Best Bird-Watching Outside City Limits

Galveston's Stewart Road is unknown to all but the most curious of island day-trippers. Running parallel to FM 3005 from 61st Street all the way to 13 Mile Road, this scenic byway cuts through the live oak-studded pastures and salt marshes that offer up a hint of what Galveston must have looked like when Jean Lafitte was afoot. These same features offer up a variety of habitats for hundreds of species of birds, ranging from tiny golden warblers to shocking pink, primordial, pterodactyl-like spoonbill ibises. (Also, there are sometimes grisly remains of birds snagged on fishhooks that dangle from the power lines thanks to the erroneous casting of some anglers.) This is an ornithological adventure, tailor-made for the car-happy Houstonian. You rarely have to step out of the wonders of a/c for a fruitful trip.