The 2025 patch features a Mourning Warbler. Designed by Linda Feltner.
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The patch provides one person entry to all five High Island sanctuaries all year round! Patches are $35 and can be purchased online now or on-site at a visitor kiosk during spring migration. Please note that your Houston Audubon membership does not include admission to High Island sanctuaries. Your purchase of a patch supports restoration and maintenance for birds and people at these beautiful sanctuaries.
We are indebted once again for the wonderful artwork provided by Linda Feltner for the design of this year's patch. Linda is an award-winning nature artist and educator. She combines the creativity of artistic design with strict standards of scientific accuracy, into what has become her trademark. Her areas of expertise include painting and drawing, teaching national workshops, guest lecturing, guiding birding and nature tours and maintaining her flourishing freelance business in fine art and interpretive illustration. Linda has been an instructor for the University of Washington Scientific Illustration Certification Program, and currently teaches for the Art Institute of the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. She is a member of the Artists For Conservation, Society of Animal Artists, and Guild of Natural Science Illustrators. To learn more about Linda, please visit her website: LindaFeltner.com
TOS Partnership: A partnership in High Island makes it easy to visit both Texas Ornithological Society (TOS) and Houston Audubon sanctuaries. Purchase of a day pass or annual patch from Houston Audubon provides passage to the ever-popular Hooks Woods on First St. in High Island.
Are you wondering what to do with your old High Island patch? Return them to Houston Audubon - we'll put them to good use! We particularly need patches for the years 1989 and 1990.
The Story of the Patch
This is a story about many dedicated volunteers at Houston Audubon who have given generously of their time and talent to support our mission. The idea of creating a patch developed after Houston Audubon bought its first High Island sanctuary, Boy Scout Woods, in 1983. Early visitors to the sanctuary were encouraged by volunteer Bessie Cornelius to give a donation each time they entered the sanctuary in order to help pay off the mortgage on the property and generate funds for maintenance. Then in 1989 the first High Island patch was created and sold as an annual pass to all of the High Island sanctuaries. The Hooded Warbler was featured on that first patch, a true trans-Gulf migrant and harbinger of spring migration.
Linda Feltner, an interpretive wildlife artist and book illustrator, with the help of her husband Ben has generously donated the designs for several High Island warbler patches. Former Board member Judy Boyce created the 1997 Black-throated Blue and the 2000 Yellow Warbler patches, and Caroline Callery, Gail Yaranovich, and Evelyn Shelton have also provided patch designs for us. The help of all of these artists has been invaluable.
Every year during spring migration, our wonderful volunteers handle patch and day pass as well as retail sales. They return every year to move items in and out of cabinets daily and display them on tables for the many visitors who buy them as a memento of their trip.
Our success as an organization is due to these wonderful people and others like them who have given us years of loyal support. Why do they do it? Because it's fun and rewarding, because they love sharing the birds with our visitors, and because they see what a difference Houston Audubon has made - for the birds.
