against predatory raccoons and coyotes.

A new Kathrine G. McGovern Canopy Walkway leads through treetops to a pond overlook, and stairsteps lead down to a high embankment bordering the pond. The embankment has observation and photo platforms offering scenic views of the birds.

And what a sight! Great egrets in flowing silken-white plumes strut among the trees. Great blue herons flap 4-foot wingspans while decked out in posh gray-blue feathers, including wispy plumes flowing behind the neck.

But the males have to get busy courting females, and that’s a show not to be missed.

Rookery originally described communal nesting colonies of European crows called rooks.

North American rookeries usually describe communal nesting colonies of wading birds.

Peak activity at the High Island rookery is from mid-March to mid-April.

Best viewing is during early morning or late afternoon.

Take binoculars for good views-spotting scope helpful.

Use a camera with 300mm lens or greater for good photos.

Fees: Day pass $8, annual pass $30, children under 18 free.

Details at https://houstonaudubon.org/sanctuaries/high-island/rookery.html

An example are male great egrets flying around females in wide circles with wings flapping in a whooshing sound. If a male’s winging antics draw a female’s attention, the male will then alight on a branch and crane his neck and beak upward to let forth a croaking yodel. Even gravelly- voiced egrets sing love songs.

Roseate spoonbills sport outlandish breeding plumes of pink, red, yellow, and white. But it’s their big, broad, spatula-shaped beaks that arrest our attention.

A male spoonbill selects a nest location and begins bobbing his head to lure a nearby female. He’ll also entice the female by clamping his odd-looking beak on an adjacent twig while rattling it like a maraca.

Eventually, male and female spoonbills pair up and begin to mate. They then slap their broad beaks together as though kissing and press their bodies against each other as though hugging.

All species of long-legged wading birds at the rookery will soon be tending eggs in nests. They’ll brood the eggs while spreading finely laced plumes over the nest like a camisole. And when a bird like a snowy egret rises momentarily, its blue-green eggs shine in the nest.

Prime time for the show goes from mid-March to mid-April, but the show continues throughout the spring. Don’t miss it. Few places in the country offer such a dramatic scene about the renewal of life.

Gary Clark is the author of “Book of Texas Birds,” with photography by Kathy Adams Clark (Texas A&M University Press). Email him at Texasbirder@comcast.net.

Gary Clark is the weekly nature columnist for the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News. He also publishes feature articles in state and national magazines and has written four books: "Texas Wildlife Portfolio," "Texas Gulf Coast Impressions," "Backroads of the Texas Hill Country" and "Enjoying Big Bend National Park." Gary is also a contributing author in the book, "Pride of Place: A Contemporary Anthology of Texas Nature Writing."

He has won eight Lone Star College writing awards and is the recipient of the Houston Audubon Society 2004 Excellence in Media Award and the Citizens' Environmental Coalition 2010 Synergy Media Award for Environmental Reporting.

Gary is professor of business and developmental studies at Lone Star College--North Harris. In 32 years at the college, Gary has served as vice president of instruction; dean of Business, Social and Behavioral Sciences; associate dean of Natural Sciences; professor of marketing; professor of developmental writing; and Faculty Senate president. He is a recipient of the Teacher Excellence Award.

Gary has been active in the birding community for more than 30 years. He founded the Piney Woods Wildlife Society in 1982 and the Texas Coast Rare Bird Alert in 1983. He served as president of the Houston Audubon Society 1989-1991 and purchased the North American Rare Bird Alert for Houston Audubon in 1990. He was vice president of the Board of Directors for the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory 2001-2008. He currently sits on the Board of Advisors for the Houston Audubon Society and Gulf Coast Bird Observatory. He is also a member of the American Mensa Society.

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