November Challenge

The simple act of seeing and recognizing a bird in your backyard carries with it a long- and somewhat unappreciated- history of natural observation. What do you notice when you see a Northern Cardinal? How do you recognize it? Is it the ornamental red of the males? Or the claxon orange beak contrasted against the soft brown of the females? Maybe it’s not with your eyes but your ears… the dawn song of these ubiquitous backyard companions is comfortingly familiar to backyards across the eastern US.

Signs of the season

Season changes, weather changes, local avifauna changes.

We’ve been watching the departure of summer birds- the yellows and reds and blues- and welcoming in our winter visitors… with all of their browns and tans and light browns. Of course, with the winter arrivals, we’re changing where we look for the birds. No more warbler neck!, but confounded by little brown jobs in the bushes.

 

You'll miss me when I'm gone!

Look up in the sky!

It’s a bird! And another! And another! And… oh my! Fall migration is upon us, and there’s plenty to see as the birds head to their wintering grounds. With a little luck, we’ll have oodles and oodles of birds streaming through the Brazos Valley.

If you’re like me, when I hear migration, I instinctively think of spring. Bright colored warblers, orioles, and tanagers. High Island and the coast. Fallout! Watching the radar and wind charts! It’s still exciting just to talk about it!

But there’s another migration in the fall and it’s a little different than spring… and that’s good! Fall is full of drab or indistinctly colored warblers that were just hatched this year. While that’s not the best news for making your lists, it is hopeful news for the birds’ populations! Also, fall is not particularly known for it’s fallouts or volumes and volumes of birds. There’s no real synchronicity to the migration like there is in spring, with birds flying overnight from the Yucatan and arriving at the coast about the same time each afternoon.

Swainson's Hawk hanging out at Horizon turf farm

Fall is more of a casual stroll. Not driven by over-pumped hormones pushing them to go breed, the birds tend to go at their leisure. Flocking up, socializing, catching up with old friends (we assume). Our Purple Martin experience this year was a good example of that.

So where is one to find the birds in the fall? Well, there are the usual places like Lick Creek or Brison Parks, although the going might be a little slow. Shorelines and turf farms are usually good for migrating shorebirds, although our normally reliable Country Club Lake has been lacking a shoreline much of the year (where’d all this water come from!?!). Horizon Turf Farm, and Allen Farms usually have some interesting shorebirds running around, but much of that depends on the state of the farming.

Wait a second! This isn't a raptor! We'll call this Loggerhead Shrike an honorary raptor... certainly a bird of prey!

One place you may not have considered is simply look up! You know all of those kettles of vultures we see all over town? Have a second look… are they all vultures? Are any of them vultures?! Fall brings in the raptors, kettling from thermal up-draft to up-draft and soaring effortlessly in between. What’s interesting about our region is that we effectively serve as a funnel to the raptors’ wintering grounds. This is most apparent down at the coast.

Red-tailed hawk cruising over the old landfill south of College Station

Several organization- including Hawkwatch.org and the Hawk Migration Association of North America- operate or collaborate with hawk towers around the US- from Cape May, NJ, to Marathon, FL, Smith Point and Corpus Christi, TX, Brighton, CO, San Francisco, CA, and Veracruz, Mexico to track, monitor, and count diurnal raptors as they head south for the winter. As the hawk migration season peaks, tens of thousands of hawks can be counted in a day. Several hundred thousand to a million hawks are expected annually in the Texas locations, and Veracruz usually sees somewhere between four and six MILLION hawks go by in a season! Sheesh. I’m glad someone else is doing the counting.

A couple of tidbits I learned while looking up some info for this blog. 

The standard model of diurnal raptor migration is the birds hit the skies mid-morning, going from thermal to thermal for most of the day, and then put down in the evening and rest for the night. All while staying over land, riding the convection currents down the continent. Well, as they say: It’s only a model!

Daytime raptor migration as illustrated by the Florida Keys Hawk Watch: http://floridakeyshawkwatch.wordpress.com/about/

Radio tracking Swallow-tailed Kites, Peregrine Falcons, and Osprey can set out over the open waters- both the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic- when they head south. Now our very own John and Helen Baines told us about European Osprey that fly over the Mediterranean Sea to reach their wintering grounds in Africa… but that’s not quite the same! Of course, the European birds have the Sahara to contend with, but we’re not worried about that right now!

Additionally, this whole business of flying only during the daytime may not hold true in all cases. There are published reports of Osprey [abstract only] and Northern Harriers [PDF warning] migrating… or at least actively flying in a direction that wasn’t north... at night! I don’t know how common this is amongst our classic diurnal raptors, but it’s safe to say there are nearly always exceptions to the rules- especially when it comes to biology.

Now, why have I spent all of this time talking about raptor migration?! I mean, I know people are pining for a shorebirds webinar or a small primer on identifying leg color on a 6-inch sandpiper at 500 yards in full sun! [By the way, the shorebirds webinar is really excellent- I highly recommend it!]

Bald Eagles over Gibbons Creek Reservoir at the 2013 CBC

Well, I’ve been talking about raptor migration because we’ll be heading to the Smith Point Hawk Tower run by our friends at the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory for our September filed trip! I think it will be an excellent and informative trip. And if we’re good, Bruce promised to buy us some local delicacy crawfish-flavored ice cream on our way past Anahuac NWR! Yay! More details to come!

August sunshine!

Well, if we can be excited for anything in August in Texas, we can be excited about the sunshine! What’s that saying about too much of a good thing? Hogwash I say! Particularly this August! Despite the long-term projection from NOAA for slightly warmer and drier weather this next month, that can’t touch the brutality from the last few years! Heck, they’re talking about rain next week! Maybe not talking a lot about it, but you’ll have to admit it’s been a much better summer than the past few in terms of rainfall and cloud cover.

Sometimes this is the best way to bird in August

So what does all that mean for me!? Er… you!? I know I had a whole blog about reading books and staying inside last month… well that was then! August is whole new month, full of plenty of new things to see!

Go read a book!

While we haven’t had the brutal summer temperatures and screaming UV indexes of the past few years, I think it’s safe to say we don’t plan a lot of activities outside during summer in Texas. Sure there are still great birds to see- I found this hummingbird nest at Lick Creek Park earlier this week!

Hummingbirds are still on their nests as we turn the calendar to July

There’s also butterflies to count, and dragonflies to enjoy- but I’ll admit, it’s not quite as inviting as say… October. Or November. Or – well you get the idea.

Extra points for whomever can help with this ID!

So what’s there to do?! The philatelists, I’m sure, will have their preferences. Of course there’s hanging out with your pets.

Nom!

Or seeing what cool thing NASA is up to. And some of us already heard suggestions from the Texas Master Naturalists. Of course you could keep up with the high drama of As the General Hospital Guiding Light World Turns. Will Nathan lie under oath for Maxie? Sonny confronts Julian about Ric’s death. Will the truth come out? And who was that mysterious stranger from last week’s funeral finale?

Gasp!

If you’re feeling adventurous, maybe a telenovela instead!

So... what's the story with the reception? Can we still eat?

Yikes! Such drama! Personally, when I’ve had enough of the emotional rollercoaster that is Amor Mío or La Esclava Isaura, I like to settle in with a nice calming book! 

National Audubon recently came out with a nice list of books for their summer reading list. I figured I’d add a couple of my favorites to the pile too.

Now, this list is IN ADDITION TO reading through your field guides and apps this summer! There’s not better time to catch up on the differential characteristics between a Cackling and Canada Goose, sort out the field marks for those vexing fall warblers, or getting ready for the sparrows this winter. Some good field guides for this:

Birds of Texas, National Geographic, Sibley’s, Kaufman, Crossley’s, The Essential Field Guide Companion, Warbler Guide, Sparrows of United States and Canada

Now I have a couple of favorite authors and/or topics, so I’ll give you the list and try to keep it organized.

Most anything by Bernd Heinrich

He’s has an excellent series of naturalist writings that either touch on birds in the context of a bigger theme, or focus primarily on our feathered friends.

Winter World – Observations on animal survival in the harsh climes of winter in Maine. Includes fascinating stories about Golden-crowned Kinglets.

Summer World – A complement to Winter World, but obviously focused on the critters and crawlers found at the author’s cabin in Maine.

Mind of the Raven – Ever get the feeling corvids were sizing you up? Well, they are. And you should be worried!

Geese of Beaver Bog – Bernd fosters a gosling and spends the summer seeing the forest through the eyes of his young companion.

The Nesting Season – Questions and comments about everyday observations about birds: egg colors, nest types, parenting, displays and more… just why are they the way they are?

Homing Instinct – Scent trails, visual landscape memory, and migration. How do animals accomplish the incredible feat of annual migration!?

Amazon

Tim Birkhead

Bird Sense: what it’s like to be a bird - Professor of behavior and evolution of birds, he has spent a lifetime birding, twitching, and digging through historic ornithology books to give a true reckoning of the life cycle of birds as we known it, and how birds continue to capture the imagination and attention of people. He’s also recorded an interesting TED Talk on the topic. Amazon Buteo

Joel Greenburg

A Feathered River Across the Sky – Given the centennial of the loss of the last Passenger Pigeon this year, this book is an important work to mention. Tracing the sad story of the loss of one of the most plentiful bird species (estimated at 25 – 40%), Greenberg covers the natural history and historical observations of this species across the continent. Amazon Buteo

Kenn Kaufman

Kingbird Highway – An unusual and remarkable story of big year birding by Kenn when he was a teenager. Hitchhiking his was around the US and sometimes living off of cat food, he tallied well over 600 birds while having a ridiculous adventure. A great book to inspire you to get out and bird no matter the conditions! Amazon Buteo

Mark Obmasik

The Big Year – The book-turned-movie recounting of the big year competition from 1998 provides a little more story (and a little less Hollywood glitz) to the epic contest. While we’ve enjoyed the movie, Sarah said the book in more enjoyable (and we don’t have to watch a flock of starlings be called a fall out at High Island!). Amazon Buteo

Pete Dunne

The Feather Quest – Preeminent ornithologist and skillful birders Pete and Linda Dunne take a year off to go birding around North America. Part birding journal, part birder commentary, they are able to capture the essence of who spends hours walking around outside looking in treetops or bushes, scanning the skies, or studying shorebirds. And they also give us a pretty good tale of birding across the continent! Amazon Buteo

Sharon Beals

Nests: 50 nests and the birds that build them – A beautiful photography exhibition of exactly what the title describes. But wait! It’s not just pretty pictures! The author adds excellent context and detail to the species she’s describing to give the reader not only an aesthetically pleasing book, but one with plenty of natural history too! Nests used were from the collections at the California Academy of Sciences. Amazon Buteo

Spring Shakedown 2014

Well, the calendar has turned, and we’re officially out of the spring migration season and into the summer breeding season. Of course, setting hard and fast calendar dates to define biology is really just for the fun of organizing things… birds have been on nests for sometime now, and I’m sure there are still migrants passing through the area.

But with the changing of the calendar, we certainly know what we can expect: fewer warblers to crane our necks at, fewer shorebirds to become flummoxed over, and more leaves to peer through something small and backlit singing it’s head off in the canopy. I started thinking about this year’s migration season, and how it might have compared to years past. Particularly last year- as these two migrations couldn’t have felt more different.

Maybe it was the numbers of birds we got to see as a group, maybe it was the excitement of the fall-outs, or maybe it was some other enigmatic or abstruse reason known only to the moon and stars. This year felt thin, like we weren’t seeing the warblers and tanagers we did last year. Certainly last year we were spoiled rotten, but this year seemed very lean, with just a few individuals at Brison or County Club Lake at a time. If they were even there!

Whatever the reason, I wanted to look at some data. Numbers always soothe my mind- or at least confound it. And sometimes I can glean little nuggets of interest for extra perspective. This year continued our recovery from the drought of 2010–11, the rainfall kept the lakes in town pretty full.

Look at the drop in rain in 2010 AND 2011! Bad times.

Rio Brazos Audubon and the Great Texas Birding Classic 2014

Well what a great way to spend a Saturday! The weather was great, the conversation was friendly, and the birds kept us busy! We started off quite early- about 5:00AM- and immediately had a NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD calling and calling and calling from the top of a nearby tree. Soon after, two EASTERN SCREECH OWLS came over to investigate us, and a GRAY FOX thought he could sneak by without getting spotted! Ha! We're here to see stuff! There's no sneaking by us! Unfortunately it was too dark/I wasn't awake enough to figure out how to use my camera in low light to get a picture of either.

One picture I did manage... Sarah and Mark