Neches River Field Trip

On Memorial Day Weekend Shelia and I joined Gina Donovan and the Houston Audubon Society for a field trip to float the Neches River. Although the field trip was planned for the participants to stay at a hotel in Lufkin, we had made arrangements to camp and meet up with the rest of the group on Saturday morning for the field trip. We camped at Ratcliff Lake Recreation Area, the same place we camped for Christmas 2008, and even the same campsite.



We brougnt our own kayaks and were really glad that we had. There were some "technical" spots on the river that they made really easy to navigate.



After the Neches River part of the weekend, we birded around the campground, especially the Big Slough area. It's beautiful and really fun to see and hear all of the birds there.

Chimney Swift Roost

Shelia was driving to work yesterday after dropping me off and observed many Chimney Swifts exiting a smokestack in downtown Austin. This morning we went to the location and marked the GPS location for the Kyles. Shelia sent me this map with the chimney pointed out.
The birds were exiting the stack within 5 minutes of sunrise and we observed them for approx. 5 minutes without any slacking. So cool!

South Padre Pelagic

Let me back up now. All the way to July of this year if you don't mind. Shelia and I bought a new travel trailer - a Chalet Arrowhead. It's an A-frame hard-sided pop-up trailer. Cute, huh? We have been talking about getting one for a while, and the situation finally presented itself and we bought it. With all of the birding we do it really opens up a lot of opportunities for us.
It goes up really easily.

First we put up the roof, then it only takes one of us to put of both walls. The whole process only takes a couple of minutes. Then we hook up the water and the gray-water hose, chuck the wheels, uncouple the truck and we're in business. We store most of our stuff under the bed while we're in transit so we take that out as we need it. We were done so quickly this first time we really surprised ourselves! And it's fun too. The air conditioner works great and we were cooled down and enjoying a cold glass of water before we really knew what hit us.

The next day was our Pelagic trip. Eric Carpenter arranged the trip and people attended from all over Texas. The seas were calm and the sky was clear. This was my first Gulf pelagic and it was really fun. We were out a long time, and we didn't see large numbers of birds but we still had a great time. No one got seasick and no one got crabby. Amazing!

Shorebird Class Field Trip

Shorebird Class

Last weekend we went on the Upper Texas Coast field trip with our Travis Audubon Shorebirds class. Led by Tim Fennell, our group of 16 traveled from Austin to Winnie and Bolivar with many stops in-between. The goal - see as many shorebirds as we could while not ignoring the avian diversity along the way.

Tim Fennell

We left Hornsby Bend as a group at 7:00a.m. on Saturday morning in 4 cars. Our first stop was Shipp Lake, a pull-over stop along Hwy 71 where we started out strong with several shorebird species including Stilt, Solitary, Pectoral, Least, Spotted and others.
Our next stop was Attwater Prairie Chicken NWR. This was my first time to visit that refuge, and it's beautiful. At a couple of "pull-over" stops on the way there we added Upland Sandpiper but missed our expected Buff-breasted's. At Attwater we had excellent viewing at a low pond, adding new species as well as having close views of some we'd already seen.
When we left there we immediately pulled over to check out a recently-mown field and saw perhaps hundreds of Buff-breasted Sandpipers. Wonderful!
We drove through Houston in a traffic jam and in the rain. Fortunately, on the entire trip we managed to be in vehicles when it rained!
Our time on the coast was well spent. After checking into our hotel we went out to Bolivar and traveled around the inland roads and Rollover Pass. We spent sundown at Rollover Pass and it was a beautiful sight. That and the alternate plumage Black-bellied Plover and Ruddy Turnstone capped our birding just fine. Dinner at Al-T's was a quick one, and then we fell in bed at 10:30.
Early Sunday we were at Boy Scout Woods which was very quiet except for the buzzing of the mosquitos - they were fierce! We left there pretty quickly and went right to Bolivar Flats. The shorebirding was fantastic. Our first birds on the beach were Piping Plovers and it just got better from there.

One of our best birds of the day was this Lesser Black-Backed Gull

Early Morning on Bolivar

We went from Bolivar to Smith Point where we visited the Hawk Watch tower - not much happening there. We finished our birding day at White Memorial Park where we added Red-headed Woodpecker, Tufted Titmouse and Eastern Wood-pewee to our list.
A wonderful trip - thanks especially to Tim Fennell for leading a fun trip to the coast.

Texas Cooperative Wildlife Collection

Accipiters

On Saturday, Aug. 19th our Intermediate Birding Class went on a field trip to the Texas Cooperative Wildlife Collection at Texas A&M Univ. in College Station. We went there to take advantage of their extensive collection of bird skins. The skins we studied were all birds we studied in class, and were notable for their ID challenges. The collection is curated by Dr. Keith Arnold, a retired professor from the college. He met us there and opened the collection for us on a day when the museum is usually closed.
What an astounding and unexpected experience! Our class was able to hold and compare around 80 skins. From accipiters to terns, finches to vireos and more.
I feel so fortunate to have had this experience, one that I suppose very few hobbyist birders have the opportunity to do.

Our instructor, Cliff Shackelford, did a very good thing for some very lucky birders.Orioles

Loggerhead Shrike

I said I would tell you more about the Loggerhead Shrike, and this seems like as good a time as any. It is the bird that is responsible for my interest in all birds and in birding as a life-long pursuit.
In high school I had a biology teacher, Al Schwan, who was interested in birds. He was my favorite teacher, and when I had taken all of the classes from him that were available, he made up a research assistant position for me so I could spend more time with him. During that time, while I was growing bacteria in agur and learning about mutations, he gave me a bird field guide. It was the Birds of North America, A Guide to Field Identification and I devoured it as soon as he gave it to me.
For some reason, the Loggerhead Shrike just seemed to jump off the page at me. I have no explanation for it. I was obsessed with seeing that bird. The book called them uncommon and declining. They stored food for the winter, for heaven's sake! Birds do that? What else didn't I know about birds? What do you mean they migrate? How do they know to do that? They sing too? Different songs in different places and at different times of the day? I need to know more!
Shortly after I got the book, a flock of Pine Grosbeaks settled in a cemetary next to my school. I was able to identify them! And they were migrating - I read about them in my new book. This was like magic. A new world opened to me when I found out that there were so many beautiful birds all around me and I could know them.
Since then I have always been aware of the birds around me, even when I couldn't "go birding". Now that I can be a devoted birder again, I have fallen in love with the birds all over again.
And my first Loggerhead Shrike? I have Camille to thank for that. I saw him on my birthday field trip to Pace Bend Park on April 24, 2004.

Monthly Fieldtrip at Hornsby Bend

On July 15th I participated in the monthly Birding Field Trip at Hornsby Bend. This is a great way to meet other birders and to get some help learning birds that are challenging to me. This month's fieldtrip was led by Mikael Behrens and it was really well attended. I had been contacted by a woman from Dallas who was coming to Austin and especially wanted to attend the fieldtrip. All of us had a blast together, and saw some great birds. One of the highlights was this aerial flyover of several "whirly-birds" which got the egrets airborn. It was quite a sight to see!