Passport to Texas

Project Feeder Watch

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This is Passport to Texas

The Christmas Bird Count, a project of the National Audubon Society, is December 14 through January 5. Volunteers count birds during a 24-hour period inside defined 15-mile diameter circles throughout the state.

But there aren’t any on December 25th—you can’t compete with family time and ripping open presents.

Nongame ornithologist, Cliff Shackelford says if you’re unable to participate in a Bird Count circle, you can still contribute to the count as a feeder watcher.

That’s someone that just merely watches out their back window and looks at the birds coming to the feeder and just counting those things. It’s a really good niche for someone that’s not able to get out if it’s too cold, or you’re just not physically able to get out, or maybe you have a newborn at the house, These are people that might have their eyes open watching the feeder and can contribute.

Get in touch with your area Audubon Christmas Bird Count Compiler through the Audubon website.

Contribute to the world of citizen science all year long as a feeder watcher. Just go to feederwatch.org for details.

The Wildlife Restoration Program supports our series and funds diverse conservation programs in Texas.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

Christmas Bird Count participants. Photo: Camilla Cerea/Audubon

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More than a hundred years ago people participated in a time-honored Christmas tradition.

People would go out and do what was called a side hunt, and the winning group would come back with the biggest pile of dead critters.

Most of the critters in those piles were birds. Cliff Shackelford, non-game ornithologist with Parks and Wildlife, says conservationists had a better idea.

Early conservationists thought that we ought to count birds and not try to collect birds.

Today we have the Christmas Bird Count, December 14th through January 5th. Volunteers, armed with a bird list and binoculars, head into the field on a specified day to count birds over a 24-hour period.

What people do is they get into teams, and they have a defined 15 mile radius circle that they’re counting in, and that circle never moves. The hope is that you would count that circle for decades and decades and over time you would see trends.

Everyone turns in their data to a compiler who sorts it out and sends it to researchers; they use it to assess the health of bird populations, and to guide conservation action.

Go to audubon.org for more information and to register.

The Wildlife Restoration Program supports our series.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Monarch on milkweed.

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Habitat loss along its migration route may be one reason the Monarch butterfly is in decline. While feeding on nectar, Monarchs pollinate wildflowers along their route, which benefits our ecosystem.

There are two primary ways that habitat supports pollinators.

Johnnie Smith is Texas Parks and Wildlife Conservation Education Manager.

And one is, the adult pollinators oftentimes feed on nectar of flowers. So, flowering plants that are a food source for the pollinator is very important. But also, is the food source that the pollinator’s larvae rely on as they’re growing up and becoming an adult. And so, that is just as important as the flowering plants that support the adults.

For Monarchs, native milkweed is an important plant. By cultivating them in our yards, along with other nectar and larval plants, we can all play a part in their survival.

There is no effort that is too small to be counted worthy. And there’s no spot of land that is too small to contain pollinator habitat. So, we really want to empower everybody—that they can make a difference. Right where you stand. Right where you live—you can create pollinator habitat, and help turn around this negative trend with the monarchs.

Tomorrow: the Pollinator Bioblitz, an event to build awareness to help all pollinators.

The Wildlife Restoration program supports our series.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Green Jay /Chara Verde (Cyanocorax yncas)

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This is Passport to Texas

Birders in the know travel to south Texas in winter.

Wow. The Mecca down there is The Valley. And the three or four counties along the Rio Grande are just the powerhouse for winter birding in Texas.

Cliff Shackelford is a non-game ornithologist for Parks and Wildlife.

Birdwatchers from all over the country – really all over the world – are going there to see birds that are stacked up and wintering in big number, because it’s very mild down there. Cold snaps are very unusual and that’s why there’s a lot of agriculture – like citrus that doesn’t handle freezes very well at all. But, where there is remaining thorn scrub habitat or riparian woodland that can be just really excellent birding in the wintertime.

Shackelford says while the Rio Grande Valley is “the mecca” when it comes to sheer volume and varieties of overwintering migratory species in Texas – it’s not the only place.

The Wildlife Restoration program supports our series, and funds diverse conservation projects in Texas.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

A fine vantage point for birding.

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Texas is a birder’s paradise almost any time, but certainly in winter, and Texas Parks and Wildlife’s non-game ornithologist, Cliff Shackelford knows why:

We are on the receiving end for a lot of our continent’s breeding birds that have to winter in mild climates; water birds that can’t handle water that freezes over – and we don’t have a lot of that in Texas especially the farther south you get.

Migratory species begin flocking to Texas in fall, and come to be our winter birds.

In the fall we get a lot of shorebirds we don’t see in the summer months that have bred up in the tundra. Then come your woodland birds – a lot of the vireos, warblers, tanagers… start pouring through in October. A lot of the raptors [that don’t stay, they only pass through]; things like Broadwing Hawks, Swaisnons Hawks, Mississippi Kites –they’re pouring through up until October. Then the sparrows really pour in starting in October and November. So, really by mid-November, most things are in place – where they’re going to be – for the next several months.

We tell you where some of those places are on tomorrow’s show.

The Wildlife restoration supports our series, and funds diverse conservation projects in Texas.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti