Meetings and Field Trips

Sabine Woods Work Day

Saturday March 13, 2010

8:00 a.m. to ? (usually about noon) 

Our four projects funded by grants from Sempra Energy Foundation and the Great Texas Birding Classic have been completed under the able management of Gary Kelley. We thank Gary for all the time and effort that he has put into them.

On this Work Day, we plan to get the trails ready for spring migration. This has been an unusual winter, wet with several hard freezes.  This will actually make trail clearing a little easier in some places, as the freezes have opened up the underbrush in many areas.  In others it will be too wet to do anything. Also, we want to mow around the newly planted trees, and although we hope to do larger areas with a brush hog when it dries up a little, we will need push mowers to trim around the trees. We will need one chain saw also to clear one tree that is across a trail, and a few large branches that are clsoe to trails.  As always, we will want to cut vines that are threatening the health of oak trees, and perform similar minor tasks.

Please bring work gloves and insect repellant, and whatever equipment or hand tools you may have – heavy duty riding mower, push mower, DR trimmer, loppers, etc. This time, regular gas powered weedeaasters should be adequate to do a good part of the inside-the-woods trai maintenance. We have a few tools, but typically not enough for everyone. We plan to provide refreshments.

Sabine Woods is on the north side of Highway 87, 4.1 miles west of the stop sign in Sabine Pass. Take Highway 87 from Port Arthur to Sabine Pass, turn right at the stop sign, and go 4.1 miles. 

For further information, please contact John Whittle (409) 722-4193 or johnawhittle@aol.com   If you can't make this one, we are planning another Work Day for May 15.

Membership Meeting: Thursday, March 18, 2010, 7:00 PM

Garden Center, Tyrrell Park, Beaumont

Mottled Duck Habitat Use and Movements Utilizing Satellite Telemetry: Making Sound Management Decisions Based on Science

 Jena Moon

Wildlife Biologist

McFaddin/Texas Point National Wildlife Refuges

Jena will discuss the results to date of an on-going project to track the movements of female Mottled Ducks on Anahuac and McFaddin NWR and surrounding areas using satellite telemetry. Fifteen radios were deployed during the pilot program year (2009), and two local schools have been involved in the project. Jena has been collecting data on distances traveled, water depth, and the presence or absence of aquatic vegetation.

 Jena has a B.S. and M.S. from Texas Tech University's Department of Natural Resources Management. While an undergraduate she participated in the US Fish and Wildlife Service's Student Career Experience Program in Roswell, NM working on endangered and wetland species, and on the Kofa NWR in Yuma, AZ, working on big horn sheep and bat conservation. Her master's thesis work with Dr. David Haukos on the survival of female northern pintails wintering in the Playa Lakes region of Northwestern Texas was published in the Journal of Wildlife Management in 2006, and she has several other peer-reviewed articles. After graduation, Jena was the Wetlands and Waterfowl Biologist for the Lower Rio Grande NWR Complex, working in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, Santa Ana and Laguna Atascosa Refuges before joining the staff at McFaddin and Texas Point in 2007. Jena is active in The Wildlife Society and currently serves as the Chair of the Finance Committee of the Texas Chapter.

 We will plan on having the doors open by about 6:00 p.m. and the program will start at 7:00 p.m. sharp.  

 Directions to Garden Center in Tyrrell Park.

From the south

 Go "north" on US69/96/287 around the south side of Beaumont

Take Texas 124 (south or west, whichever it is signed) towards Fannett (left turn under the highway)

Travel about a mile to the first light.

At the first light, turn left onto Tyrrell Park Road and go about 1/2 mile.

Turn left into Tyrrell Park through the nice new arch..

Almost immediately turn left at the conservatory into the parking lot for the Garden Center. .

From IH10

 Exit at Walden Road on the west side of Beaumont

Go south of Walden Road for about 1/2 mile to the first light

At the light go straight over Highway 124 onto Tyrrell Park Road and go about 1/2 mile

Turn left into Tyrrell Park through the nice new arch..

Almost immediately turn left at the conservatory into the parking lot for the Garden Center.

Saturday March 20, 2010

Field Trip to Bolivar Flats

Important Note: Galveston County operates a parking permit program on the Bolivar Peninsula. Any one can drive on the beach for free. But if you park on the beach you need to have a parking permit on your windshield. The fee for the permit is $10.00 a year and permits are obtainable from most merchants on the Bolivar Peninsula.

This trip occurs as shorebird migration is in full swing. Bolivar Flats is a hemispherically important shore-bird location. We know that a lot of birders are intimidated by shorebirds. This trip offers an opportunity to compare many of the "true" shorebirds with lots of help in identifying them.

 Meet at the vehicle barrier at 8:30 a.m. From Winnie, take TX 124 south to High Island. At the shoreline, turn right (west) on TX 87 and proceed through Gilchrist and Crystal Beach until you reach the intersection where Loop 108 turns right (north). Turn left (the opposite way to Loop 108) along Rettilon Road. At the beach, if conditions permit, turn right (west) about 1/2 mile to the vehicle barrier. It takes at least one and a half hours to drive from the Golden Triangle; more if you bird on the way! We will leave the vehicle barrier at about 8:45 a.m., although the group will be visually obvious on the flats should you be a few minutes later than that. The opportunity will exist to visit High Island on the way back. Some walking is necessary on this field trip. How much depends on how much mud flat is exposed, and this depends on both the tide and the winds that have prevailed over the previous day or so.

 The flats are slowly returning to "normal" after the massive relocation of sand and mud that occurred during Hurricane Ike. There may still not be as much exposed mud flat as was typical pre-Ike, and a visit to the North Jetty to view the birds from that side may be indicated.

 We expect to stop at Rollover Pass and High Island on the way back. We will check the High Island Sanctuaries for any "early" neotropic songbird migrants.

 For more information, please contact Steve Mayes, sgmayes@hotmail.com or 409-722-5807.