Golden Triangle Audubon Bird Alert -- July 25, 2010

While summer is by no means over, this alert will focus on three species that are already collecting post-breeding in preparation for eventual migration.

 

There is already a Purple Martin roost in Beaumont on North Street just east of IH-10 at the Wellness Center.  The birds are using a dozen trees along the north side of North Street to roost each evening as they assemble for eventual migration south.  By mid-August there were already 10,000 to 15,000 martins each evening.  The birds are currently arriving between 7:40 and 8:25 p.m. although the arrival time is dictated by sunset, which occurs one minute earlier every day.  Jace Stansbury has prepared an educational poster explaining what the birds are and what they are and will be doing, but the administration of the Wellness Center is apparently not pro-conservation and has declined to allow us to put the posters up.

 

Although we do not know of any confirmed Wood Storks nesting in the area, they have long been seen during post-breeding dispersal in late summer. There are breeding colonies in Mexico and in Florida.  The consensus is that the birds we see locally are likely from the Mexican breeding populations.  Again this year, Woods Storks are roosting in a wooded wetland area just south of Highway 90 immediately east of the Jefferson/Liberty County Line.  This location is approximately 2.1 or 2.2 miles west of the intersection with FM365 and TX326, and about 0.5 miles BEFORE (east of) the Liberty County line.  Going westbound, there is a particularly wide spot in the shoulder where you can pull well off the highway to look at the birds.  There is a Cattle Egret rookery that is still going strong – at least 100 birds – in some lower trees, while the Woods Storks were perching higher up in the pine trees about 200 yards from the road.  (There is small body of water behind the trees that is not visible from the road.)  There were at least 80 Wood Storks there at 8:30 a.m. Sunday (July 25) but none at 12:30 p.m., so the birds are likely using it only as a night roost, and leave to feed during the day.

 

We are glad to report increasing sightings of Swallow-tailed Kites locally, with birds currently being seen regularly alongIH-10 in Orange.  This species migrates south exceptionally early, and most will leave the country between August 15 and August 30.  For several years now, the birds have been most regularly seen along Highway 90 between Liberty and Dayton.  Several trips along this stretch of highway between about 9:30 and 11:30 a.m. Sunday found four Swallow-tailed Kites foraging low over the trees on either side of the road on each trip (with a fifth bird more distant and probably a juvenile) on one pass.  This stretch of Highway 90 has wide shoulders, but for most of its length, the speed limit is 65 m.p.h. dropping sharply in two steps to 45 m.p.h. on entering Dayton.  Be sure to pull well off the road if you stop.  There are two good crossovers in the stretch the kites use.  Enforcement of the speed limits is intensive.  Mississippi Kites (up to ten birds in total) were seen over the residential areas of Liberty from Highway 90 north to the Municipal Park, and a couple more over Dayton south of the highway.  They were easily seen early, but were not seen mid morning.

 

With thanks to Rose Ann Jordan, Jana Whittle, Jace Stansbury and Cody Conway.

 

John A. Whittle