30 Mile Bike and Bird Planning

As I mentioned in my post earlier this week, I'm going to enter the Bird Day Challenge, a competition for a fossil-free-reduced birdwatching big day. I have officially thrown in my hat for this competition.

The date was a no-brainer: the first weekend in April. This is historically one of the best days for birding on the Upper Texas Coast. This is also during the Bird-a-thon for the Houston Audubon, so I can do these two challenges concurrently, if I can find a teammate. Then all money raised will go towards the Houston Audubon Sanctuaries that I love so much, and that money raised will count for both competitions.

During my planning (and I do a lot of planning), I had originally thought of doing a 70-mile route, in order to clinch the title for longest distance, since there was already a guy in Oregon who was planning a 60 mile route from Salem to Junction City. I thought I might even be able to clinch the most species award if I started at Anahuac NWR (marshland birds), rode 29 miles down to High Island (fallout birds), then another 26 miles to Bolivar (shorebirds), then ending up a few miles further in Galveston, across the ferry (more shorebirds, but hotels for the night).

Then I got to thinking... if a 20-year old athlete, who has rode 550 miles between Los Angeles and San Francisco is only doing 55 miles, then what chance would I, a 26 (soon to be 27)-year old whose sole cycling experience is riding an 8 mile route round trip to work 2 days a week, have? Not to mention have a teammate with possibly no cycling experience go with me for the Houston Audubon Bird-a-thon?

So I changed my game plan. Now I plan to do 30 miles, all within the Houston I-610 Loop (so I can still wimp out and hop on a bus if I get too exhausted). I'm planning on hitting all of the major inner-loop hotspots, in order: Russ Pittman Park, Rice University, Hermann Park, University of Houston, Sam Houston Park, Buffalo Bayou Park, Memorial Park/Houston Arboretum, West 11th Street Park, and White Oak Bayou Park. I've made a crude map of the stops (the route isn't exact, it's just a general idea). Map

So there you have it. A full day of Urban birding by bicycle. Now I just need to wait until April :)

Bird Year and Bird Day

The Bird Year Bikers have finished over 6,000 miles and are about to cross into Texas. They are on their way from Carlsbad, NM to Port Aransas, TX (obviously to see the Whooping Cranes). They are looking for inland Texas birds: Mountain Plover, Lapland Longspur, and Sprague's Pipit. So, if anyone has seen these birds recently anywhere between El Paso and the Central Texas coast, please shoot them a quick email so they can plan their route though Texas.

I really admire what these guys are doing. While most birders have environmental concerns, they will still drive hundreds of miles a month in their trucks and SUVs to go birding. Really, it's inevitable, unless you have as much free time as these guys do. I at least try to drive my fuel-efficient Honda Civic if I have to drive outside the Beltway to go birding.

Upon further browsing their site, I came across their Fossil-Free-Reduced Bird Day Challenge, in which they are encouraging every bird to spend one day of the spring to go birding while reducing their fossil fuels. They've even got David Sibley to participate! I will definitely put aside one day to do another Bike, Bird, and Buses run, as I did in this entry. But instead of just doing a single morning, I'll do an entire day. They even have prizes for various things, none of which I think I could win at. Perhaps if I skipped the bus part, I could ride my bike all over Houston and get the "Farthest traveled without using fossil fuels" prize. I might be able to get a prize for "Short Description of an Incident ..." award.

I've read nearly every "Big Year" book published in North America. I really hope these guys write a book about their travels, because it sounds like a very exciting journey!

Birdwatching Videogame

I just found a game called Wildlife Explorer Birds, which is a virtual birding game!

You're armed with either binoculars or a camera and you get to explore a 3D virtual 1 sq. km. area for birds in one of four locations: Washington, Arkansas, Georgia & Virginia (no California, Texas, or Florida :( ). Each map has different habitat areas, like grass, marsh, ponds, woods, etc.

Once you start locating birds, you earn badges, which unlock better birds, cameras, and binoculars. Eventually, you'll work your way up to "Master Birder." But you have to be careful to watch your "scare" meter, or else the birds might fly away before you get a chance to identify them :) The game also has stereo sound so you can lock into where the birds are and help identify them by sound.

I played the demo and it was pretty entertaining. I only wish the identification part was a little more challenging. When you get ready to identify a bird, it just gives you a multiple choice of 3, with image. It's pretty easy just to click the image of the bird you just saw.

The full version is $29.99, but the demo (Washington and starter binoculars and cameras only) is downloadable here. You'll need Windows XP or newer and a 32MB video card (if you have XP, you probably have this). I think I'm going to buy it.

Edit: By the way, you can find the Ivory Woodpecker in Arkansas, if you're lucky :)

Birding in Baytown on Thanksgiving

I did what every self-respecting birder did on Thanksgiving, and use the day off to go birding! I decided to go to the Baytown Nature Center, on the way to my parent-in-laws for dinner.

First of all... when you go on a photo scavenger hunt, you need to remember the memory card from your camera! Pam and I pulled up to the Baytown Nature Center, I pulled out my camera, and I got the dreaded "No Memory Card Inserted" error. We turned around and went to her parents, and I borrowed a memory card from her dad, and we went back to the nature center with her mother.

It was much nicer with a camera. Since I only have two pairs of binoculars, my wife and my mother-in-law each got it, and I only got my camera. So most birds I could see had to be seen through the eyes of my camera. It follows then that I had a hard time seeing any small flightly birds, but I got some great shots of larger birds, like this Great Egret:



And this was the fifth Great Blue Heron I saw that day, probably the most I had ever seen in a single day.



Even though Laughing Gulls are a dime a dozen on the coast, I had to take its picture for the scavenger hunt, because all the participants inland would have a hard time getting this one.



The most memorable incident of the day was this Osprey with his fresh catch of the day. Even more great was the look he gave the nearby Double-crested Cormorant, which was a classic "get away from my food," that you see so much in the wild.



Overall, a great day. I increased my Harris County total by 2 (even though I'm over 100).

Guided Birding Around Houston

I wrote this in an email to a friend who asked about cheap guided birding around Houston, and I thought it would be great general knowledge for anyone wanting to know more about birding opportunities in the Houston area. I am the Houston Birder, after all :) Here is what I wrote her:

Field Trips

Field trips are guided tours that, for the most part, leave from Houston and to go to a place outside of Houston for birding.

There are guided field trips through the Houston Audubon Society, usually on the fourth Saturday of the month. The field trips are free for members, and membership to the Houston Audubon is $20 a year. The last trip was last weekend, in which they went to Kleb Woods Nature Preserve, in Tomball. It doesn't look like they have January through May planned out yet for field trips, but here is the link for when they do:
http://www.houstonaudubon.org/index.cfm?MenuItemID=545&MenuGroup=Home

There is another non-audubon Houston group called the "Ornithology Group." They also have field trips the third Saturday of every month. Anyone can go to the monthly field trip for free, but the quarterly field trips (in bold) are for members only (membership is $8 a year).
http://www.ornithologygroup.org/_mgxroot/page_10741.html

There is also the state-wide Texas Ornithological Society, which has various field trips and meetings, some of them close to Houston. I'm going to the field trip to Choke Canyon State Park next month with them, and I'm hoping to go to West Texas Spring meeting with them in May. Membership to the TOS is not required, but non-members have to pay more for the trips. Membership is $25 a year and will get you $15-$20 off each field trip and meeting, as well as a subscription to Texas Birds Annually.
http://texasbirds.org/_mgxroot/page_10755.html

Bird Walks

Bird Walks are casual birding walks through a given location, usually on a regular basis.

The Houston Parks and Recreation Department also has Bird Walks that are free (but I've never tried any): http://www.houstonaudubon.org/index.cfm/MenuItemID/609.htm . Lake Houston Park also has Owl Prowls.

From the HPRD Website:

Third Saturday of the Month at 8:30am at Lake Houston Park ($3 Entrance Fee)
"Peach Creek Peepers Guided Bird Walk
Join fellow birding enthusiasts on this fun & educational walk through the park in search of the many beautiful avian neighbors that call Lake Houston Park home. Ages 13 & up. Reservation required by calling (281) 354-0173. Space is limited. No group reservations please."

Russ Pittman Park in Bellaire does bird walks every Tuesday at noon during migration.

Edith L. Moore Nature Sanctuary in west Houston has Owl Prowls 4 Friday nights out of the year for $6 a person. I'm signed up for the February one. http://www.houstonaudubon.org/index.cfm/MenuItemID/166.htm

Bird Surveys/Counts

Bird Surveys/Counts are exhaustive counts of a specific area. The count results are submitted to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (through ebird.org) and help to track bird populations and migration patterns.

It's a great way to get a crash course in identification (since you need to identify the bird to count it). Here are the ones I know about in Houston:

• Armand Bayou Nature Center Survey (Clear Lake area) - 7am, second Saturday of the month
• Bolivar Bird Count (shore east of Galveston, across the ferry) - 8am, third Saturday of the month
• W 11th Street Park Survey (in the Heights) - 8:30am, third Tuesday of the month

Then of course, there are Christmas Bird Counts. Every year from December 14th to January 10th there are over a dozen CBCs in the area. They define a specific count circle (15 miles in diameter), then the counters break up the circle into sections and count as many birds and as many species of birds as possible within their section. You can see a list of Houston-area counts here (see Upper Texas Coast): http://www.houstonaudubon.org/index.cfm/MenuItemID/619.htm . Generally, people are appreciated to stay all day, but about half of the counters leave at lunch. It's "guided" in the sense that beginning birders are usually grouped with expert birders. Beginning birders can spot the birds, then the expert birders can identify them :)

Birding Photo Scavenger Hunt

Right now I'm running a Winter 2007 Birding Photo Scavenger Hunt for the Texas Birders Coffeehouse. Anyone is welcome to join, even if you don't live in Texas.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to photograph as many of a list of 100 birds as you can in a 3-month period. The winner will get a pat on the back and bragging rights through the next season. I don't expect anyone to get all 100 birds, but feel free to prove me wrong! The contest will run from November 15th to February 14th, 2008, where, if things go as planned, a new contest will begin for spring.

The 100 birds were selected evenly as the most common birds from each of the 8 Bird Conservation Regions in Texas in winter. In technical terms, I selected the most frequently reported birds from each of the eight regions, and sorted the list by the maximum frequency in any region. For example, Golden-fronted Woodpeckers, Great Kiskadees, and Western-Scrub Jays may not have made a top 100 Texas-wide frequency list on their own, but they're very common within their range, so they made this list. This is the only way I could think of that would give an even opportunity to everyone within the state. If I picked the most common in all of Texas, west and south Texans would be sorely left out.

To join in the fun, go to this topic in the TBC (free membership required to post):

West Harris County and 100th Harris County Bird

This last Saturday I took a birding newbie out to western Harris County, to Paul Rushing Park in Katy and Bear Creek Park in western Houston.

We had three specific birds to go see: the Great Kiskadees and Lapland Longspurs seen at Paul Rushing Park, and the Red-breasted Nuthatches seen at Bear Creek Park. Unfortunately, we saw none of them!

It wasn't a complete wash of a day. Any day you introduce a new person to the world of birding is a good day :) On the drive in, we even got to see a Crested Caracara in the distance. While looking for the Great Kiskadees, we saw plenty of Blue Jays, Eastern Phoebes, and Brown-headed Cowbirds, and we also saw this Loggerhead Shrike on the wire.



As usual, I got so carried away in looking for birds that I forgot I had a camera with me! So this was the only photograph I took all day. We also got to watch a great exchange between a Great Blue Heron guarding his pond after a Great Egret landed nearby and started inching in. Also I saw my #100th Harris County Bird, a White-faced Ibis, fly overhead during this exchange.

After the Kiskadee failure, we went to the other side of the park to look for the Lapland Longspur, but all we saw were scores of Savannah Sparrows.

We drive down Logenbaugh Rd before we left and saw a Northern Harrier, American Kestrel, and a Red-tailed Hawk. Then at the end of the road the only notable bird was a House Wren.

On our way back, we stopped at Bear Creek Park to see if we could find those Red-Breasted Nuthatches, but we couldn't find any. There was another gruop there that drove in from college station to see what the park had to offer, and the group leader was very nice and gave me maps and everything, but the said they didn't see any Red-Breasted Nuthatches that day. We did see quite a few different species of Woodpeckers, however, including Downy Woodpecker, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Red-headed Woodpecker, and Northern Flicker.

Down by the creek, I saw what I thought was a female Western Tanager (which would been amazing this far east), but alas, when I got home and examined more photographs, I found it was just a female American Goldfinch. I didn't realized they looked so similar until now!

I'll try to get more pictures next time I go out :)

West 11th Street Park and Leashless Dogs

This morning I went birding at West 11th Street Park in my neighborhood. It seemed to be a nice little park with a lot of pine trees and underbrush for birds to play on. I saw a lot of backyard favorites like the Blue Jay, Carolina Wren, and Cardinal, plus a couple of common winter birds like a Hermit Thrush and Ruby-Crowned Kinglet. There was also a Red-bellied Woodpecker that let me get a nice look.

Unfortunately, the Urban Park Rangers are not enforcing the leash law here. I saw no less than 4 dogs off of their leash, and not a single dog on a leash. One of the dogs was so far away from its owner, the dog came up to me twice and I never saw him or her nearby. The last dog was especially noisy and scaring off the birds (including a couple Eastern Phoebes I had just spotted), so I walked away from the commotion. Later, that same dog and its owners and I crossed paths, and I was really just too upset to even look at them. I was content with just walking by with a cross look on my face, then the guy said "good morning" to me. I kept on walking. As his dog was jumping over me and his wife was telling the dog to get off, he said, quite crossly and rudely, "good morning?!" again and I mumbled "you know we have a leash law here," and kept walking. He spouted at me, as I was walking away, "yeah, I know... do you want me to put a leash on you?! Asshole!" I didn't press the issue and I kept walking, but in my head I was thinking "your dog is jumping all over me and scaring off the birds I came to see and I'm the asshole? That's rich." I called the Park Rangers when I got home, but I'm sure that couple was already gone by the time they would of gotten there.

I just hate it how dog owners assume everyone loves dogs. In any case, it's not the morning I was hoping for to an already stressful week.

Choke Canyon, Here I Come!

By a wonderful twist of fate, four people canceled their reservations for the TOS Choke Canyon field trip, and since yours truly was #4 on the waiting list, I just barely got in! So I'll be going to Choke Canyon State Park on December 8th and 9th. I've decided to go the cheap route, as usual, and split a camping site with my parents (since they have all the neat camping gadgets). I won't get to spend a majority of the day with them because of the field trip, but they're happy for an opportunity to go camping with or without me.

Choke Canyon is an especially great area because it is the cross roads of three different areas of birds. You can southern birds, hill country birds, as well as some west Texas birds. So there is quite a variety to look forward to! Also, within an hour drive away are the Masked Ducks and Gray Kingbird that have been feverishly reported on TEXBIRDS, so I might have to make a side trip out there to see them, if they're still around.

I've never birded this county before, so every bird will be a welcome sight for county 100s. There is no point in making a county 100s target list, because every bird needs to go on it! So instead, I'm just using what little eBird data, the field trip blob, and TEXBIRDS postings I can find to make a target list for lifers. The following birds have at least three records at Choke Canyon State Park between November and January that I need for my life list:

• Olive Sparrow
• Lincoln's Sparrow
• Sandhill Crane
• Cave Swallow
• Audubon's Oriole
• Sage Thrasher
• Common Paraque
• Eastern Screech-Owl
• Green-winged Teal
• Bronzed Cowbird
  

There are also a handful more that would be new to Texas. I can't wait to go!

Weekend Birding

This weekend I've decided to mosey down I-10 West and hit some birding hotspots along the way. First along the stop is the West 11th Street Park, which is less than 2 miles from where I live, but I've still never made it out there. Then I'll head down to the Houston Audubon Headquarters, the Edith L. Moore Nature Sanctuary, where I've been multiple times before and have never been disappointed. Then the last stop is Bear Creek Park, which is a favorite of all the West Houston birders (and very well documented on eBird).

I'm hoping to reach my county 100 for Harris County (the county I live in, no less) during this trip. All I need are 2 more species! Here is a list of birds spotted at any one of these three locations in the last two weeks, any one of which would get me closer to my goal (red are lifers, blue are new to Texas):

• Wood Duck
• Red-shouldered Hawk
• Merlin
• Barred Owl
• Vermilion Flycatcher
• White-eyed Vireo
• Red-breasted Nuthatch
• White-throated Sparrow
  

CBCs are Right Around the Bend!

I'm very excited for this year's CBCs (Christmas Bird Counts). I've decided to go with the Brazos Bend State Park (TXBZ) CBC in order to work on my County 100s for Fort Bend County. Another reason I chose this one is because I didn't get out there this last weekend, like I wanted to!

Last year I did the Trinity River CBC and had a lot of fun (even if it was really cold). Unfortunately, I'll be in Florida this Christmas during the time that one is being conducted. I'm going to try to do at least one CBC while I'm in Florida. It looks like it's still too soon to pick one, as many of the Orlando-area counts haven't been announced yet. I'll update with more as the time comes. I would love to spend all day birding with other Florida birders who know how to identify Florida species! I'll have to keep an eye on their list.

Brazoria County Birding (and 300th Lifer!)

As what usually happens, my plans change once I get out in the field. My original plan was to drive down to Brazoria NWR and then head up to Brazos Bend SP and call it a night. Instead, I stayed the night in Galveston, then drove along the Brazoria County shoreline to Freeport, then hit the Brazoria NWR and went home and played Wii.

One of the fatal flaws in my planning (that prompted the change), in trying to boost my county 100s, is that the only time I've been to Brazoria County was November 10th, 2006. The same time of year to the very day that I was going out today. When I'm trying to get new species, it doesn't make much sense to [only] go to the same place at the same time of year. So I didn't. Since I didn't have any shorebirds, we spent a good deal of time on the shore.

Right before we got to the shore, we saw a pond filled with more Black-crowned Night-Herons than I'd ever seen collectively my entire life. It was quite an amazing sight.

There were a million of these little guys:

Sanderling, the cutest bird on the face of the planet. I don't know what this guy was poking at, but I wasn't about to find out! I apologize for the photo quality, I forgot to take it off ISO 1600 from when I was playing with my camera the night before. We also saw scores of Piping Plovers with a few Snowy Plovers, Black-bellied Plovers and Semipalmated Plovers inbetween. I really need to come back here in the summertime. Most of our shorebirds have already left for the winter. But I was happy to nab every common UTC shorebird for my county list.

At Brazoria NWR, the most notable experience was when we were driving up the dirt path to the visitor's center, we saw a cluster of birds in one of the drainage ditches. I stopped the car way back to look at them and it was a collection of White Ibises, Long-billed Dowitchers, and Great White Egrets. But that was the normal part. The odd part is that there were two Crested Caracaras, on the ground, one on each side of the group about a foot away from them. It was almost like they were rounding them up for dinner! Unfortunately, a park ranger and sheriff's deputy breezed past and scared them off before I could get a decent photograph (and luckily gave me a chance to identify the dowitchers by flight call).

The next exciting thing was finding this American Alligator on the boardwalk. The lady at the visitor's center said there was a 15-footer down the road! I also was just in time to see my 300th life bird, an American Bittern, fly away! Now it's time to start working on that magic number 400 (for no other reason that it's next).

We stopped in Alvin to look for parking-lot birds for the list (Pigeon, House Sparrow, and other Doves), but couldn't find any! I'm guessing, because it just rained and it was the afternoon, they were all taking siestas!

At the end of the day, I had 22 new species (to 62 total) for Brazoria County and was that much closer to getting 100. Brazoria County now holds the third highest number of species for me.

Going South for the Winter

As many birders know, winter is upon us. This means a lot of things, but mostly it means a fresh new set of birds to look at! For us on the upper Texas coast, it means a lot of geese, ducks, and sparrows. We also start to see other favorite winter residents like the Yellow-Rumped (Myrtle) Warbler, Eastern Bluebird, Cedar Waxwing, American Robin, and the occasional Bald Eagle. Unfortunately, it means the southward escape of our favorite summer breeding residents, like the Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, and Chimney Swift.

I thought I would honor the migration patterns and go south for birding on Saturday. I'll be checking out Brazos Bend State Park (UTC 117) and Braoria National Wildlife Refuge (UTC 108) in order to work on my county 100s for Fort Bend and Brazoria counties, respectively.

One thing you'll find out from this blog is that I'm very much a lister first. I enjoy researching which birds I might see, and which of those birds I need to see for a particular list. I've looked at a few checklists submitted to eBird in the last week, and already made my "target list" for each of these areas, listed generally by rarity. I've indicated birds in blue that would be also new for my Texas list, and birds in red would be life birds.

Target Birds for Brazos Bend SP

1. Double-crested Cormorant
2. Great Blue Heron
3. Great Egret
4. Least Sandpiper
5. Carolina Chickadee
6. Common Grackle
7. Great-tailed Grackle
8. Blue-winged Teal
9. Anhinga
10. Green Heron
11. Mourning Dove
12. Belted Kingfisher
13. Pileated Woodpecker
14. Tricolored Heron
15. Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
16. American Kestrel
17. Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
18. Indigo Bunting
19. Great Horned Owl
20. Barred Owl
21. European Starling
22. Yellow-breasted Chat
23. Field Sparrow
24. Eastern Meadowlark
25. Boat-tailed Grackle
26. Brown-headed Cowbird
27. Purple Gallinule
    

You'll probably notice that some of these birds are pretty common. That's because I've only been out birding in this area a single time for a brief period of time, so many birds are lacking. Here is the target list for Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge, which I've also only been to a single time.

Target Birds for Brazoria NWR

1. Northern Shoveler
2. Double-crested Cormorant
3. White Ibis
4. White-faced Ibis
5. Roseate Spoonbill
6. Black-necked Stilt
7. American Avocet
8. Greater Yellowlegs
9. Long-billed Dowitcher
10. Mourning Dove
11. Marsh Wren
12. European Starling
13. Seaside Sparrow
14. Mottled Duck
15. American Crow
16. Tri-colored Heron
17. Short-billed Dowitcher
18. Scissor-tailed Flycather
19. Green-winged Teal
20. Great Blue Heron
21. Little Blue Heron
22. Reddish Egret
23. White-tailed Kite
24. Clapper Rail
25. Blue Jay
26. Northern Cardinal

With a little luck, I should be able to boost both of these counties up over 60 species. I'll report more after the birding expidition.

Here I am, again on my own

I spent a long time trying to find a good blog written by a Houston birder, and I couldn't find one. It seems like most of the bird bloggers are up north, which makes for an interesting read, but doesn't help me much in day-to-day birding. So now I'm going to start my own. I'm going to blog about anything bird-related in the Houston area, including rare sightings (for Houston), environmental and political issues, discussions with other birders, birding hotspots, etc. But mostly I'll use this as an avenue to discuss my own birding obsession, which may not be confined only to Houston, as I travel to increase my life list.

I hope you enjoy!

(P.S. Any post below this was written prior to blog creation, just from my personal blog, so it may not be as dedicated to birds as posts written after)