Monthly Archives: June 2019

Hard Birding in Houston

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If you’ve been following this blog at all you know that Braden and I love birding Texas. Not only does the Lone Star State offer a delicious smorgasbord of temperate and tropical bird species, it provides an equally delicious variety of food, from Tex-Mex to BBQ. Little wonder I jumped at the chance to lead a professional development workshop for teachers there last week. I quickly learned, however, that birding in Texas in June is a far cry from birding there almost any other time of year.

I don’t know about you, but I’m getting sick of Houston’s annual “Hundred-Year Floods”, which, among other things, wreak havoc with birding plans!

I should have guessed that birding would be tough when my flight down got diverted to San Antonio for four hours because of thunderstorms over Houston, eliminating an entire afternoon of birding I had planned. Nonetheless, I scored some great Tex-Mex food at Gringo’s that night and the workshop the next day went fabulously well. The following morning, I optimistically set off early to check out Brazos Bend State Park, which I raved about in last year’s post Winter Birding at Brazos. Unfortunately, at the entrance I was greeted with a giant sign informing me that the park was closed because of recent flooding.

The flooding did afford me some close-up looks at White Ibises, including this juvenile, which was foraging on the flooded lawns of Bear Creek Pioneers Park.

“What?” I exclaimed, outraged. At least the drive there and back proved fruitful as I spotted a Crested Caracara and Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, along with an impressive display of Cliff Swallows at a bridge. Alas, I found more flooding at my next stop, Bear Creek Pioneers Park. I walked around for more than an hour and managed some great looks at White Ibises and a Red-bellied Woodpecker, but by then temperatures were edging past 90 with a heat index above 100. I wiped my brow and muttered, “I’m good for one more spot. Then it’s back to the hotel to watch HBO.”

For my last birding gasp, I chose one of Braden’s and my favorite Texas birding spots—Jesse H. Jones Park & Nature Center. I guzzled a pint of water, donned my hat and insect repellent, and set out to see if any birds could actually survive in Houston’s legendary heat and humidity. Not much stirred, but I had a fun encounter with Carolina Wrens and two separate experiences with one of my favorite Texas birds, Red-headed Woodpeckers—including a juvenile that had just fledged. The woodpeckers didn’t entirely make up for the day, but they helped—along with seafood enchiladas and a margarita at Gringo’s!

It’s hard to complain too much about a day that presented not one, but five Red-headed Woodpeckers. A former Team Collard nemesis bird, Braden and I first tallied RHWOs at this same park in 2016!

Before my flight home the next day, I had one more mission—to meet with biologist Donna Work at the W.G. Jones State Forest. The forest is the best place near Houston to learn about and observe endangered Red-cockaded Woodpeckers. Populations of these interesting birds have declined over the decades, mainly due to the destruction or replacement of the longleaf pines that they prefer to nest in. Donna met me just as dawn light reached across the sky and we chatted about all things woodpeckers while hoping to see the birds leave their roosting holes.

Biologist Donna Work was kind enough to meet me at 5:45 a.m. to observe Red-cockaded Woodpeckers at W.G. Jones State Forest and tell me about their management in a place now surrounded by suburbs. The green paint marks trees the birds use or have recently used for roosting or nesting.

We missed the birds’ exit, but did glimpse them in the trees overhead. Donna explained that the forest hosts about four RCWO family groups and that nesting success varies year to year. This year, the group we were watching had fledged only a single chick. I asked her if the birds would survive without active management. “No,” she replied, explaining that the birds were too isolated from other RCWO populations to avoid getting inbred. To make up for this, forest managers bring in woodpeckers from other areas to breed with the resident birds. The forest itself also requires active management to mimic the natural fire regime that maintains conditions conducive to the woodpeckers. Despite the tough birding, I left Texas with my belly full, and felt glad that so many people are working hard to protect Texas’s avian treasures.

Talkin’ About Teals

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Braden is off this week so I’m filling in. Just kidding. Birders are never off. Don’t you know that by now? I did want to use this week, however, to talk about an especially cool group of ducks that we observed during our recent Big Weekend. You got it: teals.

Always a favorite of hunters, Blue-winged Teal have a more subtle beauty than other species.

We left Missoula about noon on the Friday of Memorial Day weekend and I have to admit, the only ducks on our minds were the fabled Harlequin Ducks, which we hoped to glimpse in Glacier National Park—and add to our Year Lists. We did get two spectacular experiences with Harlequins—a breeding pair at Josephine Lake in the Many Glacier area and a lone male on MacDonald Creek the next day. I have to say, though, that the teals matched the Harlequins for beauty, and overpowered them with raw abundance.

Cinnamon Teals are not only one of the most beautiful ducks, they are one of the most rare. According to Ducks Unlimited, estimates of breeding population are between 100,000 and 300,000.

We saw all four species of common teals on our trip: Green-winged, Blue-winged, Cinnamon, and Northern Shoveler—which I didn’t realize was a teal until Braden informed me of the fact. To make matters even more confusing, the last three species are in the genus Spatula while the Green-winged Teal is in the genus Anas with a bunch of other dabbling ducks. Go figure. But full disclosure: I am not a taxonomist, so let’s not get too hung up on that now.

Several things impressed us about these four species—especially the three birds in Spatula—a name that undoubtedly has something to do with the Northern Shovelers impressively wide honker. The first thing, of course, is that these species of ducks are exceptionally beautiful. Stunning, in fact. Just look at the photos of the males. I mean, “Whoa Dude, where’d you get those threads?”

I first fell in love with Northern Shovelers during our 2016 Big Year and grow more impressed with them at every encounter.

Another thing about these ducks is that they all seem to adopt similar lifestyles. We kept finding them together in many of the same places: Browns Lake, Benton National Wildlife Refuge, and even the prairie potholes along the highway. Not surprising since they are all dabbling ducks and prefer to nest in or near shallow bodies of water.

The real kicker for us, though, happened at our very first stop, Browns Lake. Braden was looking at a group of ducks on a small pond and he said, “Doesn’t something look a little odd about that duck?” I studied it and agreed. “I think it’s a Cinnamon—Shoveler Hybrid,” he offered. “What? Really?” I’d heard of hybrids but figured they were exceptionally rare. Then again, this duck didn’t look like anything else we’d seen. I suggested that it looked more like a Blue-winged—Shoveler hybrid because of the white crescent behind the bill. “Other teals also can show that in their juvenile phases,” Braden pointed out. Smart-alec kid.

Shoveler—Blue-winged hybrid? Shoveler—Cinnamon? Send us your thoughts with a comment!

One thing was for certain. This bird had not followed the rule books for sticking to one particular species. Interestingly, another teal hybrid was IDed in a different Montana location by another birder the same week. The lesson? If you keep going out there to look, the birds will keep surprising you.