2007 Guadalupe River Delta - McFaddin Family Ranches CBC
Guadalupe River Delta - McFaddin Family Ranches CBC
20 December 2007
The 4th running of this CBC produced reports of a record 225 species from 59 birders with the Best 3 Birds being Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Bell’s Vireo and Prairie Warbler. The Yellow-billed Cuckoo was heard twice by the Nan Dietert, Diane Nunley and Lydon Holcomb team on Hog Bayou. The Bell’s Vireo was photographed by Brush Freeman and Petra Hockey on River Road, and the Prairie Warbler was photographed by Michael Gray, Cecelia Riley, Steven Bone and David Plunkett.
The 225 species will likely place us in the Top 3 in the Nation which is Great for our count. As we increase participation for this fun CBC and access new lands we should be able to consistently post 230 species results each year and occasionally be the Top CBC in the Country. As an example that our potential has not been reached, we reported 12 new species for the count: Long-tailed Duck (Riley team), Aplomado Falcon (Mitchell team), Greater Roadrunner (Mitchell team), Yellow-billed Cuckoo (Nunley team), Black Phoebe (Ashbaugh team), Great Crested Flycatcher (Farnsworth team), Bell’s Vireo (Hockey team), Chihuahuan Raven (Friedrichs team), Yellow Warbler (Rorex team), Prairie Warbler (Gray team), Summer Tanager (Wauer and Julian teams), and Yellow-headed Blackbird (Freeman team). This brings the total for 4 years of this CBC to 263 species.
The day had pleasant weather with temperatures ranging from mid-40’s to 80 degrees. Bird activity was unusually very slow within the woodlands. Many common songbirds were present in below normal levels. We will be looking at CBC data from across the Nation to try and determine where most of the woodland birds wintered. Geese and many water birds were present in large numbers and entertained birders most of the day. Duck numbers were down mostly as a result of summer long flooding on the rivers reducing their food production. We reported 16 species of warblers which might
be the most in Texas this year. The presence of a high diversity of warblers was one of the main reasons we started this CBC.
We got very good coverage of most of the habitats within the count circle. Petra and Brush did an excellent job again covering tidal marsh, bay and the last riparian woods on Gene Colville’s and other landholdings near the mouth of the river. They were the only birders to report Fulvous Whistling-Duck, Glossy Ibis, Bell’s Vireo, N. Parula, Am. Redstart, Ovenbird, N. Waterthrush and Yellow-headed Blackbird. Ron Weeks & Dan Kaspar were drafted to wade through the tidal marshes and found the only Seaside and Nelson Sharp-tailed Sparrows. Marc Ealy was a big help by accessing tidal mudflats by airboat to help us obtain good counts of shorebirds. His group found the only Stilt Sandpipers. Brent Ortego & Suzie Ross worked the wetlands and thornscrub along the Hynes Bay bluff and located Com. Loon, Clapper Rail, Com. Tern, Pauraque and Yellow-breasted Chat. Charlie & Olivia Brower, and Jennifer Wilson birded small ranches near Hwy. 35 and found the only N. Bobwhite, E. Towhee, Lark Sparrow & Bronzed Cowbird. Bron Rorex and Jon McIntyre led a large group of birders on the wildlife management area and located the only Yellow Warbler. Cecelia Riley and Shawn Ashbaugh led birding teams on the chemical plants and reported exclusives for Long-tailed Duck, Harris’s Hawk, Black Phoebe, Prairie Warbler, and House Finch.
[BLPH photo by Shawn Ashbaugh]
Dale & Bobby Friedrichs, and Scott Mitchell had a great day on one of the area ranches reporting the only Hooded Merganser, Aplomado Falcon, Groove-billed Ani, Chihuahuan Raven, Cedar Waxwing, and Indigo Bunting. The McFaddin Family Ranches birding teams had good outings. Ro Wauer had the only White-tailed Kite, Black-throated Green Warbler, Summer Tanager. Bill Farnsworth & Linda Valdez had White-tipped Dove, Great Crested Flycatcher and Pyrrhuloxia. Ken Sztraky & Ray Jordan located a Ruby-throated Hummingbird at Walter’s house. The McAllisters had the only Great Kiskadee on the river.
At the end of the day, our tired and excited birders gathered under the oaks in the river bottom at the Weed Prairie Hunting Camp on the Jess Womack Ranch. We were treated to an excellent meal cooked by A. D. Blackman, Buck Packabush and David Drehr.
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This very successful count is a major team effort. We would first want to thank Lyondell Corporation for paying for the meal at the Count Down and the activity fees of the birders. The CBC would not be possible without the great assistance from the McFaddin Family Ranches. All 3 ranches gave us complete access to their property. Lou Womack also provided boat and staff to run a team of birders on the river. Jan Wheelis & David Moore gave us use of their wonderful lodge. Walter Womack used his “expert” nature skills to assist us with the bird counting.
We would also like to thank the Dow and Ineos chemical plants for providing staff and access to their productive wildlife lands. Mrs. Pat Welder, Larry Seydler, Frank Pagel, Gene Colville, Dan Kaspar, Beverly Fletcher and multiple Fagan families provided us access to their lands. Lastly, we thank the 59 birders who spent their day and huge amount of energy in searching the landscape for every species which we could locate.
THANKS TO ALL FOR A GREAT JOB!
Hope to see you at our Christmas Bird Count next year on Thursday, 18 December 2008.
Brent Ortego Mark Elwonger
202 Camino Drive 2605 Toulon, Apt. C
Victoria, TX 77905 Baton Rouge, LA 70816
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