Photo credit: Dana Nelson, Cattail Marsh, December 18, 2018
You are welcome to attend monthly meetings, featuring speakers on birding and natural history topics, and including a delicious member-provided evening meal -- with desserts! Our monthly field trips are fun and educational, and focus on locations along the coast, marshes, prairies, and forests of the area.
Membership Meeting
Thursday September 19 , 2024 7:00 p.m.
Garden Center, Tyrrell Park, Beaumont
Dania Sanchez and Greg Reynolds
From East to West Texas
Dania Sanchez started working on television media production at the age of 16, her first job was at a Rio Grande Valley school district television channel where she developed an interest in audio, video and technology. She has lived in Mexico, Spain and Texas. Her educational and professional background in Music, Information/Industrial Technology, Audio Engineering and Visual Production provides us a deeper look at nature and wildlife through her lens and technological perspective. This is what brought her to her current role as a freelance wildlife photographer, birdwatcher and Vice President of Golden Triangle Audubon Society. She is also a member of Texas Ornithological Society and the National Audubon Society. This 2024 Dania and Greg set a personal goal of observing and documenting 500 bird species in Texas. Without venturing to West Texas it would be impossible to reach their goal. Together they will be sharing with us a photo storytelling journal of birds, where you can find them and some advice on how you can get the most birds on your travels.
Gregory Reynolds was born in Houston, Texas. Not long after, his father’s profession gave him and Greg an opportunity to travel all over the United States. This developed Greg’s love for travel and nature at an early age. Greg moved back to the Houston area in 2013. On the opposite side of Houston his now fiancé Dania Sanchez had moved from Corpus Christi and years later they made South East Texas their permanent home. Greg profession is in the Natural Gas industry, but his skills do not stop there. He is an avid photographer and passionate about the outdoors. After Covid restrictions were lifted Dania and Greg researched outdoor/volunteering activities in their community and discovered the local organization Golden Triangle Audubon Society and the dedicated members who took them under their wings. To say the least their lives changed and their interest in feathered friends began.
We plan to have the doors open at 6:00 p.m., Port Arthur Convention and Visitors Bureau Is providing the refreshments for this meeting. The meeting will start at 7:00 p.m.
Saturday September 28, 2024. Field Trip to Smith Point Hawkwatch.
.Note that again this month, our Field Trip will not be on the Saturday immediately following the Membership Meeting but one week later than that so as to be nearer the date when Broad-winged Hawk migration has peaked in recent years.
To reach the Smith Point Hawk- watch site from Winnie, take Highway 124 south towards High Island. After 12 miles, turn right on FM1985 and follow it about 14 1/2 miles until it meets FM562. Follow FM562 14 miles to Smith Point. Continue straight until almost reaching the bay, and turn left, bearing left again to the parking area next to the Hawkwatch Tower on the Candy Abshier Wildlife Management Area. It takes at least 90 minutes from the Golden Triangle to reach the site, more if you stop to bird. This Field Trip is much more a come and go as you wish trip, and help on hawk identification is always available on the tower during Hawk Watch season!
Our leaders will be there from about 8:30 a.m. on September 28. Hopefully, this will be close to a peak in this year's Broad-winged Hawk migration, but there will always be some hawks. Any day from mid-September through mid or late October should produce a good number of migrating hawks.
Our leaders may lead a group into the nearby woods looking for migrants, but you may stay on the tower if you wish. Mosquitoes are not normally a problem on the tower. Availability of food and fuel is essentially non-existent in Smith Point, so bring your lunch!
The Smith Point Hawk Watch tower is staffed by Gulf Coast Bird Observatory in cooperation with Hawk Watch International from August 15 through November 30 from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Historically, the peak of Broad-wing Hawk migration was September 25, although in recent years at Smith Point, it has tended to be later and less uniform, and sometimes large numbers of Broad-wings have passed through in the first few days of October. Should a cold front pass through, the one or two days immediately following usually have a north wind, and more migrating hawks of all species on those days.
Previous years' results are at http://hawkcount.org, so you can do your own analysis! The exact peak day probably depends more on the weather on the migration path from Pennsylvania down to east Texas, and particularly on the two or three days prior. However, predicting is very difficult as there are relatively few Hawk Watches between Pennsylvania and Texas to let us know where the en route hawks are. Almost all migratory hawks come from areas north of Pennsylvania. Broad-wings breed over almost all of the eastern half of the United States, including the Golden Triangle and the southern tier of Canada, even as far west as British Columbia.
Accipiters, especially Sharp-shinned Hawks, tend to pass over Smith Point early in the morning, often concentrated in the 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. time period, while the Broad-winged Hawks tend to come later in the morning, rarely before 10:00 a.m.
For more information, contact our Field Trip Chair Steve Mayes (gtaudubon@aol.com).