Houston Audublog

The Texas colonial waterbird counts are underway and Houston Audubon staff are out conducting this important monitoring work. A fantastic surprise in the coast-wide monitoring effort is the first-time use of an island built for just that purpose in Smith Oaks Bird Sanctuary. This now three-year-old island was part of a nesting expansion project completed with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and Ducks Unlimited to help recover species affected by the Gulf Oil Spill. After construction, it was planted with native vegetation and nesting condominiums were built and installed to entice pioneering herons, egrets, and spoonbills.  We watched and waited the first two years as the willow and cattails filled in the bare island. It was the Tricolored Herons that finally put nesting material to cattail stalk to get the party started. Five species nested on the Cattail Island in Smith Pond for the first time! Roseate Spoonbill, Snowy Egret, Tricolored Heron, Little Blue Heron, and Cat...

Happy Earth Day from all of us at Houston Audubon! Although we think every day should be Earth Day, we’re excited for a chance to celebrate the planet that sustains the people and wildlife that call it home.  There are many easy actions you can take to promote a healthier and happier Earth. If you're looking for a place to start and have a soft spot for our feathered friends, you can help locally by turning your community into a Bird-Friendly Community! Supporting birds in your yard or local spaces can make a huge conservation impact for not only wildlife, but people as well. As we like to say, “where birds thrive, people prosper.” There are four key steps to being Bird-Friendly! We've outlined them below, along with suggestions on how you can work towards each.  Get Connected With Others   Learn from others who are making efforts to create a happier and healthier world! This spring, there are a number of opportunities for you to connect with others doing great things ...

Here at Houston Audubon we are so appreciative of the younger generations; from Elementary School to College, young people are a big part of our volunteer efforts. The initiative they take in finding ways to help out at our sanctuaries is super inspiring!  This was particularly true throughout the pandemic, as youth continued to work to help us, even as their school schedules were in limbo and they weren't able to gather in groups. Some of the contributions of youth volunteers in 2020 included: Eagle Scout Projects! Scouts built a shed, helped us clear out invasive plants, designed, built and installed a solar powered compost bin, developed a volunteer project to control invasive plants, and created and mounted new signs on our trails at Edith L. Moore; as well as built owl boxes for our High Island Sanctuaries.  High School clubs were also helpful to us! At Edith L. Moore, student activists from Memorial Teens for Green and Langham Creek Students Protecting Animals of Am...

By Sneed B. Collard III On a balmy, pre-covid morning in June 2019, I arrived at the W.G. Jones State Forest at 5:45 a.m. There I was met by an enthusiastic biologist named Donna Work. Why? So that she could teach me about one of the world’s most intriguing birds, the Red-cockaded Woodpecker. Red-cockaded Woodpeckers, or RCWOs, once occupied an immense swath of pine forest stretching from New Jersey to Florida, and west to Texas and Oklahoma. Since the early 1800s, however, human activities—including logging, farming, damming, and urban sprawl—have whittled the birds’ favored long leaf pine habitat from between 60 and 90 million acres down to about three million acres. Not surprisingly, RCWO populations plummeted from approximately 1.6 million family groups, or “clusters”, to an estimated 7,800 clusters today. In fact, the Red-cockaded Woodpecker was one of the first birds to be listed as Endangered under the Endangered Species Act of 1973. Remarkably, a few RCWO clusters can be found ...

I awoke well before dawn on April 6, 2019. A night of fitful, anxious sleep pushed me out of bed. After a year of planning, I was eager to start work at Smith Oaks Bird Sanctuary in High Island, Texas. Walking about a quarter of a mile east into the sanctuary, I reached the rookery in the middle of Claybottom Pond. I placed my microphones next to the pond, scrambled up a small hill, nestled myself under a tunnel of trees, and pressed ‘Record’. Over the next 45 minutes in the pre-dawn light, I listened to the sounds of hundreds of water birds reverberate across the pond, through the trees, and into my headphones. It was a moment I’ll never forget. That recording was the first of hundreds my team and I would make on our 2,000+ mile journey from the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana to the Minnesota/Canada border. This effort was part of the ‘Voices of a Flyway’ project that I dreamt into existence over the previous year. Supported by National Geographic, our team of three followed a...

Backyards across the United States have had an unusually high number of small, heavily striped finches, known as Pine Siskins, making a recent appearance. This year’s irruption of Pine Siskins has been one of the largest in recorded history! An irruption typically occurs during periods of food shortage in a species’ home range, causing them to spread out southward in search of resources. Pine Siskins, whose range is typically limited to the boreal forests of Canada and the northernmost U.S. states, faced an extreme shortage of conifer seeds, resulting in their takeover of bird feeders in a yard near you! Learn more about the irruption. Unfortunately, these birds are facing yet another threat across their irruption range. Salmonellosis outbreaks in Pine Siskins have been documented heavily in the Pacific Northwest, resulting in mass die-offs of this species and others that use feeders alongside them. This disease has now, unfortunately, made its way to Texas.  Salmonellosis is cause...

Introduction to Habitat Gardening by Glenn Olsen Gardening for birds and butterflies is growing increasingly popular with urban and sub-urban homeowners, especially during our stay at home period. This style of gardening utilizes plants (especially native plants) that benefit birds and butterflies. Additionally, we want to build structure in our yard, that is, plant in a way to create habitat, places where birds or butterflies feel safe, find food, rest, build a nest or seek shelter. This structure is similar to the way plants grow in nature. In addition to the beauty and joy of having birds and butterflies in your garden, it can be-come a retreat in which you can relax, enjoy and contemplate in your own nature oasis. Our winter months are a great time to get organized for a spring garden or landscape project. This is the time to plan which plants you want and where you want them in your yard. Also, if any flower bed preparation or pathways need to be created, winter is a good time to ...

Houston Bird Week 2020 just wrapped up and we at Houston Audubon couldn’t be more pleased with the turnout, despite the challenges of a global pandemic and Tropical Storm Beta inundating the region with up to 14 inches of water! Thanks to our partners in conservation, this second annual Bird Week boasted a calendar full of virtual and socially-distanced in-person events for bird nerds near and far! Events ranged from bird walks and birding classes to presentations on conservation initiatives and a super fun trivia night! Let’s take a look at Houston Bird Week by the numbers! We also got a  feature article in the Houston Chronicle and an article in Houstonia Magazine , among other press. If you missed out on the Bird Week fun, you can still participate. Virtual events allowed us to not only reach people outside of Houston, but to record and share the presentations for folks like you! ·     Local Purple Martin expert, Matt Fendley, came to the rescue with a ...

By Nhu Bui and Hannah Guyton, Interns, Citizens' Environmental Coalition  (CEC) You've probably heard all about the three R's to save the environment. Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. It's been drilled into our heads since childhood, and these steps are undoubtedly crucial parts to creating a sustainable society. However, this month we are focusing on the lesser-known fourth R: refuse*. Today marks the beginning of  Plastic-Free July , a global challenge to decrease the huge amount of plastic pollution around the world. About a truckload of plastic enters the water every minute, warns  Greenpeace , and scientists estimate that our oceans will hold more plastic than fish by 2050 if we continue at our current rates. As important as things like recycling are, the very best way to keep single-use plastics out of the landfills and our streets is to have never used them at all. This Plastic-Free July is quite different than any we have ever experienced. In the midst of a ...

By Sasha Francis, Community Engagement Coordinator, Galveston Bay Foundation Plastic pollution in waterways is a huge problem all around the world with concerning global and local impacts. In the Houston-Galveston area, plastic pollution increases flood risks to neighborhoods when it is trapped in drains, causes water quality issues, and creates an unsightly view while you enjoy Galveston Bay. It also harms wildlife, like dolphins, turtles, and the amazing variety of birds we are lucky to have here. They can easily ingest pieces of plastic by mistaking them for food or become entangled in plastic bags. If you live in the city of Houston, the creeks, rivers, and bayous in your neighborhood are connected to the Bay which eventually leads to the Gulf of Mexico. So, the litter you see in your neighborhood not only makes your local nature spots less enjoyable, it also affects the Bay and the Gulf. While it may seem like an overwhelming issue, Galveston Bay Foundation is here to pr...